He toured extensively (including to Great Britain and France) in the role of the Scarecrow in a stage production of The Wizard of Oz and was a star of the Orpheum Circuit.

[1][9] At age 10 she began receiving flying lessons from Clyde Pangborn who tied blocks to the rudder pedals so Elinor's feet could reach.

[10][11] She received further lessons from Frederick Melvin Lund, who piloted her father around the country on the vaudeville circuit and was teaching him to fly as well, and from Bert Acosta.

[14] This prohibition was finally lifted by her mother while her father was out of town,[15] and after ten days of intense instruction from Russ Holderman, she soloed for the first time at age 16.

[1][17] Orville Wright finalized her FAI license,[1] and three months after her first solo, she set an official light plane altitude record of 11,889 feet (3,624 m) in the Waco 9.

[19] This changed in October 1928; on a dare, she flew a Waco 10[10] under all four of New York City's East River bridges; according to the Cradle of Aviation Museum, she is the only person to do so.

[22] By her own account, the only sanction she received for the unauthorized stunt was a 10-day "grounding" by the city of New York, with Mayor James J. Walker interceding on her behalf to prevent any actual suspension of her license by the United States Department of Commerce.

[28] On January 30, flying an open cockpit Bruner Winkle biplane on a day when the temperature was 0 °F (−18 °C), Smith set a women's solo endurance record of 13½ hours.

By her own account, she managed to land with a heavy remaining load of fuel only due to the good fortune of being able to follow in Jimmy Doolittle, who had seen her fire her Véry pistol.

The Pigeon was chosen for its large cargo capacity to carry fuel, but it was an outdated aircraft with a temperamental engine for which spare parts were not easily obtained.

Finally, in late November 1929, with the rainy season approaching, enough of the right factors fell into place to allow them to set a meaningful record, albeit a more modest one than they hoped for.

The Sunbeam flew better than usual; the Pigeon's Liberty engine made it through 36 hours, although when it did fail it was dramatic, and forced the refueling craft into an emergency landing with its hose trailing.

At 26,000 feet (7,900 m) the engine died, and as she was trying to restart it, she lost consciousness (unbeknownst to her, the lead-encased oxygen bottle that she was wearing around her neck had cracked, allowing its content to leak out).

Smith regained consciousness and began a cautious pullout at about 6,000 feet (1,800 m), and managed to guide the plane to an open spot in a housing development, nosing it over during the landing.

[40] The Great Depression scrubbed her hopes of a non-stop solo trans-Atlantic flight in a Lockheed Vega, though she continued for several years to be a prominent stunt flyer, performing numerous fund-raisers for the homeless and needy.

Her membership in the Air Force Association allowed her to pilot the Lockheed T-33 jet trainer and to take up C-119s for paratroop maneuvers.

In April 2001, at the age of 89, she flew an experimental C33 Raytheon AGATE, Beech Bonanza at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia.