Harriet Quimby flew Dover/Calais in 1912...

[mary meagher]

But nobody noticed. Because the Titantic had sunk the previous day and captured all the publicity....

She flew in a Bleriot monoplane; although she had hoped it would be easy, as on a clear day France was quite clearly visible, on the morning after she took off she was soon eveloped in fog, and had to continue on compass heading alone.

I understand that a number of women have replicated her flight recently, to celebrate the centenary, as reported in the Dover Mercury, by reporter Graham Tutthill. If anyone reading this took part, how did it go?

[Solar]

Very interesting Mary.
From what I can see/read the Titanic is still stealing the publicity, seems that is all you hear about this few weeks.
When they starting pushing for a "Titanic memorial" in Belfast a local radio show asked the listeners for suggestions and someone called in to say "look the people of Belfast built a ship it sank, get over it". Not intending to demean the tragedy but I do think enough is enough.

[thing]

^+1. Plenty of ships have sunk with massive loss of life, I don't get the deal about the Titanic. Is it because they found it? FWIW my mate's grandma was on the Titanic and when they made 'A Night to Remember' in the 50's she was bemused by it. 'Why are they making a film about a ship that sank?' was her comment at the time.

I would imagine that a lot of the male passengers and crew, even had they survived the sinking would have been dead by November 1918 anyway. Not that in any way belittle's their loss.

I wonder if they will remember the Lusitania in 2015?

[Grob Queen]

lot of the male passengers and crew, even had they survived the sinking would have been dead by November 1918 anyway

Maybe not the passengers Thing.... as they were all going over to the States....and as we know, the Yanks are not the best at entering wars on time...... ;)

Mary, have you mentioned this to the British Women Pilots Association? The chairman may want to flag this up?

[Genghis the Engineer]

I absolutely agree about the Titanic obsession.

It is a significant and tragic event. It was also a century ago, and by comparison there have been many similarly awful events since: Lusitania, Spanish Flu, Kiangia, Toya Maru, Grandcamp, Dona Paz, Tenerife.....

As the lady said, a ship got built, it sank, get over it.


The fact is, the Titanic is easy pray for the media. Lots of material, little effort, everybody's heard about it. That's all it is now.

In 1912, fair enough - it was current then, many people probably knew somebody on board. It was a bigger event than Harriet Quimby's flight.

G

[Jan Olieslagers]

...British Women Pilots Association? The chairman may want to... Cheese us! I do hope they've got a chairwoman! Or - horror of political correctness - a chairperson ...
But of course it is their own fault, wanting to set up a sexually discriminating society.

[Genghis the Engineer]

British Women Pilots' Association - Home (http://www.bwpa.co.uk/#who)

Nope, 'tis Madam Chairman.


Actually the BWPA do a good job, and given the latent sexism in too much of aviation, still has some years before it's redundant. Ditto the Women's Engineering Society - although they solved the problem by having a president, and no chairanything.

If you think either is redundant: look for female fit flying clothing or safety equipment.

G

(Male, but a bit of a closet feminist)

[Grob Queen]

^^^ Well said Genghis :D:D:D !

To add to Mary's post, last year saw the centenary of the first qualified female pilot - Hilda Hewlett (she flew from Brooklands). Don't suppose many of the PPruners knew that...I only did because of the BWPA...and i'm a Historian! ;)

GQ

[Genghis the Engineer]

^^^ Well said Genghis :D:D:D !

To add to Mary's post, last year saw the centenary of the first qualified female pilot - Hilda Hewlett (she flew from Brooklands). Don't suppose many of the PPruners knew that...I only did because of the BWPA...and i'm a Historian! ;)

GQ

I was at the celebrations at Brooklands - dragged along very willingly by my Lady Wife, a Woman Engineer. Great museum, but to be honest, the "celebrations" were very poorly done.

G

[Grob Queen]

the "celebrations" were very poorly done.

Thats a shame, and such a great opportunity too to promote the fact that there are ladies in the aviation world, and who are successful at what they do!

But I agree, the museum IS good (and thats from my professional point of view...i'm usually only too happy to "deconstruct" museums I visit :) )

[mary meagher]

Actually, the first woman to gain a pilot's license was French, "Baroness" Raymonde de la Roche earned her FAI license on March 10, 1910. As she learned in the boxy Voisin biplane that had only one seat, her instructor had to shout directions while running along side, so her very first flight was a solo. She wasn't actually nobility at all, her daddy was a plumber.

Harriet Quimby learned to fly at John Moisant's flying school,and obtained her license on August 1, 1911. Her friend, John's sister Matilde Moisant, was the second American woman to become a licensed pilot, on August 13, 1911.

Hilda Hewlett was the first British licensed woman pilot, on August 29, 1911.

According to sources on google, at any rate.

[ChampChump]

The celebrations involved Headcorn and Le Touquet. Unfortunately I was working and unable to participate, but friends did and overall it was a fine success, after a poor weather start, although meedja coverage didn't include some of their more interesting interviews.

Various blogs via Women In Aviation (the US contingent), such as:
Daily Event Blog - Across the Channel: Women Unifying Nations | Daily Event Blog - Across the Channel: Women Unifying NationsDaily Event Blog – Across the Channel: Women Unifying Nations | Daily Event Blog – Across the Channel: Women Unif (http://www.womenofaviationweek.org/english-channel-daily-report/)

One who was fairly heavily involved posts elsewhere: I'll ask if she will update you here, as her story was highly entertaining!

Edited to post her response. Read between a few lines...

"Headcorn was approached by the French Canadian organiser of the wider Women of Aviation Week. Madame asked if she could "borrow the airfield". The airfield owner was then press-ganged into getting media coverage, sponsorship, trade stands, the use of his instructors and aircraft for the day, presentations, breakfast and lots of other things I've probably forgotten about. Oh yes, goody bags for participating pilots. We (locally based pilots) were invited to fly visiting American ladies across the Channel, and the instructors to give trial lessons to non-flying interested ladies. As a non-marketing person, getting sponsorship for a flying event in March was interesting, given the UK weather. However TV and local press all came up trumps and broadcast in the local region. Pooley, Sennheiser and MAF in particular were brilliant.

A posse of Americans came over to the UK for the event and we hosted an informal dinner the night before. Madame Organiser failed to turn up as she was still driving across France from some other mission, and missed her own welcome event. We got together and worked out who would fly with whom the next day, with careful regard to the ANO, licencing etc etc.

Come the day the weather started horribly so flying got off to a slow start. The event was boosted by the attendance of the genuinely lovely Annette Mason (wife of Pink Flloyd's Nick Mason) in her helicopter. We had ladies fly in from Wellesbourne Mountford and a few flyers made it across to us from France. The hangar presentations were excellent, especially the reminiscences of the airfield owner's mother, who had done some very intrepid flying in her former years. I've been flying from Headcorn for the better part of 15 years and her stories were all new to me.

Madame Organiser turned up, late again, and managed to be rude to most of us. She reorganised most of our arrangements, just as the weather finally cleared sufficiently to make the cross Channel foray. I ended up flying a redoubtable 77 year old lady, who weighted 17 stone, was diabetic but didn't tell us, and er, wasn't as sober as she might have been. The evidence was found by my other passenger, half way across the Channel. We were asked to fly over in stream, to arrive all at once; but the nominated speed was 90 knots which gave me a bit of a problem. Somewhere around Bolougne I caught the lead plane, a 172, carrying Harriet Quimby's purple flying suit clad lookalike. My friend in the 172 saw us appear under one wing, then the other, whilst I was under instructions from L2K tower to "remain behind". Harriet must arrive first! Finally I orbited and then stuck the gear down and left eveything hanging out so we could match his speed.

L2K had laid on traditional dancing, bands, local food to sample and once we'd made it through their rush of TV and other cameras we dropped off the Americans and sampled the fun before flying back solo to the UK. There was a formal dinner in L2K for the dignitories and Americans at the Westminster that night to round off the event.

The idea of the event was to introduce more women to flying, and to promote women flying by the publicity achieved in getting a large number to fly cross-Channel all in one go. There were other events in Canada and the USA. Whilst women-only things aren't really my bag, I'd say the event was a success and might have been even more so had it been held in the summer months. Finally, I'd point out this is all my personal view, and not that of Headcorn or the airfield owner."

[mary meagher]

Champ chump, thank you for passing on a delightful account of the hazards inherent on organising any flying event in Britain! Not only do you have the weather to deal with, but also the committee! Wonderful that all that mixed up traffic managed to cross Le Manche without serious incident.