Madame Marie Louise Driancourt (nee Martin) was born in Lyon on 17 December 1887, she died on 6 November 1914. She obtained her pilot's licence in 1911*, at Caudron brothers piloting school in RUE on the coast near Le Touquet in the north of France. Awarded certificate No.525, she was the fifth French woman to obtain a pilot's licence.¹ Mme Driancourt took part in several air meets including at Juvisy, Troyes, Toulon and Rheims**, between 1911 and the beginning of 1914***. She also took part in the Paris-Madrid Air Race** won by Jules Védrines on 26 May 1911. In March 1914 she suffered a very serious accident which would result in her death in November***. An earlier accident destroyed half her aeroplane, and grounded her for some time. The apparatus was rebuilt and she took up her flying activities again, until March 1914. Unfortunately, there exists very few mementos of Marie Louise Driancourt, in fact, at that time, very few women dared to pilot a dangerous machine like an aeroplane. This was very badly perceived by the family of her late husband and the majority of her photographs and newspaper articles were destroyed. RG/rf * 15 June 1911 ** Currently not verified. *** Research conducted by Dave Lam of Belgium suggests that Mme Driancourt flew only until April 1912 and probably died from Tuberculosis. See http://www.earlyaviators.com/edrianco.htm ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newpaper interview clipping courtesy of Régis Gatineau, grandson of Mme Driancourt. Written and published sometime between 2 April and 16 April 1912. Paris. Referenced event dates list at bottom of page. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ DOES A WOMAN HAVE THE NECESSARY QUALITIES TO MAKE IT IN AVIATION? A young aviatrix Mme Driancourt answers us boldly: yes, and endeavours to prove it. The daring air voyage from Paris-London which has just been achieved, with the aviator Hamel, a very young girl, Miss Davies, raises all enthusiasms. The feminists exult: If a woman can be a passenger full with 'cold-blood' as they say, [have the nerve, coolness, cool-headed] she lacks little of the thing to be an aviatrix! Those who find, to the contrary, that aviation is an anti-female sport, exult a similar lament: Women have just discovered, that they say, her true and single manner of flying: to be a passenger of an experienced and vigorous pilot, putting bravery to the test, able to face without weakening, the always possible danger. And here has returned in question this mystery raised already for a long time and what the recent death of the young Mlle Bernard made emotional: do women have the necessary qualities to make it in aviation? This enigma can be solved only by an aviatrix: I questioned Mme Driancourt. ~ Chez Madame Driancourt ~ [At Madame Driancourt's] There is nothing masculine about this small woman who in her long mourning veils resembles a bird half hidden under its wings. The face is irregular but full of expression. The large mouth says will, and, made deeper by the thick fringe of fair hair which goes down to her eyelids, eyes superb of spirit and of courage, similar to this azure which they dared to admire more closely than us, shine through long black eyelashes. She has all the grace of her sex and also her sensitivity, sounding drunk with enthusiasm, she prompts a little instinctive logic. She has moreover this not very widespread quality of women... ambition; she wants to give her life a goal, to "earn" it in order to be independent and fortunate and, because her ambition is conscious, reflected, she possesses will and courage. All these qualities she reveals them without thinking of it, while talking with humour and animation, often with a bit of emotion which she finishes in a smile. One still cannot fly as a vocation. The thing is too new - Mme Driancourt did it - as one imagines well that any woman was to do it - by enthusiasm. "I saw Blanchard² crash", she says to me, "I did not retain anything of the horror of his death, I understood the beauty of it, and that that sublime undertaking alone called for such devotion. I dreamed at once that I would have wings, me also, and that I would not fall. - You were not afraid? - Not for a minute! They put me on a machine... I was enraged because I found that it did not go quickly enough... finally one day I left straightforwardly. Imagine that I feel sea-sickness on the autobus... up high I felt very well in spite of the violent [wind] that slapped at my face and the drops of oil which were stuck to my skin: My engine whirred... it was safety, I listened to it with pleasure. I decended by gliding, in great silence, without a jolt... it was exquisite! She laughs and begins again: - As it is sad that there are sometimes crashes... in the end! - You have crashed? - But yes! - And your 'cold-blood' did not leave you? - Hold on! I felt as quiet as sitting in this chair, I said to myself: This is it, the end, take it on well! The fall started at a 100 meters height. I tried hard to direct it like a flight, and, seeing that I was over a group of people present, I went into the trees. My machine was broken... I was full of sorrow, it is my - toy! I regretted my two beach smash-ups much less ! - And your nerves, your nerves of a small sensitive woman... what does that do to you? - I get them sometimes at home, but I never take them along with me. - Are you never lacking physical strength? - It is not necessary to be very strong to take up aviation... a simple movement of ones finger is enough to control the entire machine! - And the sense of orientation that all men miraculously possess, and what the women almost always do not have? - It is true, I lose myself in the streets of Paris! Perhaps I would lose myself up high if I did not have my chart and a compass, but with them one very quickly learns how to aim and one does not fear anything anymore! I dared make a statement: - You know that you flout death. Are you right to expose yourself thus... Do you leave nobody behind you? She threw a glance at her clothes of mourning. - I am widowed, as you know. I have three girls that I adore. Be it me that arrived on misfortune, I would leave them with their grandparents who are wealthy and who like them with all their hearts. They would be as cherished as by their mommy. - Have they seen you flying? - But yes, and they say that later they will also take up aviation. While wait- ing they go up on chairs which they imagine to be aeroplanes and the eldest says to her sisters "Especially don't break it"... Forgive me, but it is a term that they are use to hearing on the air-field. They are darlings... oh! the nice manner that the little one has, who is three years old, to say to me when I have returned to the house: Bonjour, mon z'oiseau! [Hello, my bird] - Do you believe there is a future for women in aviation? - Why not? In my view, a well balanced woman of strong will possesses all the qualities necessary. She must therefore succeed and she will succeed, I am sure, if she manages to overcome the obvious ill-will of men. It is necessary that they let her prove to be reliable and if she is presented for some exhib- ition or demonstration that she does not unfortunately get the response too frequently: "No, we prefer a man!" "I am well decided to fight on until the end," finishes the audacious young woman, "I do not fear anything. I shall work as much as will be needed... I still have ten pairs of ribs to break - and all of my limbs!" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ¹First five French women to be awarded piloting certificates: 1. Baronnee De la Roche #36 - 8 Mar 1910 ---- 2. Marthe Niel #226 - 19 Sep 1910 ---- 3. Marie Marvingt #281 - 8 Nov 1910 ---- 4. Jeanne Herveaux #318 - 7 Dec 1910 ---- 5. Marie Louise Driancourt #525 - 15 June 1911 ²Aviator Fernand Blanchard died 26 Oct 1910 at Issy-Les-Moulineaux, Paris. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Translated from original source material by Rod Filan. 12/10/04 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dating this unique newspaper clipping: Nineteen year old Suzanne Bernard died while undergoing examination for her pilot's license on Sunday, 10 Mar 1912 at Étampes. She had successfully passed two of the tests when while attempting a sharp turn to the right the machine was caught by an gust of wind and flipped over. The Farman biplane fell 200 feet and Mlle Bernard was crushed beneath the motor. At the time of her death she was considered to be the youngest female aviator in France and her funeral on 12 Mar was well attended by military and sport aviators. A British woman, Eleanor Trehawke Davies became the first woman to cross the English Channel in an aeroplane when she flew across 2 April 1912, as a passenger with pilot, Gustav Hamel. 16 April 1912, Harriet Quimby solos the English Channel. She confided her plans to a British pilot, Gustav Hamel, who seemingly violated the confidence by flying an English woman, Eleanor Trehawke Davies, across the Channel on 2 April (possibly 1 April). But Davies had been only a passenger and the far greater glory of flying a plane across remained open to Quimby. On 19 April 1912, Paris taxi drivers go back to work after a 144-day strike which started 28 Nov 1911. ("La Grève des taxi = autos" [Taxi Strike = Cars] newspaper headline printed under Mme Driancout clipping.) * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Newpaper clipping courtesy of Régis Gatineau. Source: Unknown. Date: early 1912. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The aviation committee which gave Toulon a meeting with the district of Brunet, over the Christmas Holidays and New Year's Day, intends to organize a new week of aviation for the Whitsunday holidays [Seventh Sunday after Easter]. This date is favourable for the realization of this future week of aviation. The arsenal of aviators now officially acquired for the contest are: MM Motlard, Daucourt, Brindefono des Moultnais and Mme Driancourt. Toulonnais still remember the prowesses achieved by these last two at the aerodrome of Fondpré, during the Christmas meet. There is no doubt that with similar pilots this meeting will acquire the greatest success. It would even be a matter for Mme Driancourt to be competing for the Coupe Femina. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *