Elise Deroch - First woman pilot of the world

 

 

Date of Issue – 18 October 2010

Hi! Here is the recent Stamp issued by La Poste to commemorate first woman pilot of the world. The great pilot died at a very young age of 37. This post is a philatelic tribute to the great pilot and all  those women who became a milestone in the history and will be remembered for ever….This is all for this evening…..Till Next Post…Have a Great Time !

Elise Deroche

The French Post has issued a stamp on 18 October  dedicated to the first qualified woman pilot in France and in the world. Raymonde de Laroche (22 August 1882 - 18 July 1919), born Elise Raymonde Deroche, was the first woman in the world to receive an airplane pilot's licence. On October 22nd 1909 at Chalons, she made her first solo flight of 300 yards in a Voisin biplane. "It is infinitely more charming than motoring" she said. A plane crash in 1910 (in which she received dreadful injuries) and a car crash in 1912 failed to deter her. After many unsuccessful attempts to join the French Air Force she died in a plane crash in 1919. A statue of de la Roche stands at Le Bourget airport in France.

Records

In July 1910 de Laroche was participating in the week long air show at Reims in France. On 8 July her aeroplane crashed and she suffered such severe injuries that her recovery was in doubt but two years later she was fit again and had returned to flying. On 26 September 1912 she was injured in the automobile accident in which Charles Voisin was killed.

On 25 November 1913 de Laroche won the Aero-Club of France's Femina Cup for a non-stop long-distance flight of over 4 hours duration.

During World War I, as flying was considered too dangerous for women, she served as a military driver, chauffeuring officers from the rear zones to the front under fire.

In June 1919 de Laroche set two women's altitude records, one at 15,700 feet (4,800 m); and also the women's distance record, at 201 miles (323 km).

From March 6 to March 12 2010, to celebrate the Centennial of Licensed Women Pilots, women pilots from eight countries on three continents used 20 types of aircraft to establish a new world record: 225 girls and women introduced to piloting by a woman pilot in one week.