99s Then and Now

Airmarking

Phoebe Fairgrave Omlie and the National Air Marking Program In 1921 in St. Paul, Minnesota, Phoebe Fairgrave lasted only two weeks as a stenographer because after seeing a woman fly, she wanted to fly herself. Four airplane rides later, she bought a Curtiss Jenny for $3,500. The next morning she went to the Fox Moving Picture Company and sold them $3,500 worth of aerial stunts. She was 17. Her first parachute jump ended in a treetop, but she quickly learned to perform double parachute jumps and wing-walking stunts for "The Perils of Pauline." Then, with pilots Vernon Omlie and Glen Messer, the Fairgrave and Messer Flying Circus went on the road. Vernon Omlie taught her to fly, and soon they married. By 1927 Phoebe Fairgrave Omlie was the first woman Transport Pilot and first woman aircraft mechanic licensed by the CAA. In the heady days of air racing from 1929 to 1933, she raced in the First Women's Air Derby and many others, and was a Charter Member of The Ninety-Nines. Omlie toured the country on behalf of presidential candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932, and was appointed by him as the first woman government official in aviation. As Technical Advisor to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and the Bureau of Air Commerce, she launched the National Air Marking Program to aid pilots in cross-country navigation. Omlie enlisted prominent 99s members Blanche Noyes, Helen Richey, Nancy Harkness, Louise Thaden, and Helen McCloskey as promoters and field representatives. When Omlie lost the love of her life in 1936, she quit her government post. She organized the Tennessee Civilian Pilot Training Program in 1938, and worked for the Civil Aeronautics Administration from 1941 to 1952. Phoebe Fairgrave Omlie died in 1975 and is buried next to Vernon in Memphis, Tennessee.		The 99s Airmarking Program "Airmarking" and "The Ninety-Nines" are synonymous. With grants from the Works Progress Administration, the National Air Marking Program created valuable navigation aids to pilots beginning in 1933, before established airways or radios were in common use. Omlie and her team of 99s worked to paint a marker with the name of the nearest town on the roof of the most prominent building at each 15-mile interval across the United States. At the onset of World War II, it was obvious that these markers could aid in enemy attacks. Charter 99s Member (and later 99s President) Blanche Noyes worked diligently to ensure that the many thousands of markers were completely blacked out. After the war, Noyes was in charge of the air marking division of the Civil Aeronautics Administration and devoted herself to replacing those airport markings and more. When federal funding ran out, Noyes flew all over the country to gain financial support from local civic groups. Now 99s chapters around the world are active in painting and touching up airport names, compass rose symbols, and other identification marks and navigation aids at local and far-flung airports. Normally the 99s ask the airport or local government to supply the paint, while the chapter provides rollers, tools, and volunteers. For airport names, the letters might be painted 50 feet high or made from white-colored rocks. The distinctively beautiful blue-and-white compass rose with interlocking 99s, used for swinging aircraft compasses, can take two days to lay out and paint. Growing out of the vision and leadership of Charter 99s Members Phoebe Fairgrave Omlie and Blanche Noyes, The 99s airmarking projects are still helping wayward pilots safely find their way.
For more information and assistance with your airmarking project
Recommended Reading Women with Wings by Charles E. Planck (Harper & Brothers, 1942).
99s Then and Now celebrates our history and current endeavors, and our woman pilot pioneers and peers. Airmarking: Research and writing by Jenny T. Beatty and Ellen Nobles-Harris. Photo research by Verna West. Compass rose painted by the Australian Section.