Sky Queen – The First Flying Cow

1930 – Elm Farm Ollie becomes the first cow to fly in a fixed-wing aircraft and also the first cow to be milked in an aircraft.”

Elm Farm Ollie (known as “Nellie Jay” and post-flight as “Sky Queen”) was the first cow to fly in an airplane, doing so on 18 February 1930, as part of the International Air Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. The Exposition was held over 9 days and featured air shows, stunts and exhibits. It was sponsored by Shell Petroleum and featured Lieutenant Jimmy Doolittle. (For those not aware, Doolittle was an aviation pioneer and war hero. He would go on to be awarded the Medal of Honor and retired a four star general.) At the time he was simply a flying ace most know for winning daring air races.

Ollie was known for her gentle demeanor, which made her an ideal candidate to tolerate riding on what was a very early plane. She flew 72 miles in a Ford Trimotor airplane from Bismarck, Missouri, to St. Louis, and also became the first cow milked in flight. This was done ostensibly to allow scientists to observe midair effects on animals, as well as for publicity purposes. A St. Louis newspaper trumpeted her mission as being “to blaze a trail for the transportation of livestock by air.”

Elm Farm Ollie was reported to have been an unusually productive Guernsey cow, requiring three milkings a day and producing 24 quarts of milk during the flight itself. Wisconsin native Elsworth W. Bunce milked her, becoming the first man to milk a cow mid-flight. Elm Farm Ollie’s milk was carefully bottled and sealed into paper cartons which were dropped from the airplane as it flew over St. Louis. Small parachutes were attached to keep her sky milk from spilling. Charles Lindbergh reportedly received a glass of the milk.

After the excitement of the flight, Ollie was taken home to Sunnymeade Farm, where she lived to the age of 10 and passed away from natural causes. Remembering Ollie, it was said “She was a really gentle cow, but of course she had to be in order to get in that airplane,”. Although Elm Farm Ollie was born and raised in Bismarck, Missouri, it is largely in the dairy state of Wisconsin where her fame has lived on. Each year they celebrate Elm Farm Ollie Day on February 18th. But in Bismarck, her humble home before those days of corn and roses, those who even faintly remember her triumph have, for the most part, mooved on.

“It’s amazing,” agreed Mark Hedrick, city administrator, “Her story was picked up out of Wisconsin and they celebrate this every year. What gets me the most, though, is the kind of planes they had back then. “You know, for 1930, it had to be a pretty big airplane to pick up a cow of that size,” he concluded.

Interested? Read more here: https://affotd.com/2015/03/24/elm-farm-ollie-americas-flying-milking-cow