Giacinta was writing scripts in California during 1994 when she became interested in the life of Harriet Quimby, America’s first licensed female pilot (1911). Her initial research started in the dusty archives of an aviation museum and she has never left. With a BA in Anthropology from San Diego State, Giacinta’s background includes field work in historic archaeology, as well as museum curation. Experience conducting oral history interviews and a penchant for literally digging out primary source documents fueled Giacinta’s passion for aviation research. Creating her own niche, she is a self-described “Aviation Anthropologist.” Patterned after national archaeology workshops, Giacinta directed an aviation history conference (1995-2000) where amateur and professional writers could meet and share their research which was edited and published as an annual journal. Continuing her research on Harriet Quimby, Giacinta traveled to many foreign countries and has flown in dozens of rare vintage aircraft. In 1995 she became Director of the Portal of the Folded Wings Shrine to Aviation and Museum in North Hollywood, California, where the Wright Brother’s mechanic, Charles Taylor and other aviation pioneers are buried. Although the small Portal museum officially closed in 2001, Giacinta assisted in writing the first state Resolution honoring Taylor (“Aviation Maintenance Technician Day”- California) in 2002. In 2006 Giacinta began a column featuring the untold stories of aviation mechanics for Aircraft Maintenance Technology Magazine, which she intends to combine into a book.

For the past 12 years Giacinta has given hundreds of multi-media presentations on early aviation, including appearances at EAA AirVenture (Oshkosh). She has been featured on PBS and the History Channel in documentaries of the history of early aviation.

Giacinta is the author of “The Harriet Quimby Scrapbook, the life of America’s first Birdwoman (1875-1912).” Although not a pilot, nor a mechanic, she recently began soaring lessons, and has been learning “hands-on” how fabric is applied to the fuselage of a Stearman biplane. Tours and interviews at the NASSCO ship yard in San Diego led to her feature article in “Logbook” magazine on the construction of the Navy’s latest cargo ship, the USNS Amelia Earhart.

Giacinta is the recipient of a Wolf Aviation Fund grant toward the completion of her next book, “The Original Grand Canyon Airport” documenting life at the commercial aerodrome located at Red Butte, Arizona which flourished in the 1930s.

Giacinta is a resident of San Diego California and her web site is: www.harrietquimby.org

“I write about the anecdotal and human interest aspects of aviation history instead of the nuts and bolts. I’m interested in those “small stories” of the men and women whose passion for flying or building or repairing an aeroplane made them different from the rest of the earth-bound world.”

“It isn’t easy to ferret out the details of an obscure person amid the famous like Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindbergh, Wiley Post and Jackie Cochran.”

“I look forward to contributing some of my favorite stories about those quirky, clever, sometimes courageous, and often outrageous pioneers of American aviation. “