Maryse Hilsz

Maryse Hilsz in 1935 with her Mauboussin M.122

Maryse Hilsz (born March 7, 1901 in Levallois-Perret ; died January 30, 1946 above Moulin-des-Ponts , Ain ) was a French pilot and aviation pioneer.

Life

She began an apprenticeship as a milliner before becoming a skydiver. She financed her pilot training with show jumps and received her pilot's license in 1930. She soon became known for her long-haul flights, including to Japan . In 1932, when she broke down on her flight from Madagascar across the Mozambique Strait, she made an emergency landing on the small island of Juan de Nova .

On April 18, 1934, her lover of many years, André Salel, also a pilot, died on a test flight.

Record series

In August 1935, Hilsz won her first prize, the Hélène Boucher Cup, in the first European air race , with an average speed of 227 km / h. The following year she won with another record time.

In August 1936 Hilsz also set an altitude record with a Potez 50 biplane near Villacoublay with an altitude of around 14,300 meters, which until now has only been exceeded by Renato Donati (around 14,400 meters). After the successful landing, Donati was among the first to congratulate. A few months later, while trying to break the women's speed record, she lost control and had to parachute.

Resistance

She joined the Resistance in 1941 and took part in actions in Turkey. When a women's flight corps was supposed to be founded in 1945 under the communist air transport minister Charles Tillon of the provisional French government, Maryse Hilsz was among the candidates and was appointed sous-lieutenant. During a flight in January 1946 Hilsz got into bad weather and crashed in the Ain department. She was buried in the city of her birth.

literature

• Antonius Lux (ed.): Great women of world history. A thousand biographies in words and pictures . Sebastian Lux Verlag , Munich 1963, p. 228