Powder Puff Derby (1947)

The Powder Puff Derby[1] was the name given to an annual transcontinental air race for women pilots inaugurated in 1947.

In 1977, rising costs, insurance premiums, and diminished corporate sponsorship saw the competition come to an end after thirty years.

The Powder Puff Derby was frequently mentioned in the television series The Astronaut Wives Club (2015).

[3][4] The event was the subject of a Peanuts storyline in the summer of 1975 involving Peppermint Patty and Marcie leasing Snoopy's "Sopwith Camel" (his doghouse) and entering the race.

[5] This coincided with Charles M. Schulz's second wife Jean Forsyth Clyde and her mother actually participating in the Derby.

Eight women pilots before they left Palm Springs for 1948 Powder Puff Derby
Gladys Davis flying her Mooney M-18 Mite over downtown Concord, California , in June 1950. She came in fifth in the Powder Puff Derby flying from California to South Carolina.