Lilian Bland: The Original Side Hustler
A reflection on Katherine LaGrave’s 'The “Flying Feminist” Who Was the First Woman to Design, Build, and Fly Her Own Plane’ written for Afar.
I feel a kinship with Lilian Bland because she took an interest in a great many things but was never an expert in any of them. She just let her passion for a project drive her until she extracted all the pleasure she could from it (though you might argue that when it comes to building and flying an aircraft one really should be an expert). Katherine LaGrave’s—the writer of the article—use of the word project in this piece is interesting. Bland had “found her next project,” LaGrave writes, after she received a postcard from her uncle in Paris about Louis Blériot’s 1909 attempt to fly his monoplane across the English Channel.
Project. In today’s hustle culture this word seems common, but I wonder if Bland actually thought of or referred to all her interests as passion projects. Before she turned her attention to building an airplane that would fly, she had been a sports journalist and press photographer for London newspapers. Perhaps typical of her wealthy station, she’d studied art and philosophy in Paris and Rome. When she received her uncle’s postcard, her focus had turned to birds. LaGrave briefly describes Lilian Bland’s summer in Scotland, where she was taken by boat to a secret island each morning at dawn so that she could “hike up the cliffs and spend the day lying on her back, watching seagulls soar overhead and dreaming of flight.” Oh, to be rich!
Whether or not Bland was actually dreaming up a way she could take to the skies, it seems reasonable to assume that she was, at least, pondering what she should focus on next, what might give her the fulfillment she craved. It’s clear that Bland hadn’t been able to find satisfaction in any one thing for very long, but when she did set her mind to something she tackled it with fervor. And she wasn’t afraid to do things that were the equivalent of throwing the middle finger in the face of the society she belonged to.
Take riding a horse as an example. Lilian Bland didn’t ride side saddle; she rode astride, which was quite the scandal in early 20th-century England. Apparently a priest in Tipperary even asked spectators to stone Bland for riding in such unladylike fashion.
There is something sexual about the way Bland describes riding a horse astride in a booklet she published called, The Art of Riding: “There is no more delightful sensation than the long easy stride of a thoroughbred under one, when one can sit down in the saddle and enjoy a good gallop, and feel the splendid freedom of movement in the horse, and one’s own freedom to enjoy it.” Let’s be real: Bland’s talking about a woman’s freedom, here, and a woman’s sexual freedom specifically. The suggestion of a woman being powerful in the sack was probably why riding astride in the saddle was frowned upon. Here’s another great quote from Bland’s guide to riding: “Riding is a matter of balance and grip, the balance comes naturally, the grip comes with practice which strengthens the muscles of the thighs and legs; but most of the time one rides by balance; it is only jumping or when a horse shies, stumbles, etc., that one really grips, and then one’s legs close instinctively on the horse to steady oneself in the saddle.” Tell me we’re not talking about women and sex.
Bland’s pursuit to build a plane that would fly over the English Channel was also thought to be unbecoming for a woman of her station, mainly by her father. And she was certainly met with “hoots and derision” from anyone who listened to her aviation plans. More than the idea of a woman building and flying a plane, I think people were responding to Bland’s determination. The determination with which Bland pursued her interests took them out of the realm of womanly accomplishments. Instead, they were ambitions she could own.
In 1910, Bland was well underway with the first phase of her project. She sketched the biplane glider she intended to build and often wrote to Flight magazine asking for advice. Once she had success with her biplane, she got to work on a full-size glider, fashioning parts of a plane from parts of a bicycle and other elements she had lying around. I love imagining Bland at work in her uncle’s workshop, figuring out how handlebars and peddles could somehow operate her plane. I love how Bland knew how to even get started with building a plane.
Before long, the Mayfly was born sans an engine. Bland decided that would come later when she knew her design could withstand the weight. How did she test this? Oh, you know, by having 4 6-foot men hold the wings while she tried to fly. Despite the weight of 4 men, the plane continued to rise. That was that! Bland was impatient to get an engine for her plane so it could really lift off.
Bland did eventually fly—at 30 feet for about a quarter of a mile. But she realized her design would not withstand the power of a bigger engine that could help the plane fly longer distances. When her father offered her a Model-T Ford to give up flying, Lilian Bland took him up on it.
What mattered, what gave her satisfaction was that “I had proved wrong the many people who had said that no woman could build an aeroplane.” She was spurred on by those early hoots and derisions. She did the thing, but it wasn’t important enough for her to pour her heart and soul into it forever.
“She was no full-blown aviator,” writes LaGrave. “She was myriad things.” That is most likely why history doesn’t remember Lilian Bland for her feats of aviation. But she’s exactly the type of person you’d want to read about in character profiles that local newspapers like to run. Bland definitely seems like a character, the type of person whose colorful life you sadly only learn about when you come across their obituary.
Bland couldn’t settle with being any one thing. She seemed to have an impatient personality, which is something I can relate to. I don’t think I have the discipline to focus on one thing. There’s too much to learn and see and do in life. Lilian Bland isn’t a household name like Amelia Earheart, and maybe only a handful of people know her for building and flying her own plane (that one time). But is that even what Bland would have wanted to be remembered for? That said, more people should know that she was a true badass.