An epitaph to Joan Merriam Smith/by James Gilbert, associate editor

SHE WAS A LITTLE TORNADO of a g i r l who fiew alone around the wor ld , and in so do ing made the longest solo flight i n h i s t o r y . I t was f o r her the fu l f i l lment of a childhood dream of i m m o r t a l i t y , the achievement of a l i fe - long amb i t i on to finish the unfinished last flight of the g i r l she had ever idol ized—Amelia E a r h a r t . Ye t the j ourney was also a fiasco and a defeat, a losing race w i t h another g i r l , a g i r l who got home weeks ahead, who got al l the official w o r l d records, the handsome gold medals and the lioness' share of the fame. Joan Mer­r i a m S m i t h was l e f t w i t h a h u r t fee l ing of hav ing been s l ighted and ignored.

So she was the loser. A n d i n a mon th or two she had lost her a irplane, as wel l , i n a desert c rash ; and in a month or two more, her l i f e i n another wrecked a i r ­cra f t . (To lose one's l i f e is the u l t ima te loss.)

" I had had the idea f o r y e a r s ; " she s tar ted her story in the Saturday Evening Post, " f i r s t to fly an airplane, then to fly one as she d id . When I was i n h i g h school, I would te l l my f r i ends and classmates tha t someday I was go ing to fly around the wo r l d j u s t l ike Amel ia Ear­ha r t . Everybody j u s t laughed. "

Can't you j u s t hear these callous l i t t l e schoolgirls laughing? A n d see t i n y Joan clenching her g i r l i s h fists and saying under her brea th , " A l l r i g h t , j u s t you wa i t , I ' l l show y o u ! "

So the g i r l s wou ldn ' t play along w i t h her dreams, so she'd play w i t h the boys. " I never real ly went t h r ough the t r a n s i t i o n most young g i r l s go t h r ough of p lay ing w i t h dolls. I 've always been a tomboy, and at the age of 11 or 12 I was p lay ing baseball—not Softball but base­bal l w i t h the fellas. I was on an all-boys baseball team when I was 14 years old and I was p r e t t y good."

B u t the urgent hunger o f the only ch i ld , the lonely ch i ld , f o r the wor ld 's acceptance and approval pu t i n i ts b i d : baseball j u s t wou ldn ' t do. " A f t e r that , I went th r ough a per iod of baton t w i r l i n g where I j u s t had to be a baton t w i r l e r , and went t h r o u g h f o u r or five years of lessons w i t h t h a t . " ( Look at me, everybody, out here i n f r o n t of the band.)

A t the age of 15 came another change: " I persuaded m y mother t h a t I ' d ra ther have flying lessons at $12 an hour than continue w i t h ba t on - tw i r l i n g ins t ruc t i on at $6.50 a ha l f hour. I ' d won about 18 trophies w i t h the baton by then, anyway, and the challenge was gone. I ' d f ound a new love."

She flung hersel f in to the a i r w i t h the same relentless energy : p r i va t e license at the m i n i m u m 17, commercial at the m i n i m u m 23, ins t rument , instructor ' s and a i r t r anspo r t ra t ings as wel l .

A n d always there was t h a t round-the-wor ld ambi t i on of complet ing Ame l ia Ea rhar t ' s last flight. There f o l ­lowed years of i n s t ruc t i ng , flying charters, executive flights, company planes f o r other people, a l l the whi le sav ing and hoard ing and dreaming and saving, eyeing every a irp lane f o r sale and wonder ing i f i t was the one.

F ina l l y came the great day, and i t was, by a macabre coincidence, the day tha t Pres ident Kennedy was s h o t -November 22, 1963. Joan's l i f e savings of $10,000 be­came down payment on an Apache. She was to spend over $21,000 prepar ing t h a t six-year-oid airplane f o r her flight, and she was to be i n debt u n t i l she died. I t was the beg inn ing of her Great Adventure, and also of her troubles.

I t would seem sensible, wou ld i t not, i f you are con­t emp la t ing a record flight, and seek assistance, to seek i t wel l i n advance? Said Piper 's Jake M i l l e r : "She d id come to us before she made the flight—about three weeks before she le f t . We d idn ' t want to get mixed up in i t . We d idn ' t want her to make the flight. Her route was not the best route. Hers was an old airplane, of no pa r t i cu l a r interest to us. I t had been converted and re­converted so much we fe l t she was going to have a lot o f problems. We d i dn ' t know an y th i n g about her fuel sys­tem—who had designed i t—or her turbochargers. She wanted us to a id her financially."

He went o n : "We get three or f our such applications every week, and we of course t u r n most of them down. About the only attempts we've made have been w i t h Max Conrad. Of course, we've t r i ed saying 'no' to Max

so

She taehled the world, literally. And In a sense, she lost. But how many try?

•""in the past, b u t i t doesn't do us much good. B u t I t h i n k • we've now backed our last such flight."

^;yi:V'^rf •.•!.Now before she plunked down tha t $10,000 deposit, wou ldn ' t i t have been a good idea to have ta lked to the airplane's manufac ture r?

Xyy. P iper is, a f t e r al l , i n business to make money out of YY m a n u f a c t u r i n g airplanes, and i t is very easy to see the i r

po int o f v iew—that Joan M e r r i a m S m i t h was go ing to ^ ^ ' . * l ' - ' have a lot of problems w i t h her airplane, and t h a t the

resu l t ing pub l i c i t y wasn' t go ing to do P iper any good. ', I n both respects they were dead r i g h t , and there can

" be l i t t l e doubt that , f r o m the standpoint of commercial .-• ".. acumen, they made the best decision. B u t Joan couldn' t

^ - " • see i t . ;•-; " I t ' s been est imated by newspaper coverage, and

magazine coverage and so f o r t h , " she to ld f l y i n g ' s Pub­l isher E d w a r d D. Muh l f e ld , " t h a t Piper, f o r instance, received i n excess of $300,000 i n pub l i c i t y , and I have yet to receive the first nickel . Never got any help f r o m the factory , any telegrams or letters or a n y t h i n g . "

There's more than a trace there of a pig-headed i n ­ab i l i t y to see the other guy's point o f view. One can't help wonder ing what m i g h t have happened i f she had sought Piper 's advice wel l i n advance, instead of de­manding the i r cash at the last m inu te .

B u t she d id get backing, notably f r o m the Ri ley (Ra-jay ) Corporat ion, wh i ch supplied the blowers f o r her engines. Says the i r M r . Keller, "We d i dn ' t l ike her fuel system either. A n d she was down on the ground i n South Amer i ca f o r a week jgett ing the fue l tanks fixed because they leaked."

Then there is the cur ious ly involved af fair of her dealings w i t h the Nat i ona l Aeronaut ic Associat ion. I n

: • the early days of flying, a l though i t was two Americans V who first got off the ground, av ia t ion made much of i ts . /-C i n i t i a l progress i n France, and ever since i t has been an

. ; •• in t e rna t i ona l organizat ion based in Par is , the Federa­t i on Aeronaut ique Internat iona le , t h a t has handled a l l

.;. wo r l d record claims. I f i t ' s an official wo r l d record you're -"••' a f ter , the F A I are the people who decide whether to

FLYING-AugusI 1965

-'y-';¥t>-">->.x^2'"iAt-y.- • -•• '•"dd-itty'^t^ f s - : • -y^ti-hts-y^yStxC^s.,. ^.,/ :. ••AvAtA^k > A - i A q A k . : ' -A-;. give i t to you or not, and the Ajner ican representative of the F A I is a dormouse organizat ion i n Washington called the Na t i ona l Aeronaut ic Associat ion.

I f you go a f ter a wo r l d record, they won ' t j u s t take your word f o r i t , bu t instead the N A A w i l l send official observers to watch your progress. Post ing official ob­servers a l l over the globe can be an expensive business, and the N A A has a rule t h a t they w i l l g ran t sanction to at tempt a par t i cu la r record (i.e. post observers) to only one person at any one t ime . Th i s sanction lasts three months, and i f you haven ' t managed i t i n t h a t t ime, somebody else can have a t r y . Th is policy seems f a i r enough to me, bu t i t d idn ' t to Joan M e r r i a m Smi th .

She s a i d : " I have spent almost $300 to get an N A A sanction to begin w i t h . I t r i e d to get a sanction f o u r to five months . . ." then she though t better of what she had been go ing to say and rephrased i t , "Well, let's pu t i t th i s way. I advised N A A of my round-the-wor ld flight, my complete in tent ion , route and what have you, at least five months before m y flight. They told me what I ' d have to do to get a sanction. And they assured me they 'd wo rk very closely w i t h me. I n December I sent a l l my in f o rma t i on f o r a sanction, a n d ' I d id not fill out the sanction f o rms ; bu t I had done every th ing up to tha t po int , expecting sanction forms by r e t u r n mai l . They never came. On January 8th , wh ich was three weeks a f ter I sent my complete por t fo l io and l i fe h is ­to ry to the N A A , I then heard about th is other g i r l , Mrs . Mock, flying around the wor ld . I checked w i t h the N A A and they kept me w a i t i n g f o r two days and then advised me they had already granted sanction to anoth­er g i r l and could not give me a sanction. So you m i g h t say I t r i ed to get a sanction but was denied."

You m i g h t also say she hemmed and hawed and pro­crast inated so long t h a t someone else beat her to i t . Surely the N A A is r i g h t here : i t ' s nice, neat completed appl icat ion forms that count, r a the r than vaguely ex­pressed intent ions to have a go.

M i n d you, the N A A must have fe l t themselves i n quite a spot, know ing t h a t two g i r l s were t h i n k i n g o f

•P%^ Joart. and her much-modified round-the-world Apache. The a

W§:PysPPtPPdP^^^^ \:yPrpk-d--yyt:S:.

- H ' " ' a t t emp t ing the same record. B u t i n a l l fairness they £• could ha rd l y have sa id to e i ther one, "Psst, better get q \• your f o r m i n quick, because we know of someone else - who may beat you to i t . " A l l the N A A could do was s i t

t i g h t and see whose completed appl icat ion came i n first. A n d bad luck on the loser.

7 Ac tua l l y , they g ran t ed sanction to M r s . Mock to at-- tempt two official wo r l d records: speed around the wo r l d

( f em in ine ) , and speed around the w o r l d class C-l.c, ,Y . wh i ch means w i t h an a i r c r a f t we i gh ing between 2,204

and 3,858 pounds—the var ious classes are f o r airplanes . , 1 . of v a r y i n g we ights . Joan's a i r c r a f t was i n the next

;• heavier class—C-l.d—and she could have gotten sanction .- i n th i s class, bu t th is is one of the many records held

by Max Conrad w i t h some fantas t i c t ime l ike e ight days, and no mere o rd ina ry m o r t a l could possibly better i t . So she d idn ' t t r y .

B u t she d id decide to go ahead w i t h the flight, any­way, even though there was no chance of ga in ing any official wo r l d record. I n fact , her flight was a much greater u n d e r t a k i n g : the F A I de f in i t ion of " a r ound the w o r l d " is the distance of one c i r c u i t o f the Trop ic of Cancer, wh i ch a t 22,858.8 miles is appreciably less than the real distance around the equator, and very much less t h a n the Ame l i a E a r h a r t route Joan was proposing to fo l low. OK, so i t wasn ' t of f icial ; i t was s t i l l a p r e t t y good effort.

B u t i t had, whether she l iked i t or not, become a race w i t h J e r r i e Mock. Said Joan, "We l l , i t never was a race." I t may not have been In her eyes, bu t i n the eyes of the rest of the wo r l d i t cer ta in ly was. " H o w can you make a race out of two flights t h a t are almost 7,000 miles d i f ferent i n l e n g t h ? " she demanded. (Only too easily.) " M y flight was i n excess of 27,000 miles,

" ' and hers was s l i gh t l y over 22,000 mi les . " : - Th i s nicety was quite lost on the wor ld 's press. " I

don' t know how long before my flight she was aware of

irplane was later destroyed by fire following a crash landing. '

me, b u t I was first aware of her flight less than five weeks before I actual ly made m y takeoff. You can't t h r o w an around-the-wor ld flight together overnight . I had been p lann ing th is i n m y own m i n d f o r 10 years and had muffed the chances twice already, because of lack of expenses and shortage of equipment, a irplane and so f o r t h . A b o u t five weeks before I was ready f o r takeoff, a f t e r w o r k i n g on th i s pro ject f o r over a year, I f ound out about M r s . Mock.

" O f course, I had to evaluate the difference i n dis­tance . . . she was go ing to be flying around the n o r t h ­ern hemisphere about 1,000 miles n o r t h of the equator where there's good weather and favorable winds . . . at the equator I ran in to a considerable amount of weather and had head winds f o r 25,000 miles . . . the thought went t h r o u g h my m i n d f o r about hal f a day or so of sk ipp ing the E a r h a r t route and j u s t mak ing a route of about 20,000 miles. B u t I f e l t t h a t th is would only be cheat ing myself . . . you see, i f I had taken a chance and made a race of th i s by c u t t i n g my route 7,000 miles shorter, and i f I had had a breakdown somewhere along the route and she s t i l l got back first, I would have not gained a t h i n g . " So the race was not a race.

A n d i t was f o r Joan a los ing race—she star ted sooner, and finished later, than her r i va l . Jer r i e Mock's flight was not the fu l f i l lment of a l i f e t ime dream, but the rea l i zat ion of a casual suggestion f r o m her husband as she stood " u p to her elbows in d i shwa t e r " compla ining of a housewife's lot one w i n t e r evening.

J e r r i e Mock is another t i n y tornado, and she needed a l l the very considerable courage and f o r t i tude she pos­sessed, bu t her round- the-round flight d id go off com­parat ive ly smoothly. Joan M e r r i a m Smith 's journey was another mat ter . A l l the Jeremiahs who had prophe­sied woes f o r her age ing and much-modified airplane were amply just i f i ed . She was grounded f o r six days i n South Amer ica wh i l e her long-range tanks were re-

82

The Loser continued

• ^ : •

i P..

IPX

k7> • t • . '

moved and flown 300 miles to be welded up again, and aga in f o r a week at Guam wh i l e her hydrau l i c system was p u t r i g h t .

Fue l leaks were a persistent nuisance, and her e lectr i ­cal system also gave trouble . Dead grasshoppers clogged the o i l cooler on her r i g h t engine between Wake and H o n o l u l u ; her autop i lo t gave t rouble and the gear never would stay up proper ly . Fourteen hours out of Hono­l u l u her r i g h t engine once more s tar ted to overheat, and she asked San Francisco f o r an escort plane, and a Coast Guard C-130 was d iver ted to escort her i n , la ter being replaced by another smaller Coast Guard plane. H e r eventual welcome at Oakland was tumul tuous , bu t i t had taken her over 56 days to complete the flight ( re­member M a x Conrad's record f o r the admi t ted ly short­er route was only e ight days.) S t i l l , she had covered 27,750 miles to complete the longest solo flight i n his­t o r y . A n d Ame l i a E a r h a r t was v ind icated at last.

N o w comes the s in is ter af fa ir of the medal. Je r r i e Mock was awarded a gold medal by the F A A f o r her flight, wh i l e Joan M e r r i a m S m i t h was not. T rue , Jer r i e was now the holder o f two official wo r l d records. B u t Joan's flight was longer, and more dif f icult. B u t the F A A is adamant i n not g i v i n g any medal to her. I t may not seem much to you or me, b u t I can assure you t h a t i t mat te red very much to Joan, and t h a t she was b i t t e r l y h u r t and upset at th is apparent s l i ght .

•:: There have been all sorts of people r o o t i ng f o r the cause of a medal f o r Joan, f r o m the 99s to then Sen. Humphrey . I t seems some of the lesser of her advisers and supporters d i d her more h a r m t h a n good. There are stories of pressure and persuasion applied to the F A A tha t , however they may have f e l t at the outset, s trengthened t h e i r de te rminat ion not to give her a medal. I have heard a story of one of her advisers

•ha rangu ing the Ass i s tan t A d m i n i s t r a t o r f o r General

A v i a t i o n f o r over an h ou r by telephone f r o m Cal i forn ia , a conversation wh i ch at the F A A ' s end was l istened to by more than one official. " I f they ever thought of g iv ­i n g her the medal, why , tha t guy k ind of cooked her goose," said my in f o rmant .

" D e a r M r s . S m i t h , " said A d m i n i s t r a t o r Halaby i n a le t ter to Joan, " The o r i g i n a l i t y and example of your brave flight has been heralded around the wor ld . I am sor ry t h a t you feel i t has not received sufficient recogni­t i on by the Federal Government. We have received many letters f r o m po l i t i ca l and publ ic relat ions sources" (and you can almost hear h i m adding under his breath , 'and we d idn ' t need any of them' ) " and we have re­viewed a l l of the circumstances sur round ing i t . How­ever, i t is my opinion, as A d m i n i s t r a t o r of the Federal A v i a t i o n Agency, t h a t the feat speaks f o r itself , has been recognized by me and m y associates, and w i l l be judged by his tory . Th i s is more impor t an t than f u r t h e r act ion by the Federa l Government. Sincerely yours, Jeeb Ha laby . "

Now, to be judged by h i s t o r y would probably seem much more r ewa rd ing to you or me than to be given a medal by the F A A , bu t as I said, Joan was a deter­mined, perhaps even obst inate young lady, and she real­ly wanted tha t medal.

W h a t f ew people realize is t h a t Je r r i e Mock wasn ' t even ent i t l ed to t h a t medal. I t is, i n fact, normal ly g i ven only to F A A employees! " I t is an interior medal , " admi t t ed Charles G. Warn i ck , d i rec tor of the F A A ' s Office of I n f o r m a t i o n Services, when I asked h i m . " The reason we used i t f o r Je r r i e Mock is tha t we d id n ' t have an exterior medal at tha t t ime. We are de­veloping one now. " M r . W a r n i c k also wrote, ra ther wea r i l y I imagine, to Senator Hube r t Humphrey ex­p l a i n i n g the F A A ' s stand on the mat ter . I n th is le t ter he s a i d : " M r s . S m i t h was not the first woman to fly

• She was a very shy, yet a very de­termined young lady. She badly wanted recognition—In the form of an FAA med­al—for her extraordinary achievement. She never got that medal while she was alive, and it's doubtful she'll get it now.

More than a medal, however, Joan Merriam Smith wanted to fly and fly well. She and her husband Jack Smith, a Navy Lt. Commander now on his way to Viet Nam, were good friends of f ly ing. Just a week before Joan's untimely death, we spent a lot of time with her in Long Beach, gathering material for a story originally scheduled to appear in May. in fact, the picture at the beginning of this article may have been the last one ever taken of Joan.

One of the things we wanted to do, and that Joan badly wanted us to do (she was thrilled and flattered at the suggestion) was to cause a scale model of Joan's Apache, complete with decals and signatures, to be donated by friends and admirers to the Smithsonian Insti­tute's National Air Museum. FLYING—August 1965

J o a n M e r r i a m S m i t h

1 9 3 6 - 1 9 6 5

We have enlisted the help of the Ninety-Nines, that stalwart organization of which Joan was a member, and of which Amelia Earhart was the original President, in establishing the Joan Mer­riam Smith Memorial Fund. Its objective: to solicit funds for a scale model of Joan's airplane, a bust of Joan, a full-color map tracing her 'Round the World Flight, and supporting material, ail of which will be donated to the Smithsonian Institute for display in the National Air Museum.

FLYING will kick off the fund drive with a donation of $100. All who con­tribute $5 or more will have their names included on a scroll which will be part cf the supporting material.

Please send your donations to: Mrs. Fran Johnson Chairman, ad hoc Committee The Ninety-Nines. Inc. Las Vegas Valley Chapter Clark County, Nevada

We're shooting for $5,000. Every dol­lar will help. E.o.M.

83

Y:YY

^<y:t

:PSX

- V. :

"around the w o r l d . " (See, the F A A t h o u g h t i t was a race, t oo ) . " M r s , Jer r i e Mock of Columbus, Ohio, ac­complished i t f r s t i n a very prof ic ient manner and was awarded the F A A medal by Pres ident Johnson. Mrs . Smith 's flight was not under the auspices o f the Na­t iona l Aeronaut ic Assoc ia t ion" ( to a c i v i l servant, no th­i n g is real unless i t ' s official) , . . "She had numerous diff i­culties, not al l of them of her own mak ing , wh i ch marred the achievement."

Numerous diff iculties not a l l o f them of her own mak­ing ! A r e you suggest ing, M r . Warn i ck , t h a t some of them were of her own mak ing? " The admin i s t r a t o r has not gone in to tha t , and has no desire to go into t h a t , " said M r . W a r n i c k . (Shush, weren ' t you ever t augh t not to ask awkward questions?) " I ' m o f the op in i on , " he added w r y l y , " t h a t there are only two sorts of people —those who w o r k f o r the government, and a n a r c h i s t s ! "

Now I must relate an ug ly r u m o r t h a t c i rculated i n official circles. There are people who feel t h a t Joan d i dn ' t real ly have to feather t h a t r i g h t engine on her last lap. There are ungenerous, d i s t r u s t f u l people who suggest t h a t she d id i t to ga in sympathy f o r al l the th ings t h a t had gone w r o n g w i t h her airplane, and

. to d raw a t t en t ion to the end of her flight. She cer ta in ly d id s ta r t i t up aga in f o r the land ing .

- W h a t the temperature of t h a t engine actual ly was and how i t was r u n n i n g is something only Joan ever knew. You and I never w i l l . The crew o f the Coast Guard planes t h a t escorted her i n aren ' t say ing wha t they

^ t h o u g h t . "We were w i t h her about an h o u r , " sa id one o f them.

" I t was precaut ionary measure. " W h a t do you actual ly do when you escort someone? "Keep the i r sp i r i t s up, so they don' t get excited and do something fool ish. Th ings develop fast , and you s t a r t to w o r r y . "

Was Joan excited? "She had t h a t voice and bearing, why , she was real confident. We asked her how she was fee l ing and whether she was tired—she said she was."

Said Joan herse l f : "Whe the r the F A A was forced into th i s first medal and k i n d o f hesitated on the second one or what , I don' t know. I t was very obvious." By whom were they forced in to the first medal, and by whom m i g h t they have been kept f r o m g i v i n g a second medal? " I have no idea. I w i sh I d id know al l the answers. I know some of t h e m . "

I f she had been wiser, she m i g h t have let the whole t h i n g drop and fo rgo t t en about i t . I f the F A A had been wiser, they m i g h t have said the devi l w i t h i t , and g iven her a medal too. He l l h a t h no f u r y l ike a woman scorned, and she d id fly a tremendous flight. Whether her approach was professional or not, to fly more than 27,000 miles alone around the w o r l d is a s ight more than anybody i n Wash ing ton has ever done.

The rest o f the story is sadder s t i l l ; first the loss o f Joan's beloved Apache—it caught fire i n the a i r and was destroyed i n the subsequent crash- landing. Then a l i t t l e la ter the loss of Joan hersel f , i n an experimental Cessna w i t h Rajay blowers. T h a t a irplane came apart i n the air—we know not why , though perhaps i n t h e i r own good t ime the C A B w i l l be able to te l l us. Rest i n

;peace, Joan : i f there is a l i f e a f t e r death, you and Amel ia E a r h a r t w i l l have met at last . • *

.-:..,:>-v., •

;tqY^;>

'• dpy''' ••y,yj

WORLP FAMOUS.:. AND RIGHUy SO! W E E M S E - 6 B S l i d e - G r a p h i c C O M P U T E R

'; &Y ;v:IN R EPUTATION - Hundreds of thousands sold worldwide! Most famous of all navigation computers. E-6B has been standard for years in U.S. and foreign military services.

IN EXACTING PERFGRMANCE-Easy to use, reliably accurate. Wind Side provides sim­plest possible solution to the "wind triangle". Calculator Side solves accurately all speed-time-distance, fuel consumption problems.

IN ECONQMY-c omplete with leather carrying case and instructions. White plastic $10.00 Aluminum with plastic slide $12.50 Aluminum (pocket size) $12.50

Get your E-6B today from your Airport Dealer.

S Y S T E M OF N A V I G A T I O N MO/V/s/o/T oAJeppesen iCo.) 48 MARYLAND AVE.. ANNAPOLIS. MD.

CIRCLE NO. 45 ON READER SERVICE PAGE