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Baroness Raymonde de Laroche (1886-1919)

The 8th of March 2010 marks the 100th anniversary of the issuing of the first pilots license to a woman, Baroness Raymonde de Laroche. She wasn't really a Baroness, just a plumber's daughter born Elise Deroche.
Elise was a reasonably well known actress, and the name Raymonde de Laroche was her stage name. Some accounts of the day say comedienne and others say lyricist (singer), but both terms these days translate roughly to actress. She was also a fashion icon with a style that was eagerly copied by women of the day.
Elise is described as a tall and shapely woman with expressive brown eyes and flamboyant personality.
The Baroness bit came when a reporter writing about her receiving her pilots license elaborated a bit, as journo's are want to do, and the title stuck.
There are two accounts of the beginnings of Elise's interest in flying. One is that when Wilbur Wright went to France in 1908 he demonstrated the Flyer at Le Mans. After the demonstration he gave rides to women in the crowd. Among those who flew with him was Elise and she then persuaded friend (some accounts say lover) Charles Voisin to teach her to fly. The other account was that Charles Voisin persuaded her to learn to fly over a romantic dinner.
Whilst there may be a some truth in both these accounts Elise was already a balloonist before either of these events took place. It seems Elise was one of those people that romantic stories get

built around, and as an actress Elise probably did little to dispel them.
The next story is that when Charles Voisin started to teach her to fly she was supposed to have started by learning to taxi with Charles walking beside her telling her what to do. Instead on her very first ground lesson she opened the throttle and lifted the Voisin biplane into the air, flew some 300 metres and then settled the plane gently back onto the ground.
The account by Charles Voisin's brother Gabriel was somewhat different. That account is that the Voisin instructor M. Chateau instructed her and she was an able student. The Voisin was a single seat aircraft and when Elise was deemed ready she was instructed to make the short flight described. But no-matter what the truth is Elise was a capably student.
On the day after her first flight Elise was flying circuits in an extremely competent manner. Remembering that the Voisin was a single seat aircraft and Elise had no dual instruction whatsoever this was an extraordinary achievement.
She did have one accident whilst training when on January 4th 1910 she clipped a tree with the wing of the Voisin and crashed. She received a broken collarbone and bruises.
The next month she went to Egypt with the Voisin brothers to compete in the Heliopolis air meet and came eighth out of twelve competitors.
On 8 March 1910 Elise became the first woman in the world to receive a pilot's licence, No 36, issued by the  Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (International Aeronautics Federation or F.A.I.).
By this time the press had given her the nickname la fernrne oiseau (The Bird Woman) but Elise had grown used to being a Baroness and stuck with that title.
After Baroness Raymonde de Laroche obtained her pilots license she went on a tour of Europe and Russia. In St. Petersburg, Russia, she gave a flying display for Tsar Nicholas II. In Budapest Elise won a flying competition because no-one else would attempted the 68-mile course.
In Normandy she crash landed during a storm suffering a concussion and another broken collarbone.
At Rheims, Elise was the only woman at the Seconde Grande Semaine. On the sixth day of the competition, she crashed breaking her arm and both legs. She claimed that another competitor had forced her down.
At that time many people maintained that women should not be flying because they could not handle emergencies and it was un-ladylike.
Continued