BATH – Ninety years after she proved to skeptics in Bath that powered flight was possible, the city is celebrating “Ruth Law Day” to honor one of the pioneers of aviation.

Before thousands of spectators, Law went airborne for 23 minutes on Aug. 9, 1913, a decade after the Wright brothers made history at Kitty Hawk.

She conducted the demonstration in a Model B Wright Flyer.

Events today include a Navy helicopter fly-by and a partial re-enactment of Law’s flight in a plane similar to the one she used.

Law, who obtained her pilot’s license in 1912, went on to set many aviation records before hanging up her pilot’s hat in 1922 at the request of her husband, who feared for her safety. She died in 1970.

She made her mark on history despite flying for only a decade. She was the first woman to make a night flight and to “loop the loop,” and she set the air speed record from Chicago to New York.

Law lobbied to serve in the military but was relegated to helping to sell war bonds and raised money for the Red Cross with her flights. After World War I, she formed a flying circus and earned as much as $9,000 a week.

Four people – Eliza Reece of Arrowsic, Charles Gabelmann of Bath, Wayne DeLong of West Bath and Bath City Manager John Bubier – spent two years organizing this weekend’s celebration.

“Aviation plays a significant role in everyone’s lives even if they don’t get in an airplane and fly,” said Gabelmann.

That a woman was flying 10 years before women were given the right to vote is remarkable, he added.

The helicopter fly-by was to be conducted by Navy Lt. Suzanne Krauss, a search-and-rescue pilot who is the only woman among six Huey pilots based at the Brunswick Naval Air Station.