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PHOTO: San Diego Air and Space Museum Archives
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GLADYS Ingle showed the world a woman can change a wheel anywhere
— even in mid-air.
She was part of the 13 Black Cats, a group of stunt professionals
who formed in the mid-twenties to corner the movie market with daring
stunts.
Initially famous for shooting arrows at a target while standing on
the top wing of a Curtiss Jenny and then for changing planes in mid-air, Ingle
then went on to put on a plane’s wheel in mid-air as well.
A grainy, black and white video on YouTube shows how Ingle,
athletic and in her 20s, straps a replacement wheel — about the size of a
motorbike wheel today — to her back and then wing-walks her way to the end of
the bi-plane, grabs and hangs onto the wing of the plane flying just above her
and proceeds to put the wheel on.
How the pilot took off without the main landing-gear tyre is not
explained, but the 13 Black Cats were, in their day, the most famous biplane
aerial stunt troop in Hollywood.
The Selvedge Yard, a website “that celebrates cultural icons in the
world of motorcycles, muscle cars and rock and roll, reports that the 13 Black
Cats was started in 1924 by C.A. Ronald “Bon” MacDougall, who co-owned a pilot
school.
His first stint as a stunt pilot came when he was faced with a huge
crowd that had arrived for an advertised air show, but no fliers had shown up.
He coaxed a couple of friends, Ken “Fronty” Nichols and William “Spider”
Matlock, into trying wing-walking while he flew the plane.
The trio stuck together, eventually adding 10 more “Cats” and an
honourary member: movie actor and former World War 1 fighter pilot Reginald
Denny. MacDougall aimed to corner the market on all movie stunt work that
involved airplanes, automobiles and motorcycles. Except for trains, they would
supply the equipment needed and their fleet consisted of war-surplus Curtiss
Jennies and Cannucks. Until 1927, when it became a law, they used no parachutes,
instead advertised that they defied all superstition and their uniform
accordingly taunted all the bad-luck symbols, with a black sweater with the cat
and number 13 patch on the front, and their nicknames on the back, which also
comprised 13 letters.
Their services were also available for air shows and any other
audience that would pay their fee.
Ingle was the stuntwoman in the crew and reportedly walked the wing
to change planes in mid-air hundreds of times. The plane they used was a Curtiss
JN-4 Jenny, a biplane aircraft built by the Curtiss Aeroplane Company in 1915.
Initially used as a training aircraft for the U.S. Army, the V8-engined plane
became the barn stormers plane of choice in the U.S. after World War 1, and it
had enough struts and cables for a wing-walker to hold onto.
Ed Betts for TWA Spirit reported that Ingle went on to live a long
and healthy life, dying in 1981 at 82 years of age.
The 13 Black Cats disbanded early in 1929 as there was too much
competition. The price for a simple parachute jump had gone down eightfold to
$10 and there were too many freelance daredevils who were willing to risk their
lives for a fast buck. The future seemed to be more stable in the airline
business carrying mail and passengers, which is how TWA started.
