lad in a chauffeur’s fur-lined jodhpurs, leather breeches, a leather mask, several layers of clothing and a leather coat, 29-year-old Ruth Bancroft Law took off in a 100-horsepower Curtiss pusher biplane from Chicago’s Grant Park at 7:25 a.m. on November19, 1916. She was seeking to set a long-distance, nonstop flying record to New York. Although Glenn Curtiss had refused to provide a new twin-engine airplane to the 5-foot-5 pilot (Law believed he did not think she could handle it), his mechanics had refitted her airplane with overhangs on the upper wing for additional lift and added extra fuel tanks. She sewed a piece of paper
