Thérèse Peltier

Who was Thérèse Peltier?

Thérèse Peltier was a French sculptor and aviator. Popularly believed to have been the first ever woman passenger in an airplane she should perhaps instead be recognised as the first woman to pilot a heavier-than-air craft. A friend of fellow sculptor Leon Delagrange when he became interested in aviation Peltier soon followed.

On 8 July 1908 in Turin Peltier flew as a passenger with Delagrange for a distance of 656 feet. However Henri Farman is reported to have flown with a Mlle P. Van Pottelsberghe in Ghent Belgium in late May.

Peltier also accompanied Delagrange to Italy and made a solo flight of 200 metres at a height of 2.5 metres at the Military Square in Turin. The exact date of this flight has not been ascertained at present but it was reported in the weekly Italian magazine L'Illustrazione Italiana of 27 September 1908.

When Delagrange died in an airplane accident, on 4 January 1910 at Bordeaux, Peltier left aviation forever.