Connie’s
Coupe Top Waco How a young lady’s biplane survived and was revived by
Sparky Barnes Sargent
In
1935, when the women’s National Air Marking Program was underway, and Amelia Earhart became the first pilot to fly solo from Hawaii to California, an everincreasing number of women were
18 JULY 2006
taking to the skies—among them, a certain 24-year-old young lady by the name of Constance Eugenie John ston, who ordered her very own specially customized, Jacobs-powered Waco biplane that year. An only child, Johnston was born in New York
and lived with her parents in Greenwich, Connecticut, during the early part of her life. She was evidently among the more financially fortunate of the era and enjoyed social affairs such as formal dinners and dances, as well as spending time at