Stinson then received permission to use the airplane sheds at Fort Sam Houston. She believed the San Antonio, Texas area had an ideal flying climate. In 1915, the Stinson family established the Stinson Municipal Airport and the Stinson School of Flying. Emma managed the school, Katherine financed it, Eddie worked as a mechanic, and Marjorie flight instructed. In March 1915, the famous Lincoln Beachey died in a crash in San Francisco, and Stinson acquired the rotary engine from his wrecked plane, rebuilt it, and used it in her plane. Stinson began exhibition flying and became known as the "Flying Schoolgirl" and "America's Sweetheart of the Air." On July 18, 1915, at Cicero Field in Chicago, Illinois, Stinson performed a loop (a year after Lydia Zvereva became the first woman aviator to do so), and went on to perform this feat some 500 times without a single accident. She also became one of the first pilots to ever fly at night. Adding to her night flying experience, she flew over Los Angeles with flares attached to the plane and spelled out "CAL", becoming the first nighttime sky-writer. In another publicity stunt on May 6, 1916, Stinson flew her plane in a race with Dario Resta, the 1916 Indianapolis 500 champion. In 1917, Stinson made a six-month tour of China and Japan, becoming one of the first females to fly in Asia. The Japanese gave her the name "Air Queen". On December 11, 1917, Stinson flew 610 miles from San Diego to San Francisco, setting a new American non-stop distance record. During exhibition flights in Canada, Stinson became the first civilian to fly the mail in Canada on a flight from Calgary to Edmonton, Alberta, in 1918. All of her stunt flying was done in aircraft using the Wright control system, which uses two side-mounted levers for pitch and roll, with top-mounted controls for throttle and yaw. U.S. airmail service After the U.S. entered World War I in 1917, the government prohibited civilian flying to direct all aviation resources to the Army and Navy for the war effort. This caused the closure of the Stinson School in 1917. Stinson was allowed to fly a Curtiss JN-4D "Jenny" and a Curtiss Stinson-Special (a single-seat version of the JN aircraft built to her specifications) for fundraising for the American Red Cross. The fledgling U.S. Postal Air Service was the only non-military flying operation allowed