The Achievement
On August 1, 1911, Harriet Quimby passed her pilot's test at the Hempstead Plains airfield on Long Island and received Aero Club of America license number 37. She was the first American woman to earn a pilot's license. Aviation was eight years old.
Eight months later, on April 16, 1912, she flew a Bleriot monoplane across the English Channel, from Dover, England to Hardelot, France. The crossing took approximately 59 minutes. She was the first woman to complete the flight.
Almost nobody noticed. The RMS Titanic had sunk the previous night. Newspapers devoted their front pages to the disaster. Quimby's Channel crossing was buried in the back pages or omitted entirely.
Life Before Flight
Quimby was a journalist before she was a pilot. She worked as a drama critic and feature writer for Leslie's Illustrated Weekly, one of the most widely read publications in the United States. She covered everything from theater reviews to reporting trips to Mexico and Europe.
She first saw an airplane fly at the 1910 Belmont Park International Aviation Tournament on Long Island. She decided on the spot to learn to fly.
She enrolled at the Moisant Aviation School, run by the family of the late aviator John Moisant. She trained in a Bleriot monoplane, a flimsy craft of wood, wire, and fabric with a top speed of about 50 miles per hour. Training meant learning to taxi, to make figure-eights on the ground, and finally to fly circuits at increasing altitudes. There were no dual-control training aircraft; students flew solo from the beginning.
Crossing the Channel
On the morning of April 16, 1912, Quimby took off from Dover in thick fog. She could not see the water below her. She navigated by compass, a tool she had learned to use only days before the flight. Her borrowed Bleriot had no other navigational instruments.
The crossing was dangerous. If the engine failed over the Channel, there was no way to survive a water landing in 1912. Louis Bleriot had made the first Channel crossing in 1909; several pilots had died attempting it since.
Quimby landed on a beach near Hardelot, France, approximately 25 miles south of her intended destination of Calais. Fishermen helped her pull the aircraft out of the sand. The entire crossing took about 59 minutes.
Overshadowed by the Titanic
The timing was devastating. The Titanic struck an iceberg on the night of April 14 and sank in the early hours of April 15. Quimby crossed the Channel on April 16. Newspapers around the world ran nothing but Titanic coverage for weeks.
Quimby's achievement, which would have been front-page news on any other day, received a fraction of the attention it deserved. This accident of timing has shaped her historical legacy. Many people who know the name Amelia Earhart have never heard of Harriet Quimby.
Death at the Boston Aviation Meet
On July 1, 1912, less than three months after her Channel crossing, Quimby flew at the Third Annual Boston Aviation Meet at Squantum airfield. She was carrying a passenger, William Willard, the event's organizer.
At approximately 1,500 feet over Dorchester Bay, the Bleriot monoplane suddenly pitched forward. Both Quimby and Willard were thrown from the open cockpit and fell to their deaths. The airplane, freed of their weight, glided down and landed relatively intact in shallow water.
She was 37 years old. Her total career in aviation had lasted less than a year.
Other Pioneers of the Sky
Bessie Coleman (1921): The first Black woman and first Native American to hold a pilot's license. No American flight school would admit her, so she learned French and traveled to France to train. She died in a plane crash in 1926 at age 34.
Amelia Earhart (1932): First woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, covering the distance from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, to a pasture near Derry, Northern Ireland, in 14 hours 56 minutes. She disappeared over the Pacific during a circumnavigation attempt in July 1937.
Jacqueline Cochran (1953): First woman to break the sound barrier, flying a Canadair Sabre at Mach 1 over Edwards Air Force Base. She also organized and directed the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) during World War II.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was the first woman pilot?
Raymonde de Laroche of France received the first pilot's license issued to a woman on March 8, 1910. Harriet Quimby was the first American woman, earning her license on August 1, 1911.
Was Amelia Earhart the first woman pilot?
No. Earhart's fame comes from being the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic (1932) and her 1937 disappearance, but she was not the first woman to fly.
Who was the first woman to fly across the English Channel?
Harriet Quimby, on April 16, 1912. The Titanic disaster the previous day overshadowed her achievement.
How did Harriet Quimby die?
She was thrown from her aircraft during the Boston Aviation Meet on July 1, 1912, at about 1,500 feet. She was 37.
Who was the first Black woman pilot?
Bessie Coleman, who earned her license in France on June 15, 1921, because no American school would admit her.