Who is EVE?

The Skies the Limit with EVE

Hello adventurers! My name Evelyn “Bobbi” Trout, but you can call me EVE. I’m a pilot who lived in Downtown Anaheim in the 1920’s. I was just 23 years-old when I became the first woman to fly an airplane through an entire night. I prefer to fly solo with nothing but the stars for company.

Always thinking about new horizons and adventure, I first dreamed of becoming a woman aviator (that’s another name for a pilot) at the age of 16 after taking my first ride in a Curtiss Jenny at Rogers Field in Los Angeles in 1922. I trained like crazy for a long airplane flight beginning in Los Angeles, flying over the ocean for 17 hours, and returning to Mines Field, Los Angeles, California. My journey gave me the honor of becoming the first woman to also fly solo more hours and more miles continuously than any other woman in the world ever did before.

The Los Angeles Times reported that I may have taken up the heaviest loaded sixty-horse-power plane that ever left the ground in 1929, but handled it all with grace and style. They even caught me dancing on one foot after disembarking from my plane. I was ready to get moving after so long in that cramped cockpit!

My nickname, “Bobbi” happened after I cut my hair short like the film screen star Irene Castle who had bobbed her hair. My friends and family teased me about my new look, but I told them, well from now on you can just call me “Bobbi,” and the name stuck.

I like the idea of staying light on my feet – it keeps me ready for my next adventure. I worked hard to reach my dream and set several flight records along the way. With the famous Amelia Earhart and several other flying pioneers, I co-founded The Ninety-Nines, an international organization of women aviators that still is going today.

During my “heyday” in 1928, Walt Disney even hired me to publicize his new character named Mickey Mouse—by taking a planeful of Mickey Mouse dolls up with me on an airplane ride.

I also share my last name, Trout with the famous Angel’s baseball player, Mike Trout. Did you know that Mike is an avid weather follower? Like me, he tracks the wind and weather for the best opportunities—

Do you have a sense of adventure? Are you willing to try new things and maybe even be the first person to do something like I was?

Hold onto your imagination and sense of wonder, it will give you wings to discover new horizons. While you are here in my hometown, I hope you discover many “Blue Sky” days in Anaheim and experience things you never thought possible.