The Stinson family were well-known in the field of Aviation, setting records, performing firsts and establishing businesses within Aviation. 

Katherine Stinson, the eldest of four children, was born February 14, 1891 at Fort Payne, Alabama to Edward Stinson Jr., an electrical engineer, and Emma Beavers Stinson. At age 21, she was the fourth woman in the United States to receive a pilot’s license. Known as the “Flying Schoolgirl”, Stinson had an exceptional career in exhibition flying, setting records as the first woman to perform a loop, the first pilot to fly at night, the first female to fly to Asia, and first female pilot employed by the US Postal Service. Her passion and skill also influenced her family to become involved in aviation. In 1913, a year after earning her pilot’s license, Katherine and her mother founded the Stinson Aviation Company in Hot Springs, Arkansas, where the family’s home was at the time. 

Following in their sisters footsteps, her younger siblings, Marjorie, Jack and Eddie, also had notable flying careers, and participated in the opening and operation of the Stinson School of Flying in San Antonio Texas. The Stinsons’ mother, Emma, served as business manager, while brother Eddie was the operation’s chief mechanic. Nineteen-year-old Marjorie became the lead flight instructor at Stinson Field.

Eddie Stinson was born in 1893, and earned his FAI certificate in 1915. Joining the family business he was a flight instructor at the family school and is well known for founding the Detroit-Stinson Aviation Company and manufacturing a line of robust and diverse aircraft bearing the Stinson name. He died in 1932 after sustaining injuries from an emergency landing, while demonstrating the Stinson Model R prototype. At the time of his death, he held the record for most experienced pilot in flight hours, logging more than 16,000 hours.

Marjorie was born July 5, 1895. Also a stunt performer, she was known as the “Flyingschool Marm” having trained more than 100 student pilots. After continuing her career as a stunt pilot for another decade, Marjorie retired from flying in 1928 to become a draftsman for the United States Navy Aeronautical Division in Washington, D.C. She died in 1975, having spending the rest of her life researching the history of aviation. 

 The youngest brother Jack Stinson helped Edward found the Stinson Aircraft Company in Dayton, Ohio, conducted his own flying school and became an aeronautical engineer. 

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