Sarah "Peaches" Wallace (August 31, 1909 – June 22, 1930) was an American aviator who was the second woman in the United States to obtain a glider license and held a record for time aloft in 1930.
Wallace also wrote newspaper and magazine articles and made public appearances to discuss aviation and her experiences.
[1] In 1918, while still living in Oklahoma, eight-year-old Wallace was looking for four-leaf clovers beside a road, when a biplane made an emergency landing near her.
[1] The contest consisted of a series of tests to determine the greatest advance over a period of time in the study and practice of aviation.
[5][10] Wallace was considered to be one of the most apt students to have taken the training course and within a few weeks of her first solo flight received her pilot's license.
[15] Wallace received glider training from Forrest Hieatt, under the supervision of Hawley Bowlus, at the nearby Bowlus Gliding School at Lindbergh Field,[16] and on January 26, 1930, after only three hours of training, Wallace achieved a 36-second solo flight to qualify for a glider pilot license.
[18] Inspired by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, the first American woman to receive a first-class glider license (days after Wallace's first solo flight), Wallace formed the inaugural women's glider club in the West, the Anne Lindbergh Flyers Club of San Diego.
After about nine minutes aloft, she was attempting to land when her glider struck a bar on a telephone pole on Point Loma and crashed.
Although she suffered some discomfort with her back, the following week she appeared at each scheduled performance at the RKO-Orpheum theater and gave talks on aviation and gliding.