Before Amelia Read Online Free PDF Page B

idiosyncracies of another machine, also a biplane, almost as if it were the first. Observers reported that she was flying the machine with complete assurance in flights of fifteen to twenty minutes, but not competitive for the Coupe. Still, the
femme–oiseau
was spreading her wings again.
    By the next spring, Raymonde had changed aeroplanes again. This time she was learning to fly a Farman biplane at the school near Buc. This machine was more compatible; it was dependable and stable. By the end of May she was making flights of over an hour in the country around Buc. In June she was slightly injured in another car crash when an automobile driven by M. Vial collided with a van. It didn’t slow her down. She took a joyride as a passenger in a Farman military machine, and with Vial gave an exhibition at Granville using a Farman hydroaeroplane. Her confidence showed in her handling of the machine and her ability to bring it down perfectly in limited space on the beach.
    By late October, la Baronne was flying at Mourmelon preparing for the Coupe Fémina competition on an eighty–horsepower Farman. The duration of her flights was lengthening to one and a half hours. On November 29, she took the lead for the Coupe with a flight of 323.5 kilometers in four hours. She stopped then only because of a gas–line problem. At the year’s end, none of the competing women fliers had bettered her record. The Coupe Fémina was hers. Like the phoenix, Raymonde had risen again, despite grief and physical problems.
    The First World War put an end to civilian flying in 1914. Raymonde, like other women pilots, offered her services to her country but was refused. She could drive an automobile, taking officers of rank from the rear zones to the front, exposed to artillery and shells, yet government officials considered this safer than piloting an aeroplane.
    When the war ended after four terrible years, France’s first woman pilot took to the air again, intrigued by the developments in aeroplanes.
    Sleeker machines were powered by engines capable of speeding through the skies at 120 to 150 miles per hour. There was new interest in aviation; an anticipated increase in aeroplane production would require more test pilots. Raymonde envisioned a new career for herself.
    On June 7 at Issy–les–Moulineaux, flying a new Caudron G3, she broke the women’s altitude record at 3,900 meters. Three days later, the American flier Ruth Law captured the record with a height of 4,270 meters. On June 12, her competitive spirit in high gear, Raymonde soared to 4,800 meters and another record. The French press hailed her as “la femme la plus haute du monde.” For the moment, she was.
    Shortly after, she visited Le Crotoy airport to look over some of the new models. M. Barrault, a test pilot, recognized her and invited her to come along while he tried a machine with new features. Raymonde was strapped into the rear cockpit, the pilot was up front, and very quickly the powerful machine was in the air. It climbed quickly, its operation vastly different from the prewar models she knew, and the ground below was reduced to miniature size. The pilot turned and headed back toward the field, the aeroplane moving gracefully. As it lowered for a landing, it was seen to swerve to one side, lose speed, and go into a spinning dive before crashing heavily. The first people to reach the wreckage found la Baronne dead; the pilot died on the way to the hospital.
    The ground crew shook their heads. She died doing what she loved, but it was a tragic waste. Raymonde, who believed that “what will be, will be,” whose life was a pattern of success and tragedy at a time when records came and went daily, knew one title was securely hers for all time—world’s first woman aeroplane pilot.
HÈLÈNE DUTRIEU
    Belgian–born Hélène Dutrieu should have been France’s second licensed woman pilot, but a dispute about her