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Betty Browning (*-*)
http://www.machair.net

Air race enthusiast Betty Browning won the 1936 Amelia Earhart Trophy Race at the National Air Races in Los Angeles.

Flying a Cessna C-34, Browning led a group of eight women in the twenty-five mile race at an average speed of 156.4 miles per hour. She came in second in the same race in 1937.

Browning found pylon racing to be of great sport, but she did not depend on aviation as a source of income.

Instead she worked as a secretary at the Sheffield Steel Corporation in Kansas City, and flew on a Trans-World Airline flight to Los Angeles to participate in the fifty-minute race. She also participated in the Miami Air Maneuvers flying from Miami to Havana.

She was skeptical about women's commercial flying opportunities beyond the few superstars at the top. Adopting a philosophical attitude, Browning hoped to make enough money by racing just to break even on her flying expenses.

Betty Browning with Amelia Earhart, 1936

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