Thérèse Peltier (1873 – 1926), born Thérèse Juliette Cochet, was a French sculptor and early
aviation
Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' include fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air aircraft such as h ...
pioneer. Popularly believed to have been the first ever female passenger in an airplane, she may also have been the first woman to pilot an aircraft. A friend of fellow sculptor
Léon Delagrange
Ferdinand Marie Léon Delagrange (; 13 March 1872 – 4 January 1910) was a French sculptor and pioneering aviator.
Early years
Léon Delagrange was born on 13 March 1872 in Orléans, France, the son of a textile factory owner. As a teenager ...
, when he became interested in aviation Peltier soon followed.
Early life and career
Thérèse Peltier was born the daughter of a liquor distiller on September 26, 1873, in
Orléans
Orléans (,"Orleans" (US) and Union of Women Painters and Sculptors, which was the first society of female artists in France. Peltier specialized in wax sculpture and was included along with Delagrange and a group of other wax sculptors in a 1902 profile in
The Literary Digest
''The Literary Digest'' was an American general interest weekly magazine published by Funk & Wagnalls. Founded by Isaac Kaufmann Funk in 1890, it eventually merged with two similar weekly magazines, ''Public Opinion'' and '' Current Opinion''. ...
.
Aviation
On 8 July 1908 in Turin, Peltier flew as a passenger with Delagrange for a distance of 200 metres (656 feet). She is widely believed to have been the first female passenger on an airplane; however Henri Farman is reported to have flown or tried to fly with a Mlle P. Van Pottelsberghe in Ghent, Belgium in late May. Delagrange taught Peltier how to fly his
Voisin 1907 biplane
The 1907 Voisin biplane (referred to as the Voisin No. I by the 1913 edition of ''Jane's All the World's Aircraft''),The name ''Voisin I'' was later used by the French military as the designation for the Rhône powered versions of the Voisin L ...
and she completed a number of solo flights, although she never earned her pilot's license. After a few training sessions, she flew alone for the first time in Issy-le-Moulineaux. The feat was recounted in ''
L'Aérophile
''L’Aérophile'' ("The Aerophile") was a French aviation magazine published from 1893 to 1947. It has been described as "the leading aeronautical journal of the world" around 1910.
History and contents
''L’Aérophile'' was founded and ru ...
'':
Also in 1908, Peltier accompanied Delagrange on his successful record attempt for flight duration, during which he flew 30 minutes and 28 seconds. She also joined him on a series of Italian flight exhibitions in Turin and Rome, which she reported on for the French newspapers. During this tour, she made a solo flight of at a height of at the Military Square in
Turin
Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...
. The date of this flight is unknown, but it was reported in the weekly Italian magazine '' L'Illustrazione Italiana'' as 27 September 1908.
In late 1908, Delagrange offered a prize of 100
francs
The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' ( King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th centur ...
for the first woman aviator to pilot a plane for . Peltier reportedly began training to compete for the prize, but when Delagrange died in an airplane accident, on 4 January 1910 at
Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...