Since 1987 Americans have set aside March as Women’s History
Month, offering the opportunity to honor aviation pioneers like
Alys McKey Bryant whose accomplishments were remarkable even by
modern standards. Before she died at age 76, she had been
employed in a wide range of aviation-related jobs and as a deep
sea diver. At California in 1912, Bryant rebuilt a Curtiss-type
aircraft and taught herself to fly. She worked for movie studios
and made exhibition flights, becoming the first female aloft in
Canada during 1913. She married young and was widowed young. By
1915 she worked as an aircraft mechanic and met her future
employer, Tom Benoist. “You are just a Jack of all Trades, and
master of none,” her mother often said. Bryant would reply,
“Well, perhaps it is good ... to be able to do several things,
for then one is never out of a job.” There is much to know about
Bryant’s life, perhaps none more indicative of her talents and
emotional strength than her years as factory supervisor,
mechanic, and flight instr