Thérèse Peltier
Encyclopedia
Thérèse Peltier was a French
sculptress and aviator
. Popularly believed to have been the first ever woman passenger in an airplane she should perhaps instead be recognised as the first woman to pilot a heavier-than-air craft. A friend of fellow sculptor Leon Delagrange
when he became interested in aviation Peltier soon followed.
On 8 July 1908 in Turin Peltier flew as a passenger with Delagrange for a distance of 656 feet. However Henri Farman is reported to have flown with a Mlle P. Van Pottelsberghe in Ghent Belgium in late May. It has also been reported that the Delagrange/Peltier flight was not fully controlled and if this is also the case for the Farman/Pottelberghe flight then the honour of the first controlled flight with a woman passenger should properly go to Mrs. Hart O. Berg, who flew as a passenger with Wilbur Wright in October 1908.
Peltier also accompanied Delagrange to Italy
and made a solo flight of 200 metres at a height of 2.5 metres at the Military Square in Turin
. The exact date of this flight has not been ascertained at present but it was reported in the weekly Italian magazine L'Illustrazione Italiana of 27 September 1908.
When Delagrange died in an airplane accident, on 4 January 1910 at Bordeaux
, Peltier left aviation forever.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
sculptress and aviator
Aviator
An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...
. Popularly believed to have been the first ever woman passenger in an airplane she should perhaps instead be recognised as the first woman to pilot a heavier-than-air craft. A friend of fellow sculptor Leon Delagrange
Léon Delagrange
Léon Delagrange Léon Delagrange Léon Delagrange (Ferdinand Léon Delagrange; March 13, 1873 was a pioneer French aviator and also a sculptor .He was born at Orléans and studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris...
when he became interested in aviation Peltier soon followed.
On 8 July 1908 in Turin Peltier flew as a passenger with Delagrange for a distance of 656 feet. However Henri Farman is reported to have flown with a Mlle P. Van Pottelsberghe in Ghent Belgium in late May. It has also been reported that the Delagrange/Peltier flight was not fully controlled and if this is also the case for the Farman/Pottelberghe flight then the honour of the first controlled flight with a woman passenger should properly go to Mrs. Hart O. Berg, who flew as a passenger with Wilbur Wright in October 1908.
Peltier also accompanied Delagrange to Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and made a solo flight of 200 metres at a height of 2.5 metres at the Military Square in Turin
Turin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
. The exact date of this flight has not been ascertained at present but it was reported in the weekly Italian magazine L'Illustrazione Italiana of 27 September 1908.
When Delagrange died in an airplane accident, on 4 January 1910 at Bordeaux
Bordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
, Peltier left aviation forever.