Ruth Elder’s Stinson SM-1 Detroiter "The American Girl" at Stinson’s Northville, Michigan plant

Ruth Elder’s airplane was paid for by investors from Wheeling, West Virginia who saw great financial opportunity in the prospects for cashing in on the fame of a female Lindbergh. The plane was certainly capable of an Atlantic crossing and compared favorably with Lindbergh’s Ryan NYP. Elder and Haldeman’s flight was plagued by severe icing that required the jettisoning of fuel and, ultimately, an oil leak that lead to the ditching of the “American Girl” hundreds of miles from the Azores.