Bentonville Municipal Airport/Louise M Thaden Field (VBT)

Louise McPhetridge Thaden, a native of Bentonville, was a pioneer for women in aviation. She won the Women’s Air Derby in 1929. Then in 1936, she and co-pilot Blanche Noyes defeated male competition to win the prestigious Bendix Trophy by flying coast-to-coast, from New York to Los Angeles, in less than 15 hours. She later co-founded “The Ninety-Nines,” an organization for female pilots.