Among 26 licensed women pilots who founded the Ninety-Nines organization at Curtiss Field, New York; later became its first president.
On November 2, 1929, Amelia Earhart joined 25 other licensed women pilots at Curtiss Field in Valley Stream, New York, to found what would become the Ninety-Nines, an international organization dedicated to the advancement of women in aviation.
The organization took its name from the number of its charter members — 99 women pilots who ultimately signed on as founders — a name Earhart herself is credited with suggesting. At the time, women pilots represented a tiny fraction of licensed aviators in the United States, facing systemic barriers to training, employment, and recognition within the aviation industry.
The Ninety-Nines provided crucial mutual support, networking, and advocacy for women aviators, sponsoring air races, scholarships, and mentorship programs that persist to this day. Earhart was elected the organization's first president in 1931, serving until 1933, and used the platform to promote women's air racing, including the Powder Puff Derby.
The founding of the Ninety-Nines represents one of Earhart's most enduring institutional legacies — an organization that has operated continuously for nearly a century and remains the world's largest organization for licensed women pilots, directly tracing its origins to this founding meeting.