Thérèse Peltier facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Thérèse Peltier
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Thérèse Peltier in 1908
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Thérèse Juliette Cochet
September 26, 1873 Orléans Loiret, France
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| Died | February 18, 1926 (aged 52) Paris, France
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| Nationality | French |
| Known for | Aviation, Sculpture |
Thérèse Peltier (1873 – 1926) was a talented French sculptor. She was also a very early aviation pioneer. Many people believe she was the first woman to ever fly as a passenger in an airplane. She might even have been the first woman to fly a plane herself! Thérèse was a good friend of another sculptor named Leon Delagrange. When he became interested in flying, Thérèse quickly followed him into the world of aviation.
Early Life and Art Career
Thérèse Peltier was born on September 26, 1873, in Orléans, France. Her father made and sold liquor. In 1893, she married Alfred Peltier, a doctor from Paris. She lived in Paris for most of her life.
Thérèse started taking sculpture lessons and showed her artwork in many art shows called "salons." In 1908, she won a special sculpture prize. This award came from the Union of Women Painters and Sculptors. This group was the first society in France just for female artists. Thérèse was especially good at making sculptures out of wax. In 1902, she and other wax sculptors, including Delagrange, were featured in a magazine called The Literary Digest.
Pioneering Aviation Flights
Thérèse Peltier made history on July 8, 1908, in Turin, Italy. She flew as a passenger with Leon Delagrange for about 200 meters (656 feet). Many people think she was the very first female passenger on an airplane. However, some reports say that Henri Farman might have flown with a Mlle P. Van Pottelsberghe in Belgium a bit earlier.
Delagrange taught Thérèse how to fly his Voisin 1907 biplane. She completed several solo flights, meaning she flew the plane by herself! Even though she never officially earned a pilot's license, she was a true pioneer. After just a few training sessions, she flew alone for the first time in Issy-le-Moulineaux, France. A famous aviation magazine, L'Aérophile, wrote about her amazing achievement:
The passenger was not illegal and, in the space of a flight, she became famous: Thérèse Peltier can be proud to be the first woman in the world to have taken to the skies… Four months ago in Issy-le-Moulineaux, Delagrange had embarked alongside his friend Henri Farman. Two men in the same ‘zinc,’ we had screamed madly. With a woman, we shout at the feat.
Also in 1908, Thérèse joined Delagrange when he set a new record for how long a plane could stay in the air. He flew for 30 minutes and 28 seconds! She also went with him to Italy for a series of flight shows in Turin and Rome. Thérèse even wrote about these events for French newspapers. During this trip, she made a solo flight of 200 meters (656 feet) at a height of 2.5 meters (7 feet). This happened at the Military Square in Turin. The exact date is not known, but an Italian magazine, L'Illustrazione Italiana, reported it on September 27, 1908.
In late 1908, Delagrange offered a prize of 100 francs. This money would go to the first woman pilot who could fly a plane for one kilometer. Thérèse reportedly started training to try and win this prize.
Leaving Aviation
Sadly, Leon Delagrange died in an airplane accident on January 4, 1910, in Bordeaux. After this tragic event, Thérèse Peltier stopped flying forever. She wrote a very sad letter to Henri Deutsch-de-la Meurthe, another aviation pioneer:
I am mired in my sorrow, lost, destroyed. We were from the same country, Leon and me. We had known each other as children. And for twelve years, despite everything that should have separated us, we had never left each other… He was my childhood friend, my master of art, the strength and balance of my life. I was ambitious, ardent in life. Everything seemed beautiful, interesting and cheerful because he was there and he loved me and I relied on him. And now there is nothing, nothing. The earth seems to me a black hole where I struggle like a prison. Remember that it fell before my eyes - far away, however, since when I arrived near it, I found only one corpse. There was no one there, neither friends, nor relatives. And his mechanics and I laid him in his coffin…
Death
Thérèse Peltier passed away in Paris on February 18, 1926.
See also
In Spanish: Thérèse Peltier para niños
