Evelyn "Bobbi" Trout was born on January 7, 1906 in Greenup, Illinois. When Bobbi saw her first airplane fly overhead, it was love at first sight. When this occurred when she was 12 years old, she said, "Some day I'll be up there. Someday I'm going to fly an aeroplane." Bobbi had her first chance to ride in an aeroplane on December 27, 1922 in a Curtiss Jenny at Rogers Field in Los Angeles. On New Year's Day of 1928, Bobbi began her training at a flight school called Burdett Air Lines, Inc., School of Aviation in Los Angeles with Burdett Fuller. Her first time to fly solo was on April 30, 1928, and just two weeks later she finished her training and was given license number 2613. Bobbi Trout was the fifth woman to get her transport license in the US. Bobbi Trout set three women's endurance records in 1929. After making the first endurance record on January 2, 1929 that lasted for 12 hours and 11 minutes, she beat Viola Gentry's eight hour flight, but her record was not about to last for long. Only 29 days later on January 31, Elinor Smith beat her record by an hour. From then on it was back and forth all that year trying to beat each other. February 10, 1929 Bobbi would fly again to beat Elinor's time. During this flight, she extended the record by almost four hours making the mark now 17 hours and 24 minutes. This was also the first all-night flight by a woman. Unfortunately, Elinor came back and beat Bobbi again making the new record almost 26 hours.
They kept on battling each other until someone thought that they should go together on an endurance flight and refuel in midair. So in November of 1929 Elinor Smith and Bobbi Trout decided to fly together and would attempt to beat the endurance record set by two men in July 1929. It would be a grueling 420 hour flight. Their first attempt was on November 16, 1929. They took off, but couldn't stay in the air because a heavy radio unbalanced the plane. They tried again that day, but the wire rigging started to snap so they had to come down. Once again on November 25, 1929 Elinor and Bobbi began a third try and were up 18 hours when Bobbi was soaked during a refueling attempt and swallowed some gasoline, forcing them to land. As a result, Bobbi had to be hospitalized for a short time. On their final attempt on November 27, 1929 they were able to refuel three and a half times and set a new endurance record of 42 hours and 3 1/2 minutes.
After this endeavor, Bobbi tried again on the refueling endurance record except this time going with Edna May. They failed once on January 1, 1931, but were back in the air on January 4, 1931. They did set a new record after going through rough weather. In this refueling endurance, they set many records. They were airborne for 122 hours & 50 minutes, covering 7, 370 miles at an average speed of sixty miles per hour, taking on 1,138 gallons of fuel and 34 gallons of oil, and received food and supplies during 22 contacts with the refueling ship. Bobbi remained very active in aviation even after her piloting days were over. Along with Pancho Barnes, they formed the Women's Air Reserve, W.A.R., which was developed to aid in disasters where the only access to the people who need medical attention was by plane. Because of her achievements, she has received several awards, such as the OX5 Pioneer Woman of the Year Award in 1976.