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Gail Mesa Norman is spokesperson for the Air Race Classic.

Written By Jeffrey Roth, Photos by: Tara Hope Cofiell

Eighty-one years ago, when a group of women pilots, frustrated by the male-dominated world of flight and a prohibition against women competing in air races, proposed to hold a women-only, transcontinental race, men tried to force the group to fly with a male copilot or navigator.

Gail Mesa Norman, spokesperson for the Air Race Classic (ARC), said this year’s race continues that tradition. The Frederick-based, Sugarloaf Chapter of the Ninety-Nines (An international organization of women pilots) is hosting the terminus event for the 2,483-mile race, which begins on June 22, in Fort Myers, Fla., and will end in Frederick, Friday, June 25. The terminus event runs through Saturday, June 26.

“Amelia Earhart and 98 other charter members founded the Ninety-Nines, in 1929,” said Norman, media liaison and coordinator for the ARC terminus event in Frederick. “This is the 81st year of women’s transcontinental air racing. Women of all nations, ages and experiences can compete.”

The Air Race Classic, a separate entity from the Ninety-Nines, is sponsoring the race. It is the oldest continual transcontinental air race in existence. The 2010 race commemorates the 100th anniversary of the first licensed woman pilot, Norman said.

Raymonde de Laroche in 1910, was awarded the first pilot’s license for a woman by the Areo Club of France. In 1911, Harriet Quimby became the first American aviatrix to win her pilot’s license.

A transcontinental woman’s air race was held annually, from 1947 to 1977. When the original event ended, the Air Race Classic was formed from its participants, Norman said.

On Aug. 28, 1929, 20 woman pilots, including Earhart, flew their biplanes from Santa Monica, Calif., to Cleveland, Ohio, in the first National Women’s Air Derby. The race, was dubbed the “Powderpuff Derby,” Norman said, because news reporters at the time said the women “powdered their noses” immediately after landing at each stop along the race.

“To date we have 44 teams. The response to this is virtually unprecedented,” Norman said. “There is still time remaining to register. Each team must be comprised of at least two members, some have three.”

The small planes represent state-of-the-art designs, constructed with the latest materials and featuring the most technologically advanced engines, avionics and electronics available, Norman said. Maryland-area teams to date include Linda Litwin, Potomac; Lin Caywood, Frederick; Susan Beall, West Friendship; Nechama (Nicole) Novack, Baltimore; and Sandra Terkelsen, Frederick.

“The last plane has to cross the finish line at Frederick Airport by 4 p.m., Friday, June 25, to qualify for a huge welcome party and barbecue. The event is open to the public, but does require tickets,” Norman said. “There may also be a high speed fly-by of the airport.”

Heather Taylor, Columbia, a former producer with the Discovery Channel, will premiere “Breaking Through the Clouds,” a documentary on the 1929 National Women’s Air Derby, at Hood College on Saturday afternoon, June 26, Norman said. Some of the contestants in this year’s race reenacted events from the first contest.

The aerial recreations used the same kind of planes that the women flew in the 1929 race, Taylor said. There is archival footage from the actual race in the documentary. Taylor also interviewed family members and people who knew the women, as well as aviation historians, famous aerobatic pilots Patty Wagstaff and Julie Clark and Evelyn “Mamma Bird” Byron Johnson, who is in the Guinness Book of World Records for most hours flown by a woman.

The film will be free to the racers and Girl Scouts as part of the Ninety-Nines Outreach Program, but ticketed to the general public. The film will be followed by a ticketed VIP Reception at Delaplaine Visual Arts Education Center, which is open to the public.

On Sunday, June 27, at 7 p.m., the ARC Awards Banquet will be held at Dutch’s Daughter, in Frederick. Tickets will be available to the public on a first come, first served basis, Norman said.

For more information on the Air Race Classic, visit www.airraceclassic.org; for more information on the Ninety-Nines, visit www.ninety-nines.org; for more information on Taylor’s documentary, visit www.breakingthroughtheclouds.com.