The archives of the National Air and Space Museum holds a very unusual map in its collection. Created by the U.S. Navy's Hydrographic Office in 1927, this chart is a potent reminder of the perilous nature of early long distance flight attempts. Aviation forecasters in the office created the chart during the day of October 13 when the "Flying Flapper" (as Ruth Elder had been christened by the newspapers) and her instructor/copilot/ navigator George Haldeman had disappeared without a trace over the central Atlantic. The chart depicts Elder's planned route, weather conditions, and where the plane might have travelled if they had not corrected for drift. As one of the oldest surviving artifacts of aeronautical search and rescue this historic map sheds light on a remarkable story of survival.

1927 is often best remembered as the year that Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic solo. By no coincidence that year also marked a tipping point in transatlantic flight attempts. Before Lindbergh, most long distance over-water flights were undertaken by military aviators operating military-type aircraft with the goal of furthering national interests. Lindbergh's use of a small general aviation class aircraft opened a floodgate of imitators, many of whom were not prepared for the challenges of long distance navigation. The August 1927 Dole Race demonstrated how dangerous the lack of training, preparation, experience, or equipment could be as three aircraft disappeared without a trace between California and Hawaii. Others, like Paul Redfern, who undertook the suicidal task of flying solo non-stop from Georgia to Rio de Jinero (a 55-hour flight) with predicable results, soon followed suit. 

One of the disappearances did have a happy ending. In October 1927, perhaps the most colorful character of the transatlantic flight craze made her attempt. Ruth Elder - "the Flying Flapper" - a Lakeland, Florida dental assistant and beauty pageant winner saw aviation as her ticket to fame. Elder fit many stereotypes of the flapper by rejecting gender conventions. She wore men's clothing and her hair bobbed, though she always seemed to retain her beauty pageant poise when photographers were present. She engaged in behavior that ran contrary to societal expectations, flitting from marriage to marriage and frequently appearing in scandalous gossip columns.

Elder began learning to fly at age twenty-one, though by the time she announced her transatlantic flight attempt two years later, she still appears to have been a fairly inexperienced pilot, as she struggled to complete her license in the weeks leading up to the transatlantic flight attempt.  She brought her instructor, George Haldeman, as her copilot and navigator. Some histories of the flight represent Elder as a mere passenger, but that does not appear accurate from most period accounts. Haldeman did spend more time at the controls and was certainly the more experienced of the two. 

On October 11, 1927, the two set off from Roosevelt Field on Long Island in their yellow Stinson SM-1 Detroiter "The American Girl," purchased by investors from Wheeling, West Virginia eager to cash in on the fame that would result from the first woman to match Lindbergh's feat. The investor's confidence in Elder and Haldeman was soon shaken and they offered to release them from the contract, but Elder remained committed.

Unlike Lindbergh, who planned his flight using the shortest distance great circle route to fly from New York to Paris, Elder and Haldeman intended to follow the shipping lanes for safety and also in the hopes of better weather even though this added five hundred miles to their total distance compared to Lindbergh. Ominous signs soon appeared after their departure. The Weather Bureau noted that a severe storm appeared to lay across their route. On the morning of October 13th, they were overdue in Paris, where they were expected at 7 a.m. and no ship had reported seeing them beyond 400 miles from the U.S. mainland. Hours passed with no word on their status. Finally, at 4:35 p.m. Paris time, a radiogram arrived that Elder and Haldeman were safe after a rescue at sea.

The two had been picked up by the SS Barendrecht, a Dutch tanker 360 mile North, Northeast of Teceira in the Azores (about nine hundred miles from Portugal). "The American Girl" had overflown the tanker and dropped a message asking how far to land. After the crew hurriedly painted the answer on the deck for the circling Stinson, Haldeman successfully ditched alongside the tanker. Elder and Haldeman clambered onto the wings and were soon picked up without a scratch. The airplane had developed an oil leak that would have made a diversion to the Azores impossible. 

Today, Elder is largely remembered for her brief flamboyant career that came about from surviving the episode. Even though she did not complete the flight, she was able to launch a brief Hollywood career, appearing in several silent films. She also kept up with aviation through the early 1930s, though her fame came mostly through her tabloidesque exploits, including six divorces and a near fatal suicide overdose of pills. 

The Azores have long been a popular way station for transatlantic flights. The first successful crossing of the Atlantic by air - the NC-4 in 1919 used the Azores. However, they were far south of the shortest "great circle" distances between the northeastern United States and northwest Europe, so most record setting aviators of the 1927 transatlantic attempts avoided them. Fortunately, Ruth Elder and George Haldeman stayed near the shipping lanes that passed near them. They were rescued 360 miles north, northeast of Terceira.