Aida de Acosta
Aida Marta de Acosta Breckinridge (born July 28, 1884 in Elberon (New Jersey) , † May 26, 1962 in Bedford ) was the first American woman of Cuban descent to pilot a motorized airship on her own. It made its flight six months before the Wright brothers made their famous flight.
Life
On June 27, 1903, while she was in Paris with her mother, she saw airships for the first time. On the occasion she met the Brazilian airship designer Alberto Santos Dumont , who was demonstrating flights in Paris at the time.
He taught Aida de Acosta in the flight technology of airships. She made her first solo flight on the airship Santos-Dumont No. 9 “La Baladeuse” . It flew from Neuilly-sur-Seine , a suburb of Paris , to Parc de Bagatelle , where it landed in a field. During the flight she was accompanied on a bicycle by Alberto Santos Dumont; he shouted instructions to her from the ground. The story of the first flight of Aida de Acosta was published by Helen S. Waterhouse in a book on the history of female pilots in July 1933 in the United States.
In 1927 she married Henry Breckinridge , a lawyer, fencer, politician and former Assistant Secretary of War. Together with this she is the namesake for the Breckinridge Peak , a mountain in the Antarctic.
Web links
- Aida de Acosta in the database of Find a Grave (English)
- Aida de Acosta in 20th Century Aviation Magazine.com
Individual evidence
- ↑ Women in Transportation: Changing America's History, Reference Materials US Department of Transportation 1998, page 14 (PDF file, English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Acosta, Aida de |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | De Acosta Breckinridge, Aida Marta (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | first American woman of Cuban descent to pilot a motorized airship |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 28, 1884 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Elberon, New Jersey |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 26, 1962 |
| Place of death | Bedford |