Photo by: Cradle of Aviation Museum
Aline ‘Pat’ Rhonie was a pioneering pilot who learned to fly in 1930 in Reno, Nevada and on Long Island at Roosevelt Field during the ‘Golden Age of Aviation’. By the end of 1931, Rhonie earned her transport license and in 1933 she helped find the Luscombe Airplane Company in Kansas City, Missouri.
The following year, in 1934, Aline, who preferred to be called ‘Pat’, was the first woman to make a round-trip solo flight from New York to Mexico City, later obtaining her twin-engine and seaplane ratings. In 1936, she earned her English pilot’s license and became the first American to obtain an Irish commercial license in 1938.
By 1941, on the eve of World War II, Pat Rhonie was a seasoned pilot and airplane owner, as well as a passionate champion of supporting humanitarian causes in France and Great Britain. Working with the French Aero Club and the British War Relief Society in New York, she flew thousands of miles in the United States in her own airplane as a volunteer arranging relief benefits for the Royal Air Force and Allied flyer’s canteens.
Photo by: Cradle Aviation Museum
In September 1942, Pat became the fourth woman accepted into the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) at Wilmington, Delaware, but only served with the WAFS until her resignation at the end of December. After flying for the WAFS, she went to England and joined the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) in November 1944, hence she was the only one of Nancy Love’s ‘Originals’ who flew for both the WAFS and Pauline Gower’s ATA in England.
Photo by: Cradle Aviation Museum
In addition to making a name for herself as a skilled pilot, Pat was a woman of extraordinary talents, including that of a fine artist who learned mural painting in the fresco style from renowned Mexican painter, Diego Rivera.
In the world of aviation art, Pat Rhonie is best known for the fresco that she painted on the 1400 sq. foot interior wall of Hangar F at Roosevelt Field on Long Island between 1934 -1938. Entitled, ‘The Pre-Lindbergh Era of Aviation on Long Island’, Rhonie’s massive 106-foot mural depicted the history of flying on Long Island, spanning the era from the Wright Brothers and Glenn Curtiss, to Charles Lindbergh’s epic solo flight from Roosevelt Field to Paris in 1927.
Upon its completion in 1938, Rhonie’s mural included the images of hundreds of aviators and over 265 types of aircraft and on October 15 of that year, a party was held in Hangar F and given in honor of Aline Rhonie’s achievement in the completion of the ‘World’s Largest Aviation Fresco Depicting the History of Aviation.’
Photo by: Cradle of Aviation Museum
After Roosevelt Field closed in May 1951, the site of this once ‘premier airport’ was acquired by real estate developers and it became a retail shopping complex, today known as the ‘Roosevelt Field Mall’.
In 1960, Pat Rhonie learned that Hangar F was scheduled to be demolished, and along with it her mural. She immediately obtained the rights to the mural and hurriedly contacted Italian conservator and fresco expert Leonetto Tintori, who came to the United States to assist in the careful removal of the immense fresco. Through the application of heated glues and cloth to the wall of the hangar, the mural was divided into panels and the cloths were pulled from the wall removing a thin layer of paint, whereupon the panels were fixed to laminated masonite for preservation.
Pat Rhonie then spent months restoring the panels, ironically, in a storefront at the Roosevelt Field Mall which now occupied the former airfield. At that time, she painted an additional 25 portraits, increasing the length of the mural to 126-feet.
In 1963, Aline ‘Pat’ Rhonie died in at the age of 53 due to a chronic asthmatic condition.
As to the fate of her mural, it was reportedly stored at the Sands Point Preserve in Nassau County on L.I., eventually finding its way to the Long Island Early Flyers Club. In 2006, Rhonie’s mural was donated to the Vaughn College of Aeronautics & Technology in Queens, New York, across from LaGuardia Airport, where it remains today.
Photo by: Cradle of Aviation Museum
Written by: Julia Lauria-Blum
Photos courtesy of: Cradle of Aviation Museum
About Julia Lauria-Blum:
Julia Lauria-Blum earned a degree in the Visual Arts at SUNY New Paltz. An early interest in women aviation pioneers led her to research the Women Airforce Service Pilots of WWII. In 2001 she curated the permanent WASP exhibit at the American Airpower Museum (AAM) in Farmingdale, NY, and later curated ‘Women Who Brought the War Home, Women War Correspondents, WWII’ at the AAM. She is the former curatorial assistant & collections registrar at the Cradle of Aviation Museum on Long Island and is currently editor-in-chief for Metropolitan Airport News.
Julia is the proud mother of two daughters and a rescued Boxer. Her many interests include swimming, painting, traveling, aviation history, cooking, and storytelling.
