Laura Ingalls
Laura Houghtaling Ingalls (December 14, 1893 – January 10, 1967) was an American record-setting pilot of the 1930s and allegedly an unregistered agent for National Socialist Germany. She was private school educated and spoke seven languages. She was a concert pianist, vaudeville dancer, and nurse.[1]
Birth
She was born in Brooklyn, New York to Francis Abbott Ingalls I and Martha Houghtaling (April 7, 1865–ca. June 20, 1930). Martha was the daughter of David Harrison Houghtaling of Kingston, New York, who was a descendant of Jan Willemsen Hoogteling, who arrived in New York on May 9, 1661.
Regarding her mother, Laura wrote: "My mother, partly through ill health, was extremely emotional and without adequate self-discipline; spoiled by her parents who thought she was wonderful and could do anything. Brilliant along certain lines, she possessed the trait I find most exciting in the American character, viz. the ability to hurdle difficulties and achieve the reputedly impossible. I grew up under such influence."
Sibling
Her brother was Francis Abbott Ingalls II who was also born in Brooklyn. Francis registered for the draft while he was attending military school in Tuxedo Park, New York as a private in the infantry. He was an officer in both World War I and World War II. Francis married Mabel Morgan Satterlee (1901-1993) on September 19, 1926. Mabel was the daughter of Herbert Livingston Satterlee and Louisa Pierpont Morgan, the granddaughter of J.P. Morgan.
Aviation
Her most well-known flights were made in 1934 and earned her a Harmon Trophy. Ingalls flew in a Lockheed Air Express [2]from Mexico to Chile, over the Andes Mountains to Rio de Janeiro, to Cuba and then to Floyd Bennett Field in New York, marking the first flight over the Andes by an American woman, the first solo flight around South America in a landplane, the first flight by a woman from North America to South America, and setting a woman's distance record of 17,000 miles.
Aviation records
- Longest solo flight by a woman (17,000 miles)
- First solo flight by a woman from North to South America
- First solo flight around South America by man or woman
- First complete flight by a land plane around South America by a man or woman
- First American woman to fly the Andes solo
Timeline
- 1893 – born December 14 in Brooklyn, New York
- 1928 – first solo flight, at Roosevelt Field, Mineola, Long Island (December 23)
- 1929 – enrolled in Universal Flying School at Lambert–St. Louis Field in June
- 1929 – obtained Limited Commercial license from Department of Commerce in September
- 1930 – obtained Transport license from Department of Commerce (April 12)
- 1930 – the only female in graduating class of Universal Flying School Transport course (score of 98/100)
- 1930 – established women's loop record in a de Havilland DH.60 Moth|D.H. Gipsy Moth over Lambert–St. Louis Field – 344 loops; previous record was 47 loops (May 4)
- 1930 – broke previous loop record at Muskogee, Oklahoma – 980 loops in 3:40 hr, in her D.H. Gipsy Moth (May 26)
- 1930 – established world barrel-roll record for men and women of 714 rolls over Lambert–St. Louis Field in her D.H. Gipsy Moth (August 13)
- 1930 – won third place Women's Dixie Derby from Washington, D.C. to Chicago, Illinois winning $800 in August and September
- 1930 – established first women's transcontinental round trip record between Roosevelt Field and Grand Central Air Terminal, Glendale, California. Time 30:25 to California; 25:20 on return flight to Roosevelt Field. Airplane: D.H. Gipsy Moth (October)
- 1934 – received 3rd Class Radio Telephone license with authority to use code (call letters KHTJQ) (January)
- 1934 – departed North Beach Airport, Jackson Heights, New York in Lockheed Air Express for flight to South America (February 28)
- 1934 – departed Miami for Havana, Cuba. Crossed the Caribbean Sea to Mérida, Yucatán; through Central America to France Field, Cristóbal, Panama (March 8)
- 1934 – departed France Field, Cristobal, Canal Zone (March 13), for nonstop flight to Talara, Peru, a distance of 1296 miles – 460 miles over water. Continued down the West coast of South America to Santiago, Chile
- 1934 – crossed the Andes at an altitude of 18,000 feet through the Uspallata Pass between Santiago, Chile and Mendoza, Argentina (March 21)
- 1934 – arrived in Trinidad and Tobago (April 17)
- 1934 – arrived in Miami, Florida (April 22)
- 1934 – arrived Floyd Bennett Field, New York completing 17,000 mile flight (April 25)
Accused spy
She served time at the West Virginia Women's Reformatory in Alderson, West Virginia for violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, by allegedly not registering as a German agent. She was sentenced on February 20, 1942, to between eight months and two years. She was transferred from the District of Columbia jail to the Alderson prison on July 14, 1943. She was released on October 5, 1943. Ingalls applied for a presidential pardon and her application was supported by Edward V. Rickenbacker, but she was never able to receive clemency.
Peace activist, fascist
In September 1939, Ingalls violated White House air space to drop peace pamphlets that were written by Cathrine Curtis and addressed to Congress. She was arrested, and her punishment was a one-week suspension of her pilot’s license and having to study air safety.
Ingalls went on a speaking tour in June of 1941 for the America First Committee and the Women’s National Committee, giving vehement addresses about America’s “lousy democracy” and giving National Socialist salutes. Allegedly, from the beginning of her association with the America First Committee, she was employed by the Third Reich. She underlined Mein Kampf in red ink, and studied Hitler pamphlets like My New Order and Germany and the jewish Question. She also read Elizabeth Dilling’s books, and received tracts to distribute from the German Library of Information. Shortly after Germany and Italy declared war on the U.S., Ingalls was arrested for being an unregistered agent of the German government, having been watched by the FBI for some months. She was sentenced to eight months to two years in prison, and was released after 20 months. Prison did not change her views, however, and soon after her release she spoke out against the invasion of Normandy:
- This whole invasion is a power lust, blood drunk orgy in a war which is unholy and for which the U.S. will be called to terrible accounting. . . . They [the National Socialists] fight the common enemy. They fight for independence of Europe—independence from the jews. Bravo!
Death
She died on January 10, 1967 in Burbank, California, aged 73.
Criminal case
- Foreign Agents Registration Act—Case: United States v. Laura Ingalls, (D.D.C. Crim. No. 69031 (1941))