Helene Dutrieu


She learned flying in a Demoiselle plane, as she was under contract to the French Clément-Bayard factories. They built the "Demoiselle 20 and 21" types under license! The original Santos-Dumont "Demoiselle" was the number 19! It is widely reported that she started flying the "Demoiselle" in December, 1908, without having taking any flight lessons or gaining any experience! The result was that she crashed! Next she flew a "Sommer" plane, and crashed it as well in Russia.  After some flight lessons in France, she made her solo flight on August 23, 1910 in a Farman III. For some reason, the examiners asked her to take the test over again! She refused saying that she had to be in Belgium for a Exhibition Flight. This was at Blankenberge on September 3, 1910. There she took her mechanic Béaud as a passenger and made a flight from Blankenberge to Bruges and return!


Size: 5098px × 3678px
Photo credit: © The Protected Art Archive / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: aeroplanes, aircraft, airplanes, aviation, aviator, bayard, bi-planes, biplan, biplanes, clement, dutrieux, flight, fly, madamoiselle, pilots, planes, russia, sommer