Élise Deroche
Élise Léontine Deroche (born August 22, 1882 in Paris , France , † July 18, 1919 there ; also known as Baroness Raymonde de Laroche ) was the first woman in the world to get a pilot's license . At the same time, she was also the first woman to take a solo flight.
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Life
As a young actress, Élise Deroche adopted the pseudonym "Baroness Raymonde de Laroche" because, in her opinion, it was more suitable for the stage. In 1909 she dined with the aviation pioneer Charles Voisin , who offered to teach her to fly on one of his planes.
As was common at the time, Voisin planes were single-seaters. The student pilot sat at the wheel and the flight instructor gave his instructions from the runway. The first lesson was about Elise Deroche getting a feel for the machine and becoming familiar with it. Voisin forbade her to take off. She took a seat in the driver's seat, rolled over the airfield and then brought the machine into take-off position. To the horror of the spectators and the flight instructor, she made a run and took off. It flew about three hundred meters at a height of about five meters. This is considered to be the world's first solo flight by a woman.
Trained as a pilot by Voisin, Élise Deroche was the first woman in the world to pass the pilot's test at the Aéro-Club de France on March 8, 1910 . In the same year she was the only woman to take part in the “ Heliopolis Flight Week ” and came in 6th at the “Egyptian Grand Prix”. She came fourth at the flight meeting in Saint Petersburg . During the "Great Flight Weeks of Champagne " in Reims , she had a serious accident when she got caught in the wake of another aircraft.
Despite severe head injuries, a broken arm and two broken legs, she did not want to give up flying. Just two years later, she took part in competitions again.
In September 1912 she was seriously injured in a car accident. The driver, her lover Charles Voisin, died. Nevertheless, in 1913 she won the women's cup of the Aéro-Club de France and the "Coupe Femina".
During the First World War it became quiet around them. In 1918 she improved the women's world record in endurance flight (323 kilometers) and in 1919, at 4,800 meters, the world record for women set by Ruth Law .
On July 18, 1919, she reported in Le Crotoy ( Picardy ) as co-pilot for a test flight of a prototype made by Caudron . The pilot Barrault lost control of the machine; both died in the crash.
A statue at Le Bourget Airport commemorates Élise Deroche.
Web links
- Literature by and about Élise Deroche in the bibliographic database WorldCat
- Women in Aviation and Space History: Raymonde de la Roche ( National Air and Space Museum )
- Aviation Pioneers: 'Baroness' Raymonde de Laroche (1886–1919) (Center for Telecommunications and Information Engineering, Monash University )
- Raymonde de Laroche at earlyaviators.com
- www.deutschlandfunk.de: Pioneer of the skies (article on the 100th anniversary of the acquisition of the pilot's license), accessed on March 8, 2015
See also
Footnotes
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Deroche, Élise |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Deroche, Élise Léontine (full name); Laroche, Baroness Raymonde de |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French pilot, first woman in the world to obtain a pilot's license |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 22, 1882 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Paris , France |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 18, 1919 |
| Place of death | Paris , France |