Harriet Quimby L dH (abt. 1875 - 1912)

Born about 11 May 1875 in Michigan, United States

Died 1 Jul 1912 at about age 37 in Squantum, Nantucket, Massachusetts, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Geoffrey Raebel [send private message]

Biography

Harriet was born about 1882. Taught to fly by Andre Houpert (Moisant School) before 1912 US Pilot Licence # 37 First woman to fly across the English Channel (flying east from Dover, (missed Calais due fog, landed Hardelot. Co-incident to the Titanic's sinking that night news of her flight was drowned out.

On July 1, 1912, she flew in the Third Annual Boston Aviation Meet at Squantum, Massachusetts.[1] Although she had obtained her ACA certificate to participate in ACA events, the Boston meet was an unsanctioned contest. Quimby flew out to Boston Light in Boston Harbor at about 3,000 feet (910 m), then returned and circled the airfield.[13]

William A. P. Willard, the organizer of the event and father of the aviator Charles F. Willard, was a passenger in her brand-new two-seat Bleriot monoplane. At an altitude of 1,000 feet (300 m) the aircraft unexpectedly pitched forward for reasons still unknown. Both Willard and Quimby were ejected from their seats and fell to their deaths, while the plane "glided down and lodged itself in the mud".[7]

Harriet Quimby was buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York. The following year her remains were moved to the Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York.[14] A cenotaph to Quimby, the Harriet Quimby Compass Rose Fountain, stands at Pierce Brothers/Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in Burbank, California. Located close to the cemetery's Portal of the Folded Wings, a shrine containing the ashes of aviation pioneers, the Quimby fountain's plaque reads:

Harriet Quimby became the first licensed female pilot in America on August 1, 1911. On April 16, 1912, she was the first woman to fly a plane across the English Channel. She pointed the direction for future women pilots including her friend, Matilde Moisant, buried at the Portal of the Folded Wings.

Sources

• Aviations Magnificent Gamblers - Landsowne Press - 1961

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Quimby