Barnes, Pancho (1901–1975)

First woman stunt pilot in motion pictures and first woman to fly from Los Angeles to Mexico City. Born Florence Lowe in Pasadena, California, in 1901; died in Boron, California, in 1975; daughter of a wealthy Pasadena family that suffered reverses in the 1929 Depression.

At a time when few women were piloting planes, Pancho Barnes was executing dips and rolls in Howard Hughes' 1929 movie Hell's Angels. "The plot isn't much but the aerial photography is sensational," wrote Jay Nash and Stanley Ross in their Motion Picture Guide. During the filming, three other pilots were killed, and Howard Hughes was pulled from wreckage with a crushed cheekbone. That same year, Barnes flew in the first Women's Air Derby, where, after securing first place in the second stage of the race, she damaged her plane and was forced to withdraw.

In a career marked by record-breaking, Barnes set a new women's speed record of 196.19 miles per hour, and she became the first woman to fly from Los Angeles, California, to Mexico City, Mexico. The trip was a sightseeing jaunt made in several stages with her mechanic aboard. In 1931, Barnes helped launch a transcontinental race for women, which, with more than 50 planes competing, likely included the majority of women pilots in the country. A few years later, she was part of a flying group that supplied emergency disaster assistance. In one demonstration, they reportedly dropped a crate of eggs from an altitude of 7,000 feet, without breaking a single shell.

In 1933, Barnes purchased an 80-acre ranch abutting Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave desert, which she later turned into a resort facility. Twenty years later, she brought a $300,000 suit against the commanding officer of the base, Brigadier General J.S. Holtoner, charging that he had threatened to bomb her ranch in order to carry out government plans of enlarging the base by acquiring her property.