A top event during the period known as aviation?s Golden Age, the 1936 Bendix Race title went to Louise Thaden and Blanche Noyes. The flight took them 14 hours and 55 minutes, and they won both the $4,500 first prize and the $2,500 "consolation? money that had been offered to encourage women to enter the contest. Since no one thought a woman could actually come in first, the Bendix organizers called the $2,500 a ?consolation prize,? an incentive for the first woman to cross the finish line.
