Evelyn "Bobbi" Trout 1906-2003 born: Greenup, Illinois
One afternoon in 1918, a sixth-grader walking home from school heard an unfamiliar sound. Growing
louder to a roar, the noise came from overhead. She looked up and exclaimed, "An Aeroplane!" She
rushed home to describe what she had seen declaring, "Someday I'm going to fly an aeroplane." At age 12,
Evelyn Trout had made up her mind to become a flyer. Evelyn had her first flight at age 16. Between then
and the last time she piloted an airplane in 1984, she became one of the nation's most illustrious female
aviators--breaking numerous records and becoming very much a part of aviation history.
In 1920, Evelyn and her mother joined her father in California. Evelyn, working in the Trout family service
station in Los Angeles, told a customer of her dream of becoming an aviator. By coincidence, the customer,
W.E. "Tommy" Thomas, owned a Curtiss Jenny. He asked if she would like to go up for a ride. An exuberant
"Would I?" answered his question. Evelyn enjoyed every minute of her first airplane ride, taking off from
Rogers Airport in west L.A. on December 27, 1922. From that moment, everything was directed at
becoming an aviator.
About 1928, screen star Irene Castle had her hair "bobbed"-cut short. It became the rage, and Evelyn
decided that was the right hairdo for her. When friends teased her about the new look, she said, "Just call
me Bobbi." She has been Bobbi ever since. (It was about this time Marlena Dietrich, Pancho Barnes, and
Bobbi Trout were setting the style for slacks.)
Bobbi saved all she could and accumulated $2,500. She had heard about Burdett Fuller, who owned an
airport on South Western Avenue in Los Angeles where he operated Burdett Airlines, Inc., School of
Aviation, offering flying lessons for $250. Bobbi went to Burdett and proudly wrote a check for her
instruction. She was up at first light on New Year's Day 1928, excited and eager for her first flying lesson.
Bobbi never wavered or lost her love of flying, and on April 30, 1928 she soloed and received her solo
certificate. In the spring of 1928, Bobbi's mother bought her an International K-6, a four-place biplane.
Bobbi received her pilot's identification card from the U.S. Department of Commerce on the first day of
September 1928. Bobbi soon began to look for business ventures to fund her flying expenses. Her
airplane, part of a May Company aviation exhibit, was the most popular in the show. That exposure brought
an offer from the Sunset Oil Company to provide aircraft fuel and oil in exchange for permission to paint its
logo on the side of her airplane. She accepted. That recognition brought another opportunity.
A short time later when she landed the Jenny after a flight, Bobbi saw a man walking toward her. He was
R.O. Bone, builder of the Golden Eagle monoplane, and he needed a good pilot to show the Golden Eagle
around the country. Bone offered Bobbi $35 a week plus expenses--a dream come true. She soon flew the
Golden Eagle to a first-place finish in an air race at the dedication of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Airport,
now Van Nuys Airport. Before dawn on January 2, 1929, Bobbi took the Golden Eagle on a flight that was
not to end until dark. Twelve hours and eleven minutes later she brought the aircraft in for a smooth
landing. At only 22, she had just set a new solo endurance record for women, topping the previous record
by four hours and made her first night landing. Los Angeles newspapers' headlines read: "AVIATRIX
BREAKS WOMEN'S ENDURANCE FLIGHT MARK."