Excerpt from Ladybirds II - The Continuing Story of American Women in Aviation, by Henry M. Holden and Captain Lori Griffith (1994)
Neta Snook defied the prevailing social custom and opened an aviation business on her own. She was born February 14, 1896 in Mt. Carroll, Illinois and was 95 years young when she took her last flight.
Neta, who had taught Amelia Earhart to fly, had begun flying lessons on July 21, 1917 but had not soloed when civilian flying was banned because of World War I. She remained active in aviation by taking a job with the British Air Ministry, inspecting aircraft engines under production at the Willys Morrow factory in Elmira, New York.
Neta continued her flight instruction after the war. In order to afford flight lessons, Neta worked part-time in a photo shop. The owner would pick up rolls of film from the drugstores in town and Neta would develop and print photos. Neta barnstormed around the country before she soloed for her license.
When she had a total time of 100 minutes of instruction in a plane she helped to build, Neta's instructor and the president of the school decided to take the plane up. The plane crashed, killing the president, seriously injuring her instructor, and destroying the plane.
Between 1920-1922, Neta became the first woman to operate a commercial aviation field. Located at Kinner Field, in Los Angeles, California, it included passenger carrying, aerial advertising and instruction.
Sunday was passenger-carrying day at Neta's airport and one Sunday in December, Amelia Earhart and her father came to the flying field to talk to Neta about giving Amelia flight instruction.
On January 3, 1921, Neta gave Amelia Earhart her first lesson in Neta's World War I Canuck (a Canadian-built training plane). Earhart's first lesson, according to Neta, was for twenty minutes. The first five hours of Amelia's instruction were in the Canuck, and the next 15 hours were in a Kinner Airster. According to Neta's good friend Carol Osborne, Neta recalled she had charged Amelia $1.00 per minute for lessons. However, the figures in her logbook show she charged Amelia's first 110 minutes at $.75 per minute. Although Neta charged Amelia for instruction in the Canuck, she did not charge her for subsequent lessons in the Airster.
Snook's March 30, 1921 records show $85 due her. Apparently, they were becoming good friends. Amelia had a box camera and because of Neta's photographic experience, Earhart got an idea to get a part-time job in a photo studio also. Amelia's wages were $21.50 a week at the time.
On January 8, 1921, Neta took the Kinner Airster on its first test flight. The flight lasted three minutes (that would have taken her up to circle the field and probably four figure eights). The main problem Snook had been wondering how it would handle on landing. The landing went well and the plane's designer, Bert Kinner was thrilled. After he saw the plane would fly he then went up with Neta twice. (Kinner later sold this plane to Earhart.)
On April 1, 1921, Neta went to her first fly-in. Two actors, Mary Miles Minter and Ruth Rowland were there. Ruth Rowland wore a black leather jacket, black boots and a black helmet. Neta so admired Ruth's attire that the next day, she used black shoe polish to paint her coat. She also dyed her puttees (calf-length-leather-protectors) black. A month later she painted her Canuck black. The Canuck was still painted black when she sold it in 1922.
On July 3, 1921, Neta took Amelia up for her first 25 minutes of instruction in the Airster and two weeks later they had their first crash on Goodyear field.
Kinner had to repair the Airster before Earhart could fly the craft again, and Neta retired from aviation before repairs had been completed.
Neta wanted a child above everything. When she was expecting, she made a vow that if she could have a healthy baby, she would give up flying forever. She had a handsome and healthy son named William Curtiss Southern.
In August 1922, Neta stepped out of her Canuck and never flew again until 1977 (on a commercial flight). She sold the Canuck for a house and lot in Manhattan Beach, and a $500 Liberty bond.
Neta Snook was one of the few people present to see the successful test flight of the Douglas Cloudster, the first of the Douglas Commercial series and the first plane able to carry its own weight in payload. Neta went to work for the Douglas Aircraft Company, covering the wings of the first biplane built by Douglas. She sewed the linen covering and helped set up the wing department.
