Raymonde de Laroche
| Raymonde de Laroche | |
|---|---|
Raymonde de Laroche in August 1909
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| Born |
22 August 1882 Paris, France |
| Died | 18 July 1919 (aged 36) Le Crotoy airfield, France |
| Occupation | Aviator |
Raymonde de Laroche (22 August 1882 – 18 July 1919), born Elise Raymonde Deroche, was a French pilot and the first woman in the world to receive an aeroplane pilot's licence.
Born on 22 August 1882 in Paris, Elise Raymonde Deroche was the daughter of a plumber. She had a fondness for sports as a child, as well as for motorcycles and automobiles when she was older. As a young woman she became an actress and used the stage name "Raymonde de Laroche". Inspired by Wilbur Wright's 1908 demonstrations of powered flight in Paris and being personally acquainted with several aviators, including artist-turned-aviator Léon Delagrange, who was reputed to be the father of her son André, de Laroche determined to take up flying for herself.
In October 1909, de Laroche appealed to her friend, aviator and aeroplane builder Charles Voisin, to instruct her in how to fly. On 22 October 1909, de Laroche went to the Voisin brothers' base of operations at Chalons, 90 miles (140 km) east of Paris. Voisin's aircraft could seat only one person, so she operated the plane by herself while he stood on the ground and gave instructions. After she mastered taxiing around the airfield, she lifted off and flew 300 yards (270 m). De Laroche's flight is often cited as the first by a woman in a powered heavier-than-air craft; there is evidence that two other women, P. Van Pottelsberghe and Thérèse Peltier, had flown the previous year with Henri Farman and Delagrange respectively as passengers but not as pilots.
Decades later, aviation journalist Harry Harper wrote that until de Laroche made her celebrated flight on the Voisin, she had only flown once, for a short hop, as a passenger; when she first took the controls, Charles Voisin expressly forbade her to attempt a flight; and after taxiing twice across the airfield, she took off, flying "ten or fifteen feet high" and handling the controls with "cool, quick precision".
Although Gabriel Voisin wrote, "... my brother [was] entirely under her thumb", the story of de Laroche as a headstrong woman making the flight after scant preparation and against Voisin's orders almost certainly romanticises what actually took place. Flight magazine, a week after the flight, reported: "For some time the Baroness has been taking lessons from M. Chateau, the Voisin instructor, at Chalons, and on Friday of last week she was able to take the wheel for the first time. This initial voyage into the air was only a very short one, and terra firma was regained after 300 yards (270 m)."Flight was also responsible for bestowing the title "Baroness" upon de Laroche, as she was not of noble birth.Flight added that on the following day she circled the flying field twice, "the turnings being made with consummate ease. During this flight of about four miles (6 km) there was a strong gusty wind blowing, but after the first two turnings the Baroness said that it did not bother her, as she had the machine completely under control."
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