HARRIET QUIMBY
Name: Harriet Quimby
Born: May 11, 1875 Arcadia, Michigan
Died: July 1, 1912 Squantum, Massachusetts
Occupation Aviator
Harriet Quimby (May 11, 1875 – July 1, 1912) was the first female to get a pilot
license in the United States. In 1911 (August 1, 1911), she earned the first US
pilot's certificate issued to a woman by the Aero Club of America, 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.
Quimby's career ended on July 1, 1912. She was flying in the Third Annual Boston
Aviation Meet at Squantum, Massachusetts. As a passenger was William Willard,
the event's organizer, in her brand-new, two-seat, Bleriot monoplane. The plane
unexpectedly pitched forward for reasons that are still unknown. Both Willard
and Quimby were ejected and fell to their deaths. Harriet Quimby was buried in
the Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York. The following year her remains
were moved to the Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York.
It is not known for certain, but the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome's restored and
flyable Anzani-powered Blériot XI, which bears the Blériot factory's serial
number 56, and is still on the US FAA national registry with registration number
N60094, could possibly be the aircraft that Quimby was flying in 1912 during the
Boston Aviation Meet. The previously wrecked aircraft that is now flying at Old
Rhinebeck was found, stored in a barn in Laconia, New Hampshire in the 1960s,
and fully restored to flying condition, most likely by Cole Palen, ORA's founder.
A 1991 postage stamp featured Quimby.
She is memorialized in two official Michigan historical markers, one in
Coldwater, and one at her birthplace in Manistee County, Michigan.
Name: Harriet Quimby
Born: May 11, 1875 Arcadia, Michigan
Died: July 1, 1912 Squantum, Massachusetts
Occupation Aviator
Harriet Quimby (May 11, 1875 – July 1, 1912) was the first female to get a pilot
license in the United States. In 1911 (August 1, 1911), she earned the first US
pilot's certificate issued to a woman by the Aero Club of America, 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.
Quimby's career ended on July 1, 1912. She was flying in the Third Annual Boston
Aviation Meet at Squantum, Massachusetts. As a passenger was William Willard,
the event's organizer, in her brand-new, two-seat, Bleriot monoplane. The plane
unexpectedly pitched forward for reasons that are still unknown. Both Willard
and Quimby were ejected and fell to their deaths. Harriet Quimby was buried in
the Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York. The following year her remains
were moved to the Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York.
It is not known for certain, but the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome's restored and
flyable Anzani-powered Blériot XI, which bears the Blériot factory's serial
number 56, and is still on the US FAA national registry with registration number
N60094, could possibly be the aircraft that Quimby was flying in 1912 during the
Boston Aviation Meet. The previously wrecked aircraft that is now flying at Old
Rhinebeck was found, stored in a barn in Laconia, New Hampshire in the 1960s,
and fully restored to flying condition, most likely by Cole Palen, ORA's founder.
A 1991 postage stamp featured Quimby.
She is memorialized in two official Michigan historical markers, one in
Coldwater, and one at her birthplace in Manistee County, Michigan.