{"id":9525,"date":"2018-12-06T16:50:31","date_gmt":"2018-12-06T22:50:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs2.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/?p=9525"},"modified":"2019-09-27T11:34:50","modified_gmt":"2019-09-27T16:34:50","slug":"davenports-mary-solbrig-believed-to-be-the-nations-first-female-airplane-mechanic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/2018\/12\/06\/davenports-mary-solbrig-believed-to-be-the-nations-first-female-airplane-mechanic\/","title":{"rendered":"Davenport\u2019s Mary Solbrig: Believed to Be the Nation\u2019s First Female Airplane Mechanic"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the early 20th century, The Pioneer Era of aviation began. The first powered airplanes were taking off, and men and women wowed large crowds at fair exhibitions with their flying machines. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Sunday Times-Democrat, 7 Aug. 1960, p. 40.<\/p><\/div>\n

Among them was Davenport\u2019s very own Oscar Solbrig. A German immigrant and bicycle shop owner, his first forays into flight involved \u201cpowered balloon experiments\u201d and were performed around 1900. Solbrig then attended flight school and began constructing his own planes. After winding up in the Mississippi river while testing a \u201cflying boat\u201d (a craft that was meant to take off and land on the water), Solbrig turned to building land-based planes only. With the salvaged engine and other parts from the flying boat, a plane took shape in the attic of the Solbrig home. <\/span><\/p>\n

According to several clippings from the <\/span>Davenport Democrat and Leader<\/span><\/i>, between 1913 and \u201814 he made a flight over the city that was witnessed by many awestruck spectators. From then on, the plane was used for fair exhibitions from 1914 to 1916. Solbrig\u2019s flights were so popular that the <\/span>Democrat and Leader<\/span><\/i> quoted him as saying, \u201cAt the What Cheer Fair \u2026 the crowd of 10,000 was so anxious to see the machine and the flying that they crowded around the aeroplane so close it took us about 30 minutes coaxing to get the people back far enough to give me room to start.\u201d Many had never seen such an invention before and fewer understood its mechanics. <\/span><\/p>\n

Flying was also a dangerous business. Many aviators were killed or seriously injured in their efforts to take to the sky. Solbrig himself had several close calls; besides his aforementioned swim in the river, he also once became entangled in a willow tree and fell over 100 feet. But he only ever sustained severe bruising from these accidents, retiring from flight before the 1920\u2019s. He lived to be 71, and over the course of the years, several articles were run about his \u201cbarnstorming days\u201d and the preservation of his plane in Midwest museums.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Mary Solbrig upon her election as president of the Mothers\u2019 club. The Daily Times, 5 Jun. 1936, p. 10.<\/p><\/div>\n

But this is not the full story of Oscar Solbrig. Behind his success– every step of the way– was his wife, Mary, the woman known to be the first female airplane mechanic. She was not entirely erased from the picture while Solbrig was performing at fairgrounds, appearing momentarily in several articles during that period. Solbrig always managed to keep the press informed that Mary was instrumental in his flights, but the focus was always on the person in the cockpit.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mary\u2019s history as a mechanic began when Solbrig owned his bicycle shop. In her memoir about her parents, her daughter, Hope, recalls the prejudices her mother faced as a woman interested in a predominantly male trade. While Oscar was out for the day, Mary would would stay to watch the business. Hope recounts one interaction with a customer as follows: \u201cA man came in to have a saw filed. He didn\u2019t want to leave the saw when he saw [Mary] was alone. He wanted \u2018the man\u2019 to do the job. She told him he would get a good job or he didn\u2019t have to pay. Well, my mother did the filing.\u201d But Mary often rose far above expectations. Hope states that, \u201cSomehow, he found out that she did it and after that, every time he came, he asked for \u2018the lady saw filer\u2019 to do it because he liked the job.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Soon, Mary was assisting with the construction of Oscar\u2019s first plane, which would eventually have to be disassembled, shipped in boxes via train, and reassembled by Mary at various fairgrounds. She became so familiar with the machine that, with her son, Alfred, helping with the heavy pieces, she could reassemble it in four hours. Besides performing any repairs to the machine, Mary faced the dangers of guarding it from eager spectators who had never seen a plane before. She recalls getting only four hours of sleep during fair season, and none at all the night before an exhibition. She and her son often camped out in the shipping boxes that housed the plane\u2019s parts. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

The Daily Times, 28 December 1954, p. 1.<\/p><\/div>\n

The flimsy wire that was set up to keep the crowd at bay was often useless. Hope recalls a moment in the dead of night when a man ducked under it, only to be interfered by Mary brandishing a hammer. In Hope\u2019s words, \u201cHe scrammed fast.\u201d Her duties also included negotiating with fairground managers who were ignorant about the plane\u2019s mechanics and often neglected to provide enough space for the plane to take off (some expected the craft to rise directly off the ground). Mary was often seen filling in rough patches on the runway with dirt she kept in her apron, and it was she who signalled to Oscar with a white handkerchief that the plane had enough power to take off. She knew it so well that she could judge by the sound of the engine.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

The Des Moines Register, 23 May 1948, p. 31.<\/p><\/div>\n

In 1948, several years after Oscar\u2019s death, an article in the <\/span>Des Moines Register<\/span><\/i> discussed Mary\u2019s role in his success. It highlighted some of the more dangerous elements of aviation in the early 20th century and showed Mary\u2019s keen awareness of the crowd\u2019s darker desires. \u201c\u2018They didn\u2019t come to see the airplane fly,\u2019 she asserted in this article. \u201c\u2018They came to see the flier killed.\u2019\u201d And there is evidence to attest to this: people often attempted to tamper with the craft before its flight, and once, someone succeeded in cutting a cable attached to the tail unnoticed. Although the pilot escaped unhurt, it cost the mechanics over a month of repairs. <\/span><\/p>\n

Mary herself was a victim of the crowd\u2019s wish to witness injury. During one landing, she noticed the wind directing the plane into a terrace and hurried to get a hold on part of one wing to redirect it. She reflects that \u201cone of the spectators protested to the fair superintendent\u2019\u201d about her competence. \u201c\u2018He said he had come \u201cto see the airplane drag the woman\u201d and felt shorted on his entertainment.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But while she actively participated in this risky lifestyle, Mary was also a wife and mother of three children. In addition to all the housework and cooking, she was elected president of the Mother\u2019s club in 1936.<\/span><\/p>\n

When she passed away on December 28, 1954 at the age of 85, she had seen many advances in aviation. She was honored at her funeral by local aviators, who tossed flowers from their planes. <\/span><\/p>\n

(posted by Nikki)<\/em><\/p>\n

Sources:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Barnstorming\u2019 In The Good Old Days.\u201d <\/span>Quad-City Times <\/span><\/i>(Davenport, IA)<\/span>, Aug. 7 1960, p. 40.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMrs. Solbrig, Davenport Aviation Pioneer, 85, Dies.\u201d The Daily Times <\/span><\/i>(Davenport, IA)<\/span>, Dec. <\/span>28 1954, p. 1.<\/p>\n

Shane, George. \u201cRecalls When Fair Crowds Came \u2018to See Pilot Killed\u2019\u201d. <\/span>The Des Moines <\/span><\/i>Register<\/span><\/i> (Des Moines, IA) <\/span>,<\/span>May 23 1948, p. 31.<\/p>\n

Solbrig-Keller, Hope. <\/span>An Early Bird\u2019s Flying as Described by His Daughter<\/span><\/i>. San Jose, CA: CollectAir Air Age Gallery, 1991. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the early 20th century, The Pioneer Era of aviation began. The first powered airplanes were taking off, and men and women wowed large crowds at fair exhibitions with their flying machines. Among them was Davenport\u2019s very own Oscar Solbrig. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[248,546,2066,2065,2067],"class_list":["post-9525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-history","tag-airplanes","tag-aviators","tag-flight-mechanic","tag-mary-solbrig","tag-oscar-solbrig"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd0CXc-2tD","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9525"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9531,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9525\/revisions\/9531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}