Harriet Quimby was the first major female pilot in the United States. In 1911, she earned the first US pilot's license issued to a woman, and less than a year later flew across the English Channel, the first woman to do so. Although Quimby lived only to age 37, she had a major impact on women's roles in aviation. She was a true pioneer and helped break down stereotypes about women's abilities during the first decade of flight.

Little is known of her early life other than that she was born to a family of farmers on May 11, 1875, near Coldwater, Michigan. After her family moved to San Francisco, California in the early 1900s, she became a journalist. She moved to New York City in 1903 to work for Leslie's Illustrated Weekly, which published over 250 articles of hers over her 9 year career there. She became interested in aviation in 1910, when she attended the Belmont Park International Aviation Tournament on Long Island, New York and met John Moisant, a well-known American aviator and operator of an early flight school, and his sister Matilde. Harriet asked John to teach her and his sister to fly. On August 1, 1911, Quimby took her pilot's test and became the first U.S. woman to earn a pilot's license. Matilde Moisant soon followed and became the nation's second licensed female pilot.

On April 16, 1912, Quimby took off from Dover, England, en route to Calais, France and made the flight in 59 minutes, landing about 25 miles (40 km) from Calais on a beach in Hardelot, France . She had become the first woman to fly the English Channel. Very few people learned of her accomplishment because the Titanic had sunk two days before and Quimby's story got relegated to the last page, if it was covered at all.

Quimby's career ended sadly on July 1, 1912. Flying in the Third Annual Boston Aviation Meet at Squantum, Massachusetts , with William Willard , the event's organizer aboard, her brand-new, two-seat, Bleriot monoplane unexpectedly pitched forward for reasons that are still unknown. Both Willard and Quimby were ejected and fell to their deaths in an accident that publicized the importance of wearing seat belts.

Source

• Excerpted from US Government Centennial of Flight Commission article by David H. Onkst http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Explorers_Record_Setters_and_Daredevils/
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