Ida Van Smith

Ida Van Smith (1917 – May 13, 2003) was an African-American pilot and flight instructor born in 1917 in Lumberton, North Carolina and died in that very town on May 13, 2003.

In 1998, Ninety-Nines' honored Smith for her contributions to flight education with an Award for Achievement .

In 1997, Smith was honored in the National Air and Space Museum's exhibit "Women in Flight".

In 1984, Smith became the first African-American woman to be inducted into the International Forest of Friendship.

In 1979, Smith was awarded the Bishop Wright Air Industry Award.

In 1978-79, the FAA funded Smith's aviation career programs for three high schools in New York and New Jersey. Later on, these programs were adopted by the FAA.

In 1978, Smith was awarded the World Aerospace Education Organization Award from the International Women's Conference.

After receiving her M.S. from the City College of New York, Smith worked as a teacher for two years in North Carolina. After marrying Edward D. Smith, Ida continued to teach in Queens, New York. She taught in the New York City public schools for many years before enrolling in her first flying lesson at the age of fifty. After becoming a licensed pilot in 1967, Smith founded the Ida Van Smith Flight Clubs to introduce children to careers in aviation and aerospace. Adults were allowed into the program by special request. She taught her students using a stationary airplane instrument panel in her living room. Her program was then expanded into public schools and started an introductory aviation course for adults at York College. Volunteers from varying areas in aviation give her classes tours of airplanes and airports. They also take her students flying and give lectures and demonstrations appropriate to each age group. Children in the program along with their parents fly in small airplanes, seaplanes, and helicopters. They visited aerospace museums and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) installations. Students in the program learn the controls, functions of the instruments, and what makes a plane fly by sitting in Smith's own Cessna 172 cockpit. Students also got to meet airline pilots, flight attendants, air traffic controllers, meteorologists, aircraft mechanics and others whose jobs pertain to the aviation industry. At first, she used personal funds to establish her flight clubs. Now she receives funding from corporate and private donations and volunteer efforts. Ida Van Smith headed eleven Flight Clubs located in New York, Texas, and St. Lucia but there would eventually be more than 20 clubs across the United States.

Smith graduated from Redstone Academy in 1934 as the valedictorian of her class. She studied at Barber Scotia Junior College in Concord, North Carolina and then attended Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina. She graduated with a major in social studies and a minor in mathematics. Smith earned a scholarship to the City College of New York where she earned a Master of Science degree in 1964. In 1967, Smith went to the LaGuardia Airport to take her first lesson in a single-engine airplane. She then studied at an airport in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Smith became a licensed pilot, instrument rated which means that she was allowed to fly during inclement weather, and ground instructor.