Hélène Dutrieu (July 10, 1877 - June 26, 1961), the Girl Hawk of Aviation, was an aviation pioneer and the fourth woman licensed to fly in Europe and the world (She was the first Belgian woman licensed as a pilot). Prior to being an aviator, she was an accomplished track bicycle racer, racing for the Simpson Lever Chain team. She was also an ambulance driver and directed a military hospital.

Accomplishments

• 1897 and 1898 - As a cyclist, wins World Championship Track Speed in Ostend. Nicknamed "La flèche humaine" or "the Human Arrow".
• 1908 hired by the Clément Bayard factory to be the first pilot of la Demoiselle - a new ultralight airplane.
• 1909 - First flew solo in France
• April 9, 1909 - Circled the Belfied tower at 400m on a 45km route to Bruges, Belgium. Caused a stir by flying with her corset.
• September 1910 - Flew non-stop from Ostend to Bruges, Belgium.
• 1911 - Traveled to the United States to compete for the Rodman-Wanamaker trophy at Nassau Boulevard Airfield in Garden City, New York. She may have been unable to participate due to mechanical difficulties with her Henry Farman biplane.
• 1911 Won the Coup du Roi (King's Cup) in Florence, Italy.
• December 31, 1911 - Won France's Coupe Femina for the women's world nonstop flight record (158 miles in 178 minutes).
• September 1912 - Ouchy-Lausanne, Switzerland, won the seaplane competition.
• 1913 - The French government awarded her the Legion of Honor
• 1914 - With the outbreak of World War I, most women pilots were grounded. Hélène volunteered to join France's Air Patrol and was reportedly accepted to fly reconnaissance missions over German troops from an airbase in Paris (though no documentation of this fact has ever been found).
• Général Février puts her in charge of the ambulances of l’Hopital Messimi. She goes on to become thedirector of l’hopital de campagne à Val-de Grâce.
• 1922 Becomes a journalist and marries Pierre Mortier.

External links

• National Air and Space Museum bio
• Photo and caption
• Femmes remarquables... Hélène Dutrieu
• Snippet from an interview in Streaming Audio.
  "I am asking a mechanician what needs to be done to fly and he replies I've been told that one needs to pull to climb and push to descend."
  (Tr. by Steve Osborne)