Not only did Mary Haizlip and Blanche Noyes make names for themselves through competitive flight, but they also made money by flying. The women worked as test and demonstration pilots, one of the many ways they contributed to the field of aviation. Discover their stories.

Mary Haizlip was the second woman in the United States to hold her commercial pilots license. She was a test pilot for Spartan Aircraft, American Eagle, and Buhl Aircraft.

In addition to her work flying, Haizlip also held the world's speed record for women for seven years. In 1930 she flew a Cessna racer, finishing second in a race and posting the fastest pylon time for the Cessna racer. In ten days at the 1931 Cleveland National Air Races, she competed in six different high-performance aircraft. Haizlip was the second highest money winner, man or woman, at the 1931 National Air Races.

Haizlip was the first woman pilot inducted in the Oklahoma Aviation and Space Hall of Fame on December 17, 1982.

Blanche Noyes left a promising theater and movie career to marry an airmail pilot who wound up teaching her to fly. Dewey Noyes bought Blanche her first plane in 1929 and taught her to fly because he wanted to prove that anyone could do it. She soloed on February 15, 1929 and earned her license in July of the same year, becoming the first woman pilot in the Cleveland area. She immediately entered the Women's Air Derby from Santa Monica to Cleveland and placed fourth.

Noyes was a demonstration pilot for Standard Oil in 1931 and continued flying with various corporations until 1935. Following the death of her husband in a crash in 1935, Noyes joined the Air Marking Group of the Bureau of Air Commerce in the summer of 1936, and later was a member of the Women's Advisory Committee on Aeronautics. Blanche was the copilot for Louise Thaden when Thaden won the 1936 Bendix Trophy Race, a first for a woman. For many years, she was the only woman pilot allowed to fly a government aircraft.

Noyes, who raced in nearly every national air race for women, was inducted into the Aviation Hall of Fame in 1970. In recognition of her 35 years of government service for air safety, Noyes became the first woman to receive a gold medal from the Commerce Department.

This content was migrated from an earlier online exhibit, Women in Aviation and Space History, which shared the stories of the women featured in the Museum in the early 2000s.

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Flying for Work | National Air and Space Museum - National Air and Space Museum