Photos courtesy of Kelli Marks, VIA president and Mayoral Candidate.
July 17th at 9am is the unveiling of the historic marker for the Betsy Ross Airport.
The Betsy Ross Airfield Memorial Sign was formally unveiled where the first Woman’s Airport was established in 1931 with a generous 160-acre donation from Dr. Frances Dickinson, member of the VIA Orange City Woman’s Club. The airfield was designated for non-combatant women pilots to have a place to train and fly in case of national emergencies. Ultimately, after Frances died in 1945 the land was parceled off, and the airfield was no more. There is an account about this in our History Book, which is available for purchase. You can also read below for more information.
First female flyers given high hopes in Orange City, Florida.
In 1931, Dr. Frances Dickinson generously presented a 160 acre tract of land on West Rhode Island Avenue to the Betsy Ross Flying Corps for the exclusive use as a women’s airport. Founded in January 1931 by pioneer aviatrix Opal Kunz, the Corps was a reserve organization of women pilots who volunteered to serve in non-combatant duty in case of national emergencies.
Dr. Dickinson had just received approval from Volusia County Commissioners to build the landing field. E.C. Nilson, director of the municipal aviation department, even offered to design the new airport. It was reported that there would be eight runways, four 1000 feet and four 1530 feet long radiating from the center of the field 200 feet wide to the corners and sides.
Mrs. Kunz proclaimed the airport was the only one in the world owned and controlled entirely by women. The field would provide a place for members to spend vacations, keep up their flying hours, host annual training courses, and in case of emergency, perform as a base for the Corps in relief work.
Then strangely, if not abruptly, the trail of the Betsy Ross Flying Corps ends. Little more is known about their actual time in Orange City or what happened to the women fliers and their organization for national defense.
Few accounts of the Betsy Ross Airport can be found after 1933. An amusing memory of Dorothy Warrensford Goodwin, in the book “Our Story of Orange City, Florida”, by the VIA Orange City Woman’s Club, describes a school class trip to see an “auto-gyro” land at the airport. Another story in the book tells of Charles Dickinson “buzzing the treetops, full beard flying, as he brought his biplane in for a ‘dust-kicker’ landing.”
Frances died in 1945, and the land was ultimately parceled off. The north half lies beneath two of Orange City’s schools. The most western extent of the east-west runway is below the adjacent television tower. The last parcel of Orange City’s former Betsy Ross Airport will soon be bustling with a new residential community. The development’s name, Compass Landing, pays tribute to the former all-women’s airfield and the remarkable women who found inspiration in its promise.