{"id":29388693,"date":"2026-10-24T17:47:20","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T15:47:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/elinor-smith-flying-flapper-east-river-bridges-1928-records\/"},"modified":"2026-10-24T17:47:34","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T15:47:34","slug":"elinor-smith-flying-flapper-east-river-bridges-1928-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/fr\/elinor-smith-flying-flapper-east-river-bridges-1928-records\/","title":{"rendered":"Elinor Smith: The Flying Flapper Who Flew Under Four Bridges"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\r\n<!-- mfsh:top -->\r\n\r\n<style>\r\n.mfsh-trigger{display:inline-flex;align-items:center;gap:10px;height:44px;padding:0 18px;margin:0 0 26px;border:2px solid 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Then under the Williamsburg Bridge. Then the Manhattan Bridge. Then the Brooklyn Bridge. Newsreel cameras caught her at every bridge.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The pilot was Elinor Smith of Freeport, Long Island. She was 17, and she had held a pilot&rsquo;s licence for just over two months. The stunt helped win her a nickname that would stick for the rest of her life: the Flying Flapper of Freeport.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The bridge stunt made her famous. What she did over the next three years made her one of the finest pilots of her generation, man or woman, with endurance, altitude and speed records that put her name alongside Amelia Earhart&rsquo;s in the headlines of the day.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f4f6f9;border:1px solid #e2e7ee;padding:18px 22px;margin:22px 0 26px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:700;color:#0d1117\">Quick Facts<\/p><ul style=\"margin:0;padding-left:18px\"><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Name:<\/strong> Elinor Smith (born Elinor Regina Patricia Ward), later Elinor Smith Sullivan<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Born \/ died:<\/strong> 17 August 1911, New York City \/ 19 March 2010, Palo Alto, California<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Nickname:<\/strong> The Flying Flapper of Freeport<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Licence:<\/strong> NAA pilot certificate No. 6906, 14 August 1928, signed by Orville Wright<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Famous stunt:<\/strong> 21 October 1928: flew under all four East River bridges in a Waco biplane<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Endurance:<\/strong> About 13.5 hours solo (January 1929); more than 26 hours solo (April 1929); 42.5 hours refuelled with Bobbi Trout (November 1929)<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Altitude:<\/strong> 27,418 ft women&rsquo;s world record (March 1930); 32,576 ft (1931)<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Honours:<\/strong> Voted best woman pilot in America (1930); first woman on a Wheaties box (1934)<\/li><\/ul><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Blocks on the rudder pedals<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>She was born Elinor Regina Patricia Ward in New York City on 17 August 1911. Her father, a vaudeville comedian and dancer, changed the family name to Smith to avoid being confused with another performer. Elinor took her first aeroplane ride at the age of six, in a Farman pusher that lifted off from a potato field on Long Island, and decided on the spot what she wanted to do.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>At ten she began lessons with the barnstormer Clyde Pangborn, who tied blocks to the rudder pedals so her feet could reach them. Her father bought a Waco 9 biplane and hired an instructor for both of them, but ordered that his daughter must not be taught to take off or land. Her mother lifted the ban while he was away on tour.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/elinor-smith-portrait-vanity-fair-1930.jpg\" alt=\"Black and white portrait of American aviator Elinor Smith with a pearl necklace, around 1930\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">Elinor Smith around 1930, as pictured in <em>Vanity Fair<\/em>. She had begun flying lessons at ten and soloed in her mid-teens. Vanity Fair, August 1930 \/ public domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The result was a teenager who could already fly better than most adults. Her pilot&rsquo;s certificate from the National Aeronautic Association, No. 6906, was issued on 14 August 1928, three days before her 17th birthday. It was signed by the association&rsquo;s chairman, Orville Wright.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Four bridges and a dare<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>The East River flight came on a dare. Smith reconnoitred the route from above first, then went in low, dodging shipping as she threaded the bridge spans. Unknown to her, the regulars at Curtiss Field who had bet on her success had tipped off the newsreel companies, so there would be film proof that she had really done it.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #1565c0;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><div><em>&ldquo;They&rsquo;re not high bridges, and you have to take care for the bridgework, structure, arches, boats, and she managed to do it.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Dorothy Cochrane<\/strong> &mdash; Curator, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, on NPR, March 2010<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>There was a price. Smith was grounded and, according to the aviation historian Tom Crouch, had her licence suspended for about two weeks. By her own account, the mayor of New York, Jimmy Walker, stepped in on her behalf, and the reprimand letter from the Department of Commerce arrived with a request for her autograph. The Cradle of Aviation Museum on Long Island says she remains the only pilot to have flown under all four East River bridges.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/elinor-smith-1930-plus-ultra-aircraft.jpg\" alt=\"Elinor Smith in flying helmet, goggles and breeches leaning on the propeller of a radial-engined aircraft\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">Elinor Smith in her flying gear, published in March 1930 by the Argentine magazine <em>Plus Ultra<\/em>, proof of how far her fame had travelled. Plus Ultra \/ public domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Records in the cold and the dark<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>In 1929 the record books for women pilots were being rewritten almost monthly, and Smith set out to own them. On a bitterly cold day at the end of January, flying an open-cockpit Brunner-Winkle Bird from Mitchel Field, she stayed aloft for about 13 and a half hours to set a women&rsquo;s solo endurance record.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>When Bobbi Trout took the record back with a 17-hour flight in February, Smith answered in April with more than 26 hours in a Bellanca CH monoplane, a much bigger and more powerful aircraft than any woman had flown before. Later that year she and Trout flew a Sunbeam biplane for 42 and a half hours over Los Angeles, the first official women&rsquo;s endurance record using air-to-air refuelling.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0 8px\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/x-bvzUJFF0I\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;font-style:italic;margin:0 0 24px\">British Path&eacute; newsreel of 1929: crowds greet 17-year-old Elinor Smith after her women&rsquo;s endurance record of more than 26 hours.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>She also set a women&rsquo;s world speed record of 190.8 mph in a Curtiss military aircraft and went on a 6,000-mile tour of the United States flying a Bellanca Pacemaker for the Irvin parachute company, all while still a teenager.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/elinor-smith-altitude-record-daily-news-1930.jpg\" alt=\"Newspaper photo of Elinor Smith in a heavy flying suit flanked by her mechanic and the man who installed the barograph after her altitude record flight\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">The New York <em>Daily News<\/em> of 11 March 1930: Smith is greeted by mechanic Ben Zebora (left) and Carl Schneider, who installed the barograph, after her women&rsquo;s altitude record flight. Daily News \/ public domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Six miles up, without enough oxygen<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>On 10 March 1930, flying a Bellanca Skyrocket, Smith climbed to 27,418 feet (8,357 metres), a new women&rsquo;s world altitude record recognised by the F&eacute;d&eacute;ration A&eacute;ronautique Internationale. Two months later, still short of her 19th birthday, she became the youngest pilot ever to receive a Transport Licence from the US Department of Commerce. That autumn, a poll of licensed American pilots voted her the best woman pilot in the country.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #d32f2f;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><div><em>&ldquo;I had no business fooling around up there without oxygen &mdash; and I knew it.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Elinor Smith<\/strong> &mdash; In her autobiography <em>Aviatrix<\/em> (1981), quoted by the Long Island Herald<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>High-altitude flying in 1930 meant breathing through a crude tube from a bottle, in an unpressurised cockpit, at temperatures far below freezing. In March 1931, on her first attempt to beat the overall world altitude record, her engine stopped at about 26,000 feet. Unknown to her, her oxygen bottle had cracked. She blacked out as the powerless Bellanca dived, came round at around 6,000 feet, and put the aircraft down in an open lot, flipping it onto its nose.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0 8px\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PpJGue5t_PQ\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;font-style:italic;margin:0 0 24px\">Archive footage of Elinor Smith, unhurt, after her Bellanca crashed in Mineola, New York, during a 1931 altitude attempt.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Ten days later she went up again in the repaired aircraft and reached 32,576 feet, reclaiming the women&rsquo;s altitude record. Her altimeter showed even more, but the barograph that would have proved it had jammed at 28,000 feet, ending any hope of the overall world record.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><div><em>&ldquo;There isn&rsquo;t anything that a female pilot can&rsquo;t do that a male pilot can do in a plane. It&rsquo;s not a matter of strength, but a matter of intelligence and endurance, and if women can bear children, they have the endurance.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Elinor Smith<\/strong> &mdash; As recalled by her daughter, Patricia Sullivan, Long Island Herald, 2018<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">A Wheaties box and a second career<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>From 1930 she also worked as an aviation commentator for NBC radio, covering air shows and interviewing other famous flyers. In 1934 she became the first woman to appear on a box of Wheaties, the General Mills cereal sold as the Breakfast of Champions. The Great Depression killed her plans for a solo Atlantic crossing in a Lockheed Vega.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>In 1933 she married Patrick H. Sullivan, a New York State assemblyman and lawyer. After the birth of their first child she gave up flying and spent more than two decades raising four children. When her husband died in 1956, she went back to the sky.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/elinor-smith-nasa-langley-2001.jpg\" alt=\"Elinor Smith, aged 89, seated in front of an experimental Beech Bonanza aircraft at NASA Langley talking with NASA staff\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">Elinor Smith, then 89, at the NASA Langley open house on 28 April 2001, the month she flew an experimental Beech Bonanza there. NASA Langley \/ public domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Through the Air Force Association she flew the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/t-33-shooting-star\/\">Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star<\/a> jet trainer. In March 2000, with an all-woman crew, she flew NASA&rsquo;s Space Shuttle vertical motion simulator at Ames Research Center and became the oldest pilot to complete a simulated shuttle landing. In April 2001, at 89, she flew an experimental Beech Bonanza at NASA Langley in Virginia.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0 8px\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0SDn-vx9sTo\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;font-style:italic;margin:0 0 24px\">Newsreel footage of Elinor Smith preparing for and taking off on an altitude record flight from Roosevelt Field, New York.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Elinor Smith Sullivan died in Palo Alto, California, on 19 March 2010, at the age of 98. She is less famous today than Earhart, partly because her record-breaking years were so short and so early. But for a few remarkable years at the end of the 1920s, the girl who flew under the Brooklyn Bridge was the pilot everyone else had to beat.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><em>Sources: Wikipedia (Elinor Smith), NPR, This Day in Aviation, Long Island Herald, Pop History Dig, Monash University CTIE (Hargrave pioneers)<\/em><\/p>\r\n<!-- mfsh:bottom -->\r\n\r\n<button type=\"button\" class=\"mfsh-trigger mfsh-bottom\" data-mfsh-placement=\"bottom\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><svg><use href=\"#mfsh-i-share\"\/><\/svg>Share this story<\/button>\r\n\r\n<!-- \/mfsh:bottom -->\r\n\r\n\r\n<style>.mfq{margin:34px 0 8px}.mfq h2{font:26px\/1.3 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117;padding-top:22px;margin:0 0 6px}.mfq .qa details{border-top:1px solid #5C91FF;margin:0;padding:0}.mfq .qa details:last-of-type{border-bottom:1px solid #e2e7ee}.mfq .qa summary{cursor:pointer;list-style:none;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;gap:16px;padding:22px 26px;font:18px\/1.7 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117}.mfq .qa summary::-webkit-details-marker{display:none}.mfq .qa summary::after{content:\"+\";font:24px Helvetica,sans-serif;color:#3568e0;flex:0 0 auto}.mfq .qa details[open] summary::after{content:\"\\2013\"}.mfq .qa details:hover summary{color:#3568e0}.mfq .qa .a{font:16px\/1.7 \"Gilroy regular\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#454e5e;padding:0 26px 24px}.mfq .qa .a a{color:#3568e0}@media(max-width:680px){.mfq .qa summary{padding:18px 14px;font-size:17px}.mfq .qa .a{padding:0 14px 20px}}<\/style>\r\n\r\n\r\n<section class=\"mfq\"><h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2><div class=\"qa\"><details open><summary>Who was Elinor Smith?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Elinor Smith (1911&ndash;2010) was an American aviator known as the Flying Flapper of Freeport. Licensed at 16 with a certificate signed by Orville Wright, she flew under all four East River bridges in New York in 1928 and set women&rsquo;s endurance, altitude and speed records between 1929 and 1931.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Which bridges did Elinor Smith fly under?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">On 21 October 1928, Elinor Smith flew a Waco biplane under the Queensboro, Williamsburg, Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges on New York&rsquo;s East River. She was 17. The Cradle of Aviation Museum says she is the only pilot to have flown under all four, and she was briefly grounded for the stunt.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What records did Elinor Smith set?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Elinor Smith set a women&rsquo;s solo endurance record of more than 26 hours in April 1929, a 42.5-hour refuelled endurance record with Bobbi Trout in November 1929, a women&rsquo;s speed record of 190.8 mph, and a women&rsquo;s world altitude record of 27,418 feet in March 1930, later raised to 32,576 feet.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Why was Elinor Smith called the Flying Flapper?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Elinor Smith earned the nickname the Flying Flapper of Freeport after her October 1928 flight under the four East River bridges in New York made her a celebrity. Flapper was the 1920s word for a bold young woman, and Smith grew up in Freeport on Long Island.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>How old was Elinor Smith when she got her pilot licence?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Elinor Smith was 16 when the National Aeronautic Association issued her pilot certificate No. 6906 on 14 August 1928, three days before her 17th birthday. The certificate was signed by Orville Wright. In May 1930 she also became the youngest pilot to receive a US Transport Licence.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Did Elinor Smith fly jets?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Yes. After returning to flying following her husband&rsquo;s death in 1956, Elinor Smith flew the Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star jet trainer through the Air Force Association. In 2000 she flew NASA&rsquo;s Space Shuttle simulator, and at 89 she flew an experimental Beech Bonanza at NASA Langley.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Can I fly in a T-33 Shooting Star?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Yes. MiGFlug offers flights in the Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star, the two-seat jet trainer developed from the F-80, America&rsquo;s first operational jet fighter. It has a pressurised tandem cockpit and a service ceiling of 48,000 feet, the same type Elinor Smith flew later in life. Book a <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/t-33\/\">T-33 flight<\/a>.<\/div><\/details><\/div><\/section>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"FAQPage\",\"mainEntity\":[{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Who was Elinor Smith?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Elinor Smith (1911\u20132010) was an American aviator known as the Flying Flapper of Freeport. Licensed at 16 with a certificate signed by Orville Wright, she flew under all four East River bridges in New York in 1928 and set women\u2019s endurance, altitude and speed records between 1929 and 1931.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Which bridges did Elinor Smith fly under?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"On 21 October 1928, Elinor Smith flew a Waco biplane under the Queensboro, Williamsburg, Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges on New York\u2019s East River. She was 17. The Cradle of Aviation Museum says she is the only pilot to have flown under all four, and she was briefly grounded for the stunt.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What records did Elinor Smith set?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Elinor Smith set a women\u2019s solo endurance record of more than 26 hours in April 1929, a 42.5-hour refuelled endurance record with Bobbi Trout in November 1929, a women\u2019s speed record of 190.8 mph, and a women\u2019s world altitude record of 27,418 feet in March 1930, later raised to 32,576 feet.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Why was Elinor Smith called the Flying Flapper?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Elinor Smith earned the nickname the Flying Flapper of Freeport after her October 1928 flight under the four East River bridges in New York made her a celebrity. 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In 2000 she flew NASA\u2019s Space Shuttle simulator, and at 89 she flew an experimental Beech Bonanza at NASA Langley.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Can I fly in a T-33 Shooting Star?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Yes. MiGFlug offers flights in the Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star, the two-seat jet trainer developed from the F-80, America\u2019s first operational jet fighter. It has a pressurised tandem cockpit and a service ceiling of 48,000 feet, the same type Elinor Smith flew later in life. Book a T-33 flight.\"}}]}<\/script><div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/harriet-quimby-americas-first-licensed-female-pilot-crossed-the-channel-then-died-at-an-airshow\/\">Harriet Quimby: America&rsquo;s First Licensed Female Pilot Crossed the Channel &mdash; Then Died at an Airshow<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/florence-pancho-barnes-the-first-female-stunt-pilot-who-outflew-everyone\/\">Florence &lsquo;Pancho&rsquo; Barnes: The First Female Stunt Pilot Who Outflew Everyone<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/amelia-earhart-first-across-the-atlantic-then-she-vanished\/\">Amelia Earhart: First Across the Atlantic &mdash; Then She Vanished<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/valentin-privalov-mig-17-bridge-1965\/\">The Soviet Pilot Who Flew a Jet Under a Bridge<\/a><\/p><\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At 17, Elinor Smith flew under all four East River bridges in New York. Then the Flying Flapper of Freeport set endurance, altitude and speed records.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":29388627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[665,666],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29388693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aviation-world","category-history-and-legends"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Elinor Smith: The Flying Flapper of Freeport | MiGFlug<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Elinor Smith flew under all four East River bridges at 17, then set endurance, altitude and speed records as the Flying Flapper of Freeport.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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