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Lillian Janeway Atwater (1890–1937) was the first woman to fly a hydroplane in the United States. The widow of U.S. Senator Thomas C. Platt (1833–1910), she later married William B. Atwater and, in 1911, began hydroplane pilot training with her husband at the Curtiss School of Aviation in North Island, San Diego. It was reported that while at the school she caught a seagull in a net while her husband flew a hydroplane. She never earned a pilot’s license, and it remains unknown if she continued to fly after attending the school. “First Flights: Early Women Aviators and their Aircraft” is on display post-security in Terminal 3 and online at: https://bit.ly/3wzDwfL
This image was posted on August 10, 2022.