Harriet Quimby is classified among the most famous American female aviators. Her career as a pilot did not last long but was undeniably heroic. She was the first American lady to become a licensed pilot and the first woman to fly across the English Channel. She was also a movie screenwriter. Even though she died very young yet Harriet played a key influence upon the role of women in aviation.
Harriet was born in Arcadia, Michigan, on May 1, 1875. It is said that her parents, William and Ursula, were wealthy and educated her in America. Her only sibling was her older sister Kittie, while there were others before them who died due to various diseases. During the early 1900s, Harriet and her family moved to San Francisco, California and there in 1902, she took a job as a writer for the Dramatic Review. The following year she moved to New York City where she began writing for Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly and more than 250 of her articles were published over a span of nine years. Her articles ranged in scope from household tips (“Home and the Household”) to advice for women on ways to find employment, budget their income, live prudently on a modest income in a safe apartment and ways to repair their automobiles themselves.
Harriet had always dreamt of becoming a journalist, but her plans changed after she had attended the Belmont Park International Aviation Tournament on Long Island, New York, in 1910. There, she met Matilde Moisant and her brother John (a well-known American aviator and operator of a flight school at Mineola), who was mainly responsible for developing her interest in aviation.
Along with her friend Matilde, Harriet learnt to fly at a school in Hempstead, New York, becoming the first U.S. woman to earn a pilot’s certificate. Matilde soon followed and became the nation’s second certified female pilot. Soon after Harriet had received her pilot license, she joined the Moisant International Aviators, an exhibition team. With the Moisant group she travelled to Mexico and became the first woman to fly over Mexico City.
In 1912, Harriet borrowed a 50-horsepower Bleriot monoplane from Louis Bleriot and began preparations for an English Channel flight. Her consultant, Gustav Hamel, unsure of a woman’s ability to make such a flight, offered to dress in her purple flying suit and make the flight for her.
She refused and on April 16, 1912 flew from Dover, England, to Hardelot, France (about 25 miles south of Calais), she made quite a name and returned successfully to the U.S.
After three months, on July 1, 1912 Harriet made her last flight at the Harvard-Boston Aviation Meet where she met with a tragic accident. She was flying in the Bleriot with William Willard when suddenly the plane went into a nose dive. Willard was thrown from his seat after which the aircraft flipped over, throwing Harriet out too. Both Quimby and Willard fell and died at Dorchester Harbour. Ironically, the aircraft landed with little damage.
