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You may not have heard her name before, but Sophie Blanchard was the first professional female aeronaut in HISTORY! She was born in 1778 in France and came to ballooning by her ballooning pioneer husband Jean-Pierre-François Blanchard, who was the first to cross the English Channel in 1785.
Madame Blanchard (Madeleine Sophie Armand), Aeronaut, Born Around 1778 in Paris, July 6, 1819
Entry Into The City Of Paris, Of His Majesty Louis XVIII King Of France And Navarre, May 4, 1814
Sophie took her first solo flight in 1805, making her the first woman to pilot a balloon. She became a balloon entertainer, experimenter, pioneer, and a fixture of the royal court. She included aerial stunts, pyrotechnics, long-distance, high-altitude, and parachuting. Here is a hand-colored engraving of her participating in the celebration for the entry of King Louis XVIII into Paris, May 4, 1814.
She tragically died in 1819 as a pioneer in aeronautic history when her hydrogen balloon caught fire, resulting in her entanglement in the balloon netting.
Find out more about Sophie’s story from this article in the Smithsonian Magazine.
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