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Biographical Sketches

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EVELYN "BOBBI" TROUT

Born: January 7, 1906    In: Greenup, IL
Died: January 24, 2003    In: San Diego, CA


When Evelyn "Bobbi" Trout saw her first airplane fly overhead, it was love at first sight. She was 12 years old, and said, "Some day I’ll be up there." Her first ride in a plane came on Dec 27, 1922, in a Curtiss Jenny at Rogers Field in Los Angeles. On New Year’s Day 1928 Bobbi began her training at Burdett Fuller’s School of Aviation in Los Angeles, and four months later earned pilot license #2613, then went on to become the fifth woman in the U.S. to receive a transport license.

Trout then went after the women’s endurance records. After setting the first endurance record on Jan 2, 1929, lasting for 12h:11m, she bested Viola Gentry’s eight-hour flight, but her record would not last for long. Only 29 days later, Elinor Smith beat her record by an hour. From then on it was back-and-forth for the two. On Feb 10, Trout extended the record by almost four hours to 17h:24m. It was also the first all-night flight by a woman. However, Smith came back to reset the record to almost 26 hours.

They continued battling one another through the summer until someone suggested that they team up on an endurance flight with mid-air refueling, so Smith and Trout joined forces in November in an attempt to beat the endurance record set by two men in July of that year. It would be a grueling flight that began with three aborted takeoffs, the first because of a heavy radio unbalancing the plane, the second because wire rigging began to fail. On a third try they were up 18 hours when, during a try at refueling, Trout was soaked and swallowed some gasoline, requiring her to be hospitalized briefly. On the final attempt, Nov 27, 1929, they succeeded in refueling several times and set a new endurance record of 42h:3m:30s.

In a second endeavor, with Edna May, Trout set a new refueled endurance record starting on Jan 4, 1931. Despite rough weather conditions, the two were airborne for 122h:50m while covering 7,370 miles at an average 60 mph.

Trout remained active in aviation even after her piloting days ended. With "Pancho" Barnes she formed the Women’s Air Reserve to aid in disasters where the only access to the people in need of medical attention was by plane. Because of her achievements, she received several awards, a notable one being the OX-5 Pioneer Woman of the Year Award in 1976, and was invested into the Aviation Pioneers Hall of Fame in 1984. Honored at the 1999 Van Nuys (CA) Air Show for her 70 years of contributions to aviation.


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early aviator logo Denotes an individual known to have soloed an aircraft prior to December 16, 1917, whether they were members of the "Early Birds of Aviation" Organization or not.