E. Lilian Todd

E. Lilian Todd on her plane

E. Lilian Todd (* 1865 in Washington, DC ; † 1937 ) was an American inventor and pioneer in aviation . She is considered the first woman to design an airplane .

Even as a child, Lilian Todd was interested in mechanics. She applied for her first patent for a paper holder for typewriters. She later applied for other patents, including a sundial and a wind harp . She began to be interested in balloon flights and later in the construction of airplanes.

She founded the Junior Aero Club , where she taught children and teenagers the basics of aeronautical engineering while working on her first own aircraft. She got Olivia Sage , Russell Sages' widow, to finance this project . The 36 foot long biplane was ready to fly in 1909. For health reasons Todd could not take the test flight himself, so the first flight was piloted by the French aviation pioneer Didier Masson .

In 1911 she was hired by Olivia Sage as a private secretary. In this role, she coordinated Saga's extensive social and political activities.

Web links

• A woman inventor who plans - and expects - to fly. Miss Todd and the coming trial of her airplane. In: The New York Times. November 28, 1909, accessed June 28, 2014 . 

literature

• Ruth Crocker: Mrs. Russell Sage: Women's Activism and Philanthropy in Gilded Age and Progressive Era America. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana, 2006, ISBN 0-253-34712-2 .