Entries in grey refer to aviation and world events not specific to women.
Birthdates of female pilots/groundcrew, etc. are not given individual entries, but listed in the first entry for each woman.
Reference works are cited by code numbers, identified in the Bibliography.
A replica 1911 Curtiss "pusher" biplane flies at an airshow.
Name
Date(s)
Notes
Bibliography
1910
1910
1910
1910
Therese Peltier
January 4, 1910
French.
Leon Delagrange is killed in an accident with his monoplane at Pau, while trying to win the Michelin cup. His protege Therese Peltier decides to give up flying.
Le-1
Raymonde de Laroche
January 4, 1910
French.
Laroche crash-lands during training (as many student pilots did.) She receives a broken collarbone and bruises.
Le-1
Raymonde de Laroche
February 10, 1910
French.
Laroche participates in the Heliopolis air meet in Egypt. 12 aviators compete, with five monoplanes and seven biplanes. On this day, Laroche flies 20 kilometers.
Le-1
Raymonde de Laroche
March 8, 1910
French.
Laroche is the first woman to take the test and receive a pilot's license, #36. This is awarded by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale.
Le-1
Helene Dutrieu
April 9, 1910
Belgian.
Helene Dutrieu pilots a plane designed by Roger Sommer into the air, and flies for 20 minutes.
Le-1
Hilda Hewlett
July 1910
English.
Born 1864 into a wealthy family, Hilda Herbert, marries Maurice Henry Hewlett in 1888. Givng birth to two children, meanwhile keeping up an avid sportslife - both she and her husband are bicycling enthusiasts, and when the motor car comes into fashion, she is the passenger and mechanic for Miss Hind, the only woman entered in the Land's End to John O'Groats Trial, in a Singer Tricar.
Hewlett had financed the training for engineer Gustave Blondeau to learn to fly. They purchase a Farman, name it the Blue Bird, take it to England, and open up the first flying school in England, the Hewlett-Blondeau School.
"From this unlikely location, three quarters of British aviation would emerge."
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Mrs. Gavin
July 1910
English.
Mrs. Gavin attends the Charles Lane Gliding School at Brooklands. The biplane glider slides down a rail in order to get airborne.
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Edith Maud Cook
July 10, 1910
English.
A show-woman who appeared under several names - depending on which company she was working for - such as Elsa Spencer, Viola Fleet, Viola Spencer-Kavanagh, Viola Spencer and Viola Kavagnag, she died on this day of injuries received five days earlier in a failed parachute jump.
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Lydia Zvereva
August 8, 1910
Russian.
Zvereva receives license #31.
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Helene Dutrieu
August 23, 1910
Belgian.
Dutrieu takes her test for her pilot's license test, but because of red tape will not receive pilot's license, #27 on November 25.
Le-1
Marthe Niel
August 29, 1910
French.
Born on December 29, 1880 in Pierpoint, Brittany.
Niel receives a pilot's license, #226. she passed her tests while flying a Koechlin airplane (built by Jean Paul Koechlin.)
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Blanche Stuart Scott
September 2 or 6, 1910
American
Born April 8, 1891 in Rochester, New York
The daugfhter of a wealthy veterinarian, Scott grew up as a "fresh brat" as she termed herself.
Scott "probably" makes her first flight on this day, at Hammondsport, New York. There are no observers for her to claim the record offically as the first American woman in the air.
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Bessica Raiche
September 16, 1910
American
Bessica Raiche's new airplane is wheeled out, and she makes numerous short flights - only going straight, for short distances, before the plane crashes.
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Bessica Raiche
September 26, 1910
American
Born 1896, Bessica Faith Medlar
Bessica Raiche, nee Medlar, trains at Mineola, Long Island, a popular place, and there are many witnesses to her flight.
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Bessica Raiche
October 13, 1910
American
Bessica Raiche is presented with a gold medal by Hudson Maxim of the Aeronautical Society of New York for being the first American woman to solo.
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Marie Marvingt
November 8, 1910
French.
Marving receives a pilot's license, #281.
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Helene Dutrieu
November 25, 1910
Belgian.
Dutrieu, who had taken her test for a pilot's license on August 23, is awarded pilot's license, #27 on this day.
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Marie Marvingt
November 27, 1910
French.
Marvingt makes a flight of 42 kilometers in 53 minutes, at that time a record for women.
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Lilian Bland
December, 1910
Irish.
Lilian Bland, "a member of one of Belfast's most prominent familiues," writes an article for the December issue of Flight, describing how she builds a glider, that will evolve into an airplane. When completed, she will call it the Mayfly.
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Jeanne Herveaux
December 7, 1910
French.
Born December 10, 1885
Herveaux receives a pilot's license, #318.
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Melli Beese
December 10, 1910
German.
Born Amélie Hedwig Beese, September 13, 1886.
On this day, Melli and her instructor, Norwegian Robert Thelen, make a flight. Due to mechanical failure the plane crashes, Melli breaks her foot. Her sister, Hertha von Grienberger, witnesses the accident and begs her sister to give up her dream of flying. Her father dies shortly afterwards of a heart attack. Beese is filled with grief, but due to an inheritance, now has the money to learn how to fly. However, she will have difficulty finding a new instructor, as Thelen will no longer teach her.
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Helene Dutrieu
December 22, 1910
Belgian.
Helene Dutrieu tries to win the "recently established" Coupe Femina. She takes off from Etampes in the mid-afternoon, and flies in circles for 60.8 kilometers, flown in one hour and nine minutes.
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1911
1911
1911
1911
Helene Dutrieu
1911
Dutrieu competes against men and wins the King of Italy Cup.
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Harriet Quimby
April, 1911
American.
Born May 11, 1875 in Coldwater, Michigan.
Harriet Quimby enrolls in the Moisant Aviation School, newly opened at Hempstead, Long Island.
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Mrs. Gavin
May 20, 1911
English.
The New York Evening World publishes an article stating that Mrs. Gavin - an excellent golfer - was the first English woman to fly - but this claim has been disputed.
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Jeanne Herveaux
May 28 - June 8, 1911
French.
Herveaux signs a contract with La Societe de l'Ecole Nationale d'Aviation in Lyons. She is to appear daily from May 28 - June 8, flying two exhibitions a day - one in the morning and one at night.
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Blanche Stuart Scott
June 11, 1910
American
Scott at this point is flying with Thomas S. Baldwin at Mineola, Long Island. She had trained on a Curtiss pusher, now she was learning on a faster plane.
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Marie-Louise Martin Driancourt
June 15, 1911
French.
Driancourt receives a pilot's license, #525.
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Mathilde Moisant
July 1, 1911
French-Canadian descent.
Mathilde begins training to become a pilot.
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Melli Beese
July 27, 1911
German.
Born Amélie Hedwig Beese, September 13, 1886.
Melli Beese, taking lessons at Johannisthal, in Berlin, flies for the first time alone.
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Harriet Quimby
July 31, 1911
American.
Born May 11, 1875 in Coldwater, Michigan.
The New York Evening Mail reports that "Miss Quimby Outdoes Rival in Flying Dips."
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Harriet Quimby
August 2, 1911
American.
Born May 11, 1875 in Coldwater, Michigan.
Quimby receives pilot's license, #37, having tested in front of the Aero Club of America representatives George F. Campbell-Wood and Baron Ladilad D'Orcy. She is the first American woman to earn her pilot's license.
Note, the text of Le-1 says she received her license on August 1, the index says August 2. McL-1 also states August 1, 1911.
Le-1, McL-1
Jeanne Herveaux
August 11, 1911
French.
Herveaux flies her Bleriot, with a Gnome motor, for 1 hr 45 min, 101 kilometers at 600 meters altitude, in an attempt to win the Coupe Femina. However, Dutrieu wins the prize with her feats.
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Mathilde Moisant
August 14, 1911
French-Canadian descent.
Moisant takes her pilot's license test in front of Baron Ladilas D'Orcy and William Bluet.
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Mathilde Moisant
August 17, 1911
French-Canadian descent.
Born September 13, 1878, in either Manteno, IL or Earl Park, In
Moisant receives pilot's license, #44, at the age of 33. She is the second American woman to earn a license, following her friend Harriet Quimby.
(Her brother was John Moisant, who ran an aviation school before his death in a crash on December 31, 1910.)
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Lydia Zvereva
August 22, 1911
Russian.
Born in 1890.
Zvereva receives pilot's license, #31, from the Russian Aviation Flying School at Gatchina.
The plane she flies is a Farman.
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Hilda Hewlett
August 18, 1911
English.
On this day, Mrs. Hilda Hewlett takes the tests to earn her pilot's license. She will become the first Englishwoman to do so. She is 47 years old.
She will teach flying at her school (founded in 1910) but when it is closed in 1912 for construction, she will not resume flying. However, she will run an airplane construction business called Omnia Works for many years (and many of their planes will fly during WWI), until retiring and moving to New Zealand.
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Hilda Hewlett
August 29, 1911
English.
Hewlett receives pilot's license, #122.
Le-1
Melli Beese
September 13, 1911
German.
Beese receives a pilot's license, #115.
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Mathilde Moisant
September 23, 1911
American.
Moisant participates in the international aviation meet held at Nassau Boulevard, New Jersey. Four women pilots are to appear, but the publicity focuses on: Claude GRahame-White, Harry Atwood, Earle Ovington, T.O.M. Sopworth and Grorge Batty.
The women participate in events for the Rodman Wanamaker Trophy, "offered to members of the fairer sex."
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Melli Beese
September 26, 1911
German.
Melli Beese competes with men at the Autumn Fly at Johannisthal. She is ostracized by the other, male pilots until her friend Charles Boutard flies with her, and then Alfred Pietschker. She sets a women's world record for endurance flying on this day - 2 hours and 9 minutes.
Le-1
Melli Beese
September 27, 1911
German.
Melli Beese continues to compete in the Autumn Fly In.
Le-1
Melli Beese
September 28, 1911
German.
Melli Beese continues to compete in the Autumn Fly In. However, the weather is bad this day, and Hellmuth Hirth announces that Beese will not fly, because "as chief pilot for Rumpler, he could not be responsible for the machine she had on loan." Beese believes this is just a ruse to prevent her from achieving first place in the endurance trials. [She would eventually end up in 5th place. Captain Paul Engelhard is killed in a crash during this meet.]
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Eudocie V. Anatra
October 3, 1911
Russian.
Anatra receives license #54 from the Russia Aviation Flying School at Gatchina. She will open up a flying school in 1912, with the male flyer Naumov. One of their students will be Eugenie Shakhovskaya, who will complete her training in Germany.
Le-1
Beatrice Deryck
October 10, 1911
French.
Deryck receives pilot's license, #652.
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Bozena Láglerová
October 10, 1911
Czech .
Laglerova receives license #37 from the Austrian Aero Club. She was the first female student of Hans Grade, and had begun her training in the spring of 1911.
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Bozena Láglerová
October 19, 1911
Czech .
Laglerova receives license #125 from the German Aero Club.
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Bozena Láglerová
October 22, 1911
Czech .
Flying in Czechoslovakia, at Kladno-Krocehlavy, near Prague, she crashes, but the plane is repairable and she is only slightly injured.
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Mathilde Moisant
November 1, 1911
American.
Moisant sails with the Moisant group for Mexico City, to attend an aviation meet to celebrate the inaugeration of President-elect Madero. Harriet Quimby and Andre Houpert are also in this group, which barnstorms through Mexico.
Le-1
Cheridah de Beauvoir Stocks
November 7, 1911
English.
Born in 1887 in Somerset
Stocks receives pilot's license, #153, from the Royal Aro Club. She had trained at the Grahame-White school at Hendon. She learnned on a Farman biplane, and would later fly a Blériot monoplane.
Le-1
Beatrice Deryck
November 12, 1911
Indonesian national.
Flew in a balloon on this day with Mme Gustave Goldschmidt..
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Lyubov Golanchikova
December 29, 1911
Russian.
Golanchikova receives license #56, flying a Farman biplane at Gatchina.
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1912
1912
1912
1912
Bessica Raiche
1912
American
Bessica and her husband have moved to Chicago. Bessica organizes the US's first pilot-instruction class exclusively for women. However, this class does not last very long, and later in the year the Raiches move to California, where Bessica takes up her medical practice (having a degree in medicine from Tufts Medical School).
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Melli Beese
January, 1912
German.
Melli Beese opens a flying school, with Charles Boutard and Hermann Reichelt as partners. Financial support is provided by Melli's wealthy mother, among others. The school will last for a while, but hardly make much profit. Soon, with preparations for a possible war, private flying schools such as hers will be forced out of business.
In addition, Beese will marry a Frenchman, Charles Boutard, and thus assumes his citizenship. During the war, she is regarded as "the enemy." [See December 22, 1925]
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Lilly Steinschneider
1912
Hungarian.
Steinschneider receives license #4.
Le-1
Blanche Stuart Scott
February 17 -18, 22, 23-25, 1912
American
Blanche Scott flies in an air show, billed as the "tomboy of the air." At this point in her career she earns $5,000 a week.
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Winnie Buller
May 3, 1912
English.
Born in Bacton, Norfolk
Buller receives pilot's license, #848, from Breguet School at Douia, France.
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Julia Clark
June 11, 1912
American.
Clark receives pilot's license, #133.
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Harriet Quimby
July 1 - 7, 1912
American.
Harriet Quimby participates in the 1912 Harvard-Boston Aviation Meet at Squantum Airfield, which also features Lincoln Beachey, Charlie Hamilton, arnum T. Fish, Earle L. Ovington, Paul Peck and Blanche Scott.
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Harriet Quimby
July 7, 1912
American.
Harriet Quimby dies when first her passenger and then she is thrown out of the newly designed Bleriot she is piloting on the last day of the 1912 Harvard-Boston Aviation Meet. (Seatbelts will not come into common usage until 1913, when pilots start doing loop the loops.
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Katherine Stinson
July 19, 1912
American.
Katherine Stinson takes the tests to earn her pilot's license.
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Katherine Stinson
July 24, 1912
American.
Stinson, who had tested for her license on july 19, is officially given her pilot's license, #148, by the Aero Club of America. She will spend the next couple of months at Cicero Field, making practice flights.
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Jeanne Pallier
August 2, 1912
French.
48 year old Pallier taes the test for her pilot's license. She "astonished the aviation world by flying over Paris at a height of 700 meters for her distance flight." She will be awarded her license on Sept 6, 1912. She trained on an Astra biplane, although she soloed in a smaller model.
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Eugenie Shakhovskaya
August 6, 1912
Russian.
Born in 1889, a princess
Shakhovskaya, who had trained at Gatchina, flew with Vladimir Lebedev in Russia. On this day, she and Karl Hackstetter, her navigator, arrive arrive in Berlin from St. Petersburg after a 24-hour flight.
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Eugenie Shakhovskaya
August 16, 1912
Russian.
Shakhovskaya receives license #274, licensed by the German Aero Club, at Johannisthal airfirld near Berlin. She had begun her training in Russia, at the school run by Eudocie V. Anatra.
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Jeanne Pallier
September 6, 1912
French.
48 year old Pallier receives pilot's license, #1012. She had completed her test on August 2, 1912.
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Charlotte Möhring
September 7, 1912
German.
Möhring, flying a Grade monoplane, receives pilot's license, #285.
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Bernetta A. Miller
September 25, 1912
American.
Miller receives pilot's license, #173.
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Raymonde de Laroche
September 25, 1912
French
Charles Voisin (pilot and aircraft designer) and Raymonde de Laroche are involved in a car accident, and Voisin dies.
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Raymonde de Laroche
November 19, 1912
French
Raymonde writes a lettr to her friend Jacques Mortane, telling him she is learning to fly a Sommer biplane at Mourmelon, outside Paris, and that she intends to try for the Coupe Femina. The Sommer is a biplane. By the next year she will absndon the Sommer for a Farman biplane.
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Ruth Law
November 20, 1912
American.
Law receives pilot's license, #188.
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Lyubov "Luba" Golanchikova
November 21, 1912
Russian.
Golanchikova, hired by C. MacKenzie Kennedy , friend of Anthony Herman Fokker, to fly a Fokker, sets a women's world record for altitude in a Fokker eindecker, with a flight of 2200 meters.
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1913
1913
1913
1913
Rosina Ferrario
January 3, 1913
Italian.
Ferrario receives license #203, from the Italian Aero Club. She flew a monoplane. Ferrario was the only Italian woman awarded a license before the War.
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Eugenie Shakhovskaya
April ?, 1913
Russian.
In Germany, Shakhovskaya, with Wssewolod as her passenger, takes off in a Wright biplane, "possibly a new model." The plane loses power and crashes. Wssewowold is killed, Eugenie is injured but recovers.
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Helene de Plagino
June 4, 1913
French.
Plagino receives a pilot's license, #1349.
She was the daughter of a diplomat stationed in Bucharest.
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Marthe Betenfeld Richer
June 4, 1913
French.
Born on April 15, 1889 , at Blamont in Meurthe-et-Moselle
Richer receives pilot's license, #1369.
Betenfeld had married Henri Richer, a wealthy attorney, when she was 22. (Her husnand will be killed at Verdun.)She acted as a spy for the French during WWI, and during WWII.
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Martha Behrbohm
June 4, 1913
German.
Behrbohm, who trained at Johannisthal with Paul Schwandt, as well as Hans Grade, receives pilot's license, #427.
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Katherine Stinson
July ?, 1913
American.
Katherine Stinson, billed as "the Flying Schoolgirl" performs for two weekends at Cincinnati's Coney Island Park, flying with the pilot A.C. Beech. She flew a new Wright flier.
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Lyubov "Luba" Golanchikova
July 23, 1913
Russian.
French aviator Léon Letort and Luba attempt to win a 10,000 mark prize for making the first flight from Berlin to Paris in one day. They leave on this day from Berlin in Letort's plane - a Morane - at 4:30 am, but bad weather delays them and it takes them 4 days to reach Paris.
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Florence Seidell
August 20, 1913
American.
Seidell receives pilot's license, #258.
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Helena P. Samsonova
August 25, 1913
Russian.
Born in 1890.
Samsonova receives license #167 from the Imperial Moscow Aviation Flying School.
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Carmen Damedoz
September 5, 1913
French.
Damedoz receives pilot's license, #1449.
She flew a Sommer biplane. Damedoz was also a member of the Stella society (balloonists.)
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Florence Madera
September 5, 1913
?.
Madera receives pilot's license, #1421.
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Cheridah de Beauvoir Stocks
September 20, 1913
English.
Stocks, who has flown enthusiastically since gaining her pilot's license, is a passenger on this occasion, as Sydney Pickles takes her on a flight in a new model - a Champel biplane. Pickles crashes the plane and sustains a broken leg, Stocks is unconscious for several days, and has back injuries. She is forced to give up flying, due to a paralyzed right side.
English.
Buller takes lessons at the Caudron School at Hendon, learning to fly a new airplane from France.
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Lydia Zvereva
May 19, 1914
Russian.
Born in 1890.
Zvereva, flying a Morane monoplane at an airshow in Riga, and is the first woman to perform a loop. (Male aviators to do this before her were Peter Nesteroff and Aldolphe Pégoud.)
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Sophie A. Dolgorukaya
June 5, 1914
Russian.
Trained in France with Leon Delagrange. She received her pilot's license in Russia, No. 234.
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Else Haugk
June 6, 1914
Swiss.
Haugk (last name also sometimes spelled Haugh), a Swiss, travelled to Gemany to train, and earned liscense #785. She had trained on a Rumpler Taube, at the Hansa Fllying Works.
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Gaetane Picard
July 2, 1914
French.
Picard receives pilot's license, #72 for aeroplanes and hydro-aeroplanes - a separate category from civil pilots.
She had trained at the Blériot scool in Buc.
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Gaétane Picard
July 10, 1914
French.
Picard receives pilot's license, #1653.
She had trained at the Blériot scool in Buc.
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Sophie A. Dolgorukaya
June 5, 1914
Russian.
Dolgorukaya receives license #234.
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Elsa Haugk
June 6, 1914
Swiss.
Haugk receives pilot's license, #785.
Le-1
Mrs. Richberg Hornsby
June 24, 1914
American.
Hornsby receives pilot's license, #301.
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Margaret Stinson
August 12, 1914
American.
Stinson receives pilot's license, #303.
Le-1
1915
1915
1915
1915
Nadeshda Degtereva
1915
Russian.
According to Lebow in Before Amelia, Degtereva disguised herself as a man and flew combat missions during WWI, on the Galician front. She is "the first woman pilot injured in combat."
Le-1
Katherine Stinson
1915
American.
The Stinson family makes plans to open up an aviation school.
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1916
1916
1916
1916
Katherine Stinson
May, 1916
American.
Katherine Stinson develops an act where she races automobile racer Dario Resta. "Spectators watched with disbelief as Stinson dropped to within six feet of the track, flying sixty miles an hour, to cross the finish line ahead of her competitor."
Le-1
Lydia Zvereva
May 1, 1916
Russian.
Born in 1890.
At the age of 26, Zvereva contracted typhoid fever in April, and dies on this day. She was buried in Alexander Nvetski Monastery, and an aerial formation flew overhead in her honor.
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Dorothy Rice Peirce
August 23, 1916
American.
Peirce receives pilot's license, #561.
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Katherine Stinson
October 14, 1916
American. The Billboard reports that Katherine Stinson's contract at Richmond was for "the largest amount paid any aviator for a fair engagement this season."
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Helen Hodge Harris
November 12, 1916
American.
Harris receives pilot's license, #633.
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Ruth Law
November 20, 1916
American.
Ruth Law sets a non-stop distance record by flying 590 miles from Chicago to Hornell, New York.
Mo-1
Katherine Stinson
November 25, 1916
American.
Katherine Stinson and her entourage - Frank Champion, her mechanic, and Emma, her mother, set sail for the Orient where Katherine will be touring for six months.
Le-1
1917
1917
1917
1917
.
April 16, 1917
United States of America declares war on Germany.
Pl-1
1918
1918
1918
1918
.
May 15, 1918
President Woodrow Wilson witnesses the first airmail flight to take off from Washington, DC. (The pilot will fly off in the wrong direction and crash 20 miles a way.)
Pl-1
.
November 11, 1918
World War I comes to an end.
African-American soldiers and pilots, who had been treated as equals in France, return to the United States to find themselves relegated back to second-class citizens.
Pl-1
1919
1919
1919
1919
.
January 29, 1919
Sunday
The Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, which institutes Prohibition.
Pl-1
Ruth Law
June 10, 1919
American
Ruth Law sets a new altitude record for women at 4,270 meters.
Le-1
Raymonde de Laroche
June 12, 1919
French
Laroche resets a new altitude record for women at 4,800 meters.
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Raymonde de Laroche
July 18, 1919
French
visits Le Crotoy airport, and flies as a passenger with test pilot M. Barrault. The plane crashes while coming in for a landing, and both Laroche and the pilot are killed.
Le-1
Bessie Coleman .
July 27, 1919
Sunday
The Chicago Race Riot begins on this day, and will last until August 3. Bessie Coleman's neighborhood is one of those affected by the Riot.
(See complete details at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Race_Riot)
