She Opened the Sky for Others
Louise Thaden died of a heart attack in High Point, North Carolina, on November 9, 1979. Born in Arkansas in 1905, she was one of the first women to make flying her business: she flew her first solo flight and received her pilot’s license in 1927. The records came fast. By 1928 she held the women’s altitude record at 20,260 feet, and the next year she claimed the women’s endurance record after staying in the air for 22 hours, 3 minutes and 28 seconds. That same year she was the first woman to win the National Air Races. That year also brought her something she kept far longer than a trophy. She teamed up with Amelia Earhart and Ruth Nichols to found the Ninety-Nines, a group formed to give female pilots inspiration and fellowship. She went on setting records until she retired in 1938 to spend more time with her family, and that year she published her autobiography, High, Wide and Frightened, about the early days of aviation. She and her husband moved to High Point in 1956 and established Thaden Engineering, a company for developmental engineering in plastics. She stayed active in her local aviation unit until her death. Sources: North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources — This Day in North Carolina History
She was one of the first women to make flying her business, and she set records until she retired in 1938. The records are the visible part; behind them were years of getting back in the cockpit and doing it again. Scripture calls that running with endurance the race set before us, setting down the weight and staying in it. Faithfulness is mostly the long middle, not the trophy. Then she opened a door: the Ninety-Nines, founded with Amelia Earhart and Ruth Nichols so women pilots would have inspiration and fellowship. Sometimes the greater thing is not how far we went but the door we left open, and we may never see who runs through it. She belongs to that crowd of witnesses now, still urging on the ones coming after.
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.”
Prayer
Lord, some days feel like a long run with no one watching. Thank You that we are not running alone, and that others have gone before us and kept the faith. Help us set down the weights we carry for no good reason and keep going when we are tired. Give us endurance for the ordinary hours of today, and let our steady steps encourage someone else along the way. In Jesus name. Amen.