Women Aviators (3 page)
Authors: Karen Bush Gibson
Elise took her first lesson in Châlons, about 147 miles (237 kilometers) east of Paris. First, she taxied the small airplane down the airfield. When she reached the end, a waiting mechanic turned the plane around, and she taxied back. Then Charles turned her around and told her to do it again. This time, Elise opened up the throttle, rising about 15 feet (4.5 meters) in the air. She flew a few hundred yards, made a gentle landing, and came taxiing back to her starting point.
Charles Voisin must have realized that Elise had a talent for piloting, because he kept teaching her, even though she had defied him. She continued to improve, and the two became very close.
Early airplanes weren't very sturdy, and accidents were common. Elise didn't allow her first accident in early 1910 to stop her. As she approached her landing at Châlons, a strong gust of wind hit her plane, causing her to slam into some trees, fall about 20 feet (6 meters), and break her collarbone. After her injury healed, she left with the Voisin brothers for Egypt to compete in the Heliopolis air meet. Bad weather kept some aviators from competing, but not Elise. She flew through heavy winds and rains to finish in eighth place.
On March 8, 1910, Elise felt she was ready to test for her pilot's license. She flew for the officials at the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), and her performance left no question about whether she was equipped to fly an airplane. Elise was granted pilot's license number 36, becoming the first licensed woman pilot in the world. Earning this achievement meant she was allowed to enter any aviation contest. The newspapers called her
“
la femme oiseau
”
(the bird woman).
Elise left acting behind as she traveled, earning money with flying exhibitions and races. She arrived in the Russian city of Saint Petersburg, where the chimneys spit out so much smoke that air currents became unstable and pilots had a hard time seeing. But Elise went up anyway and circled the small airfield. She later told
Collier's
magazine, “I mounted to a height of 150 meters, being enveloped by the smoke from the factory chimney which surrounded the ground. I flew over houses, then above forests, and turned three times.”
Turning off her engine, she glided to a perfect landing in front of Tsar Nicholas II. He was so impressed that he bestowed
the title of baroness upon the lovely pilot. Elise, who enjoyed being the center of attention, began to use the title.
Baroness de Laroche encountered smoking chimneys again in Budapest, where she was to race a 68-mile (109 kilometers) course against other pilots. The other pilotsâmenârefused to fly under such circumstances. The baroness completed the course and came away with first place.
On July 8, just four months after earning her pilot's license, Elise returned to Reims to compete against a field of all men. She was doing well in the competition until the sixth day, when she crashed and broke her arm and both legs. When she regained consciousness in the hospital, she said that another plane had come too close and forced her crash. The pilot of the other plane wasn't disciplined. In fact, some people pointed to the incident as proof that women shouldn't be pilots, stating that women just weren't as capable of flying as men.
Elise's injuries took two years to heal. Many thought her flying days were over, but she began training for the Coup Femina, a competition for women who flew the longest distance solo. But Elise had to pull out of the race when an auto accident left her with severe wounds. Her companion, Charles Voisin, was also in the vehicle, and he died as a result of the incident.
Elise was devastated by the loss of her teacher and romantic interest. As she recovered from the accident, she became more determined than ever to get back into the air. In 1913, she experimented with other airplanes. The Sommer was similar to the Voisin she had been flying, but she liked the Farman. All were biplanes, but the Farman had more power.
On November 25, when she participated in the second Femina competition, she flew 200 miles (322 kilometers) in four hours. She stopped to land only when the plane developed a problem in its gas line. Still, her efforts were enough to win the contest.
When aviation took off in popularity, people realized that an organization was needed to monitor the industry's activity. Three European men joined together to recommend a new institution, the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, which would regulate the sport of flying. An international aviation conference met in Paris in October 1905 to hammer out the rules.
Founded on October 14, 1905, the FAI awarded pilot's licenses and tracked the world's aviation records. Since the formation of the organization, it has expanded to include all aeronautical activities, and it continues to track aviation records.
The outbreak of World War I in 1914 put Elise's flying career on hold. All airplanes and military pilots were needed for the war. Civilian flying was strictly prohibited. Although Baroness de Laroche volunteered her piloting skills, she was turned down. Instead, she became a chauffeur for the French military, moving items and people from place to place.
As soon as the war ended, the baroness jumped back into flying. She set a woman's altitude record of 13,000 feet (4,000 meters) on June 7, 1919. Three days later, American pilot Ruth Law reached 14,700 feet (4,484 meters). But Baroness de Laroche hadn't gotten to where she was by giving up. Five days later, she reclaimed her record by flying to 15,689 feet (4,785 meters).
More airplanes were filling the skies, and new planes were being unveiled every day. People needed to test these airplanes.
As an experienced 33-year-old pilot, Elise believed she would be an ideal candidate for the first female test pilot. On July 18, she had the chance to ride as a passenger in an experimental Caudron, which was located at the airfield in the coastal town of Le Crotoy. She hoped to learn more about being a test pilot.
However, tragedy struck. The airplane went into a spin that sent it plummeting to the ground. The pilot died on his way to the hospital. Elise Deroche, the world's first licensed woman pilot, died instantly.
“Baroness de Laroche” on Early Aviators website,
http://earlyaviators.com/edelaroc.htm
“Raymonde De La Roche” on Women in Aviation and Space History website, Smithsonian Air and Space Museum,
http://airandspace.si.edu/explore-and-learn/topics/women/roche.cfm
Women Aviators
by Bernard Marck (Flammarion, 2009)
First Woman to Fly Across the English Channel
H
ARRIET
Q
UIMBY WAVED GOOD-BYE
to friends and officials at the Dover Airfield in England at 5:30
AM
on April 16, 1912. Dressed in her usual hooded, plum-colored, satin flying suit, she climbed into a Blériot monoplane, an airplane with one set of wings. Harriet had never piloted the 50-horsepower, single-seat aircraft; she had borrowed it from Louis Blériot, who was famous for being the first aviator to cross the English Channel.
After days of waiting for the bad weather to clear, Harriet was excited to finally be in the air again. A bit of anxiety stayed with her as she navigated through the foggy skies at an altitude between 1,000 and 2,000 feet (300 to 600 meters). This flight had already sent many pilots to their deaths. Harriet tried to think
of the flight as a cross-country flight, not “flying in the fog with an untried compass, in a new untried machine knowing that the treacherous North Sea stood ready to receive me if I drifted only five miles too far out of my course.”
Harriet's goal was the small coastal town of Calais, France. Although Calais was only 22 miles (29 kilometers) away, she could not see it through the mist, and she landed 25 miles (40 kilometers) south instead, on the beach at Hardelot, France. She was greeted by smiling fishermen who came running when they saw an airplane land. Friends soon arrived, and they carried Harriet on their shoulders after toasting her with champagne.
The English Channel is a famous stretch of water separating Great Britain from mainland Europe. The 350-mile-long (560 kilometers) waterway connects the North Atlantic Ocean to the North Sea. The Channel, as it is commonly known by the British, was historically used as a trade route. Later, Great Britain's strong defense was in part due to the Royal Navy patrolling its coastline during times of war.
The Channel is now used primarily to travel from England to Europe, either across the water or through the Channel Tunnel below it. The Channel has long been a source of contests, which can involve people swimming across or flying over it by balloon or airplane. Most crossings take place at the narrowest point between Dover, England, and Calais, France.
The trip had taken 59 minutes. Before many people had opened their eyes that day, America's first female pilot, Harriet Quimby, had become the world's first woman to fly across the English Channel.
When Harriet began making a name for herself, first as a journalist and then as a pilot, she was reported to be the daughter of rich landowners who had sent her to private schools in the United States and Europe. Perhaps Harriet or her mother had wanted to create a new image for Harriet, because the truth was that she came from a struggling farm family and had been educated in public schools.
Born in Michigan in May 1875 to William and Ursula Quimby, Harriet spent her early childhood near Coldwater, Michigan. Although several children were born to the Quimbys, only Harriet and her older sister, Kittie, survived childhood.
William fought for the Union in the Civil War until he became ill. His wife, Ursula, healed him with herbal remedies she was known for creating. When the farm failed in the late 1880s, the family moved to California along with Kittie and her new husband. Harriet and her parents eventually settled in the Oakland-San Francisco area. William worked at different jobs, but the Quimbys continued to struggle financially until William began selling Ursula's herbal remedies.