Ladies of Skydiving

The Early Years

1799---1942

The early history of women safely falling from great heights may have begun in China more than a thousand years ago with acrobats using two large conical bamboo hats to descend safely. The first Western woman in modern history to do so is the wife of the first man to safely use a frame-less parachute.

Biographies

Monsieur and Madame Garnerin

Jeanne-Geneviève Garnerin
(1775–1847)

Jeanne-Geneviève Labrosse was born in Paris France in 1775.
The exact date of her birth, details about her parents, any siblings and her childhood are unclear.
On the historic day, October 22, 1797, when André-Jacques Garnerin performed his hydrogen balloon flight at Parc Monceau, Paris, Jeanne witnessed him make his first parachuting descent and approached him upon landing to become his pupil.
Jeanne- Geneviève had also fallen that day, fallen in love with André-Jacques; they soon became husband and wife.

Finding in André-Jacques a kindred spirit, Jeanne-Geneviève did indeed become his pupil, and his wife, the first woman balloon pilot and first lady parachutist. Jeanne proved herself a natural balloonist and was the first woman to undertake a solo ascent, making Jeanne Geneviève Garnerin the first female aircraft pilot! Motivated by her successful balloon flights, she set her sights on another ambition, determined to be the first woman to parachute down from a balloon to the earth. Using her tutor's tried and tested methods and with much fanfare, Jeanne made her first descent on October 12, 1799, proving beyond a doubt to the press and to the public that they need not fear about the possible damage high altitudes and rapid descents might cause to the “delicate female constitution.”

Jeanne-Geneviève became the first woman to parachute, falling from a height of 900 meters, becoming an aeronautical pioneer and an instant celebrity. This first female parachutist dropped from a balloon using an apparatus that her husband had developed. Her achievement was celebrated throughout France and the continent of Europe.
André-Jacques held the position of Official Aeronaut of France and was unofficially known as the “Aérostatier des Fêtes Publiques” The couple took advantage of a lull in hostilities during the Peace of Amiens and traveled to England in 1802. They completed a number of demonstration flights there. Their first flight, ascending from the Volunteer Ground in North Audley Street, Grosvenor Square included a parachute descent by André-Jacques into a field near St Pancras. Once again, the public demonstrations proved enormously popular, drawing massive crowds. Jeanne outdid herself when she accompanied her husband on his third flight over London; she performed a parachute drop from an estimated 8,000 feet. Having a keen eye for public relations, André-Jacques had previously invited the young and beautiful Citoyenne Henri for a balloon trip in the summer of 1798, so he knew the promotional value of having the attractive Jeanne- Geneviève falling from his balloons. Dropping from a height of 8,000 feet, much to the wonder and amusement of the Londoners, was truly phenomenal and awe inspiring. When the war between France and Great Britain resumed in 1803, the couple were forced to leave England and return to France, where she continued to make flights and descents. Jeanne-

Geneviève Garnerin then became the official Aerostiere de Fêtes Publiques for the aeronautical spectacles arranged for Napoleon’s benefit. André-Jacques died in 1823, Jeanne retired from the ballooning and parachuting, passing the reins on to her niece Élisa. After retiring from show business, ballooning and parachuting, Jeanne- Geneviève took on a new career path, one more down to earth, as co-proprietress of a Table ‘dhote. She ran the restaurant together with another heroine from the days of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, Marie-Thérèse Figueur, Madame Sans-Gêne, one of the very few women who had fought in the wars for twenty seven years without disguising her gender. Jeanne-Geneviève (Labrosse) Garnerin died on June 14, 1847 in Paris, at the age of seventy-two. On October 17, 2006, rue Jeanne-Garnerin was named in her honor in the town of Wissous in France.

Sophie Blanchard(1778 –1819)

Although she may have never actually jumped in a parachute herself, French aeronaut Sophie Blanchard did, during the turn of eighteenth/nineteenth century, perform early parachuting experiments, parachuting dogs and launching pyrotechnic parachutes from hot-air and hydrogen balloons. Sophie’s chief rival at the time was Élisa Garnerin- first professional woman parachutist and neice of Andre-Jacques Garnerin, who is credited with being the inventor of the frameless parachute, first parachutist and husband of the first lady parachutist, Sophie Blanchard is believed to be the first lady professional balloonist. She was a favorite of both Napoleon Bonaparte and Louis XVIII. In 1819, she become the first woman to be killed in an aviation accident. Born Marie Madeleine-Sophie Armant at Trois-Canons on March 25th 1778 near Yves France, Sophie married Jean-Pierre Blanchard, a early balloon designer and one of the first men to fly over the English Channel in a hydrogen balloon, in 1802. Sophie made her first ascent two days after Christmas 1804 with Blanchard in Marseilles. Sophie was not the first woman balloonist; (Elizabeth Thible made an ascent to entertain Gustav III of Sweden in Lyon on June 4, 1784). Sophie was the first woman to pilot her own balloon and is credited as the first lady professional balloonist. In 1809, Sophie’s husband Jean-Pierre suffered a heart attack, fell from his balloon and was killed in the Hague. After his death, beset by debt, Sophie continued to make ascents, specializing in night flights, often staying aloft all night, sometimes sleeping in her balloon. She once passed out and nearly froze at altitude above Turin after ascending to avoid a hailstorm. She nearly drowned after dropping into a swamp in Naples. Sophie made long-distance trips in Italy, crossed the Alps and did everything her husband had hoped to do himself. She paid off his debts and made a reputation for herself. She seemed to accept the risks of her career. Despite the extreme danger, she would set off pyrotechnics beneath her hydrogen balloon. She became a favorite of Napoleon’s, who made her the “Aeronaut of the Official Festivals.” Napoleon also appointed her Chief Air Minster of ballooning, and she worked on plans for an aerial invasion of England by French troops in balloons. When the French monarchy was restored four years later, King Louis XVIII named her “Official Aeronaut of the Restoration.”On the evening of July 6, 1819, at the age of 41, Marie Madeleine-Sophie Armant Blanchard made her last flight. A crowd of thousands had gathered for a show at the Tivoli Gardens in Paris. Sophie rose from the lawn to music and fireworks. She had planned to do her “Bengal Fire” demonstration, a slow-burning pyrotechnics display. As she mounted her balloon she said, “Allons, ce sera pour la derniere fois” (“Let’s go, this will be for the last time”). Her hydrogen balloon caught fire and Sophie, fell to her death. “Sophie was more at home in the sky than on the ground, where her nervous disposition meant she was easily startled.She was terrified of loud noises and of riding in carriages, but was fearless in the air.”

Sophie Armant Blanchard (1778–1819) Marie Madeleine-Sophie Armant was born at Trois-Canons near Yves, France on March 25, 1778. Sophie married pioneering balloon designer and one of the first men to fly over the English Channel in a balloon, Jean-Pierre Blanchard sometime between 1797 and 1804, depending on various sources, likely 1802. He had reportedly abandoned his first wife Victoire and their four children during the same year as his first balloon flight—1784. Sophie Blanchard has been described by various sources as “ugly” or “beautiful” depending on which source, but all historians seem to agree that she was “small and nervous” and “happier in the air than on the ground”. Whatever the case, Sophie is considered the first professional lady balloonist and an amazing aerial performer. No records seem to exist, showing that she ever used a conventional parachute to descend herself but she did perform many parachuting experiments and stunts, dropping animals, including her own house cat, and also dropping pyrotechnics. She, however did land safely under a very unconventional “parachute” when her balloon ruptured and ripped open, but instead of her being dashed upon the ground, the fabric became a canopy, caught air and lowered her alive to the ground. 41 Ladies of Skydiving Volume. One Sophie made her first ascent two days after Christmas of 1804 with Jean-Pierre Blanchard in Marseilles France. Sophie was not the first woman balloonist; Elizabeth Thible made an ascent to entertain Gustav III of Sweden in Lyon France on June 4, 1784 and Citoyenne Henri had flown with André-Jacques Garnerin in the summer of 1798. Sophie was the second woman to pilot her own balloon, following Jeanne-Geneviève Labrosse Garnerin, but is credited as being the first lady professional balloonist. In 1809, Sophie’s husband Jean-Pierre, after suffering a serious head injury during a previous balloon accident, suffered a heart attack, fell from his balloon and was killed in the Hague, Netherlands. After his death, deep in debt, Sophie continued to make ascents, embarking on her own spectacular professional exhibition career. Replacing André-Jacques Garnerin as advisor to the Louis XVI, Sophie even was reported to have assisted Napoleon in planning a French airborne invasion of England. After Napoleon was defeated and imprisoned, Sophie continued in her role, being dubbed the “Official Aeronaut of the Restoration.” Sophie put on fêtes and exhibitions throughout Europe. After Garnerin’s death and Jeanne Geneviève’s retirement, Garnerin's niece Élisa became Sophie’s biggest competitor. Specializing in night flights, often staying aloft all night, and sometimes sleeping in her balloon, Sophie once passed out from hypoxia and nearly froze to death at high altitude above Turin, Italy after ascending to avoid a hailstorm. She nearly drowned after dropping into a swamp in Naples, Italy. Sophie made long-distance 42 The Ladies Make The Scene trips all over Italy, crossed the Alps and did everything her husband had dreamed of doing himself. She paid off his debts and made a stellar reputation for herself. She seemed to accept the risks of her career without reservations. Becoming a completely different person in the air, transforming into the role of reckless daredevil, she would set off pyrotechnics beneath her hydrogen balloon and perform dangerous, awe- inspiring and crowd-pleasing acrobatics. She became the first woman to be killed in an aviation accident and a spectacular, fiery death it was. On the evening of July 6, 1819, at the age of 41, Marie Madeleine-Sophie Armant Blanchard made her last flight. A crowd of thousands had gathered for a show at the Tivoli Gardens in Paris. Sophie rose from the lawn to music and fireworks. She had planned to do her Bengal Fire demonstration, a slow-burning pyrotechnics display. As she mounted her balloon she said— “Allons, ce sera pour la derniere fois” (Let’s go, this will be for the last time). Her hydrogen balloon caught fire, and Sophie fell to her death. “Sophie was more at home in the sky than on the ground, where her nervous disposition meant she was easily startled. She was terrified of loud noises and of riding in carriages.”
Élisa Garnerin(1791–1853) Élisa Garnerin was a French balloonist. She was the niece of the pioneer parachutist André-Jacques Garnerin, and took advantage of his name and of the novelty of a woman performing what were at the time extremely daring feats. She was a determined businesswoman, and at times got into trouble with the police for the disturbance her performances caused. Between 1815 and 1836, she toured France, Spain, Italy and other parts of Europe, making 39 professional parachute drops.

Mary Breed Hawley Meyer “Carlotta the Lady Aeronaut” (1849–1932) On July 2, 1883, “Carlotta the Lady Aeronaut” making her 180th balloon ascension, saved herself by floating twelve-miles on fragments of the silk balloon “Flying Cloud“; the makeshift parachute carried her to a safe landing. While a wrecked hydrogen balloon may not be a parachute it worked!Mary Breed Hawley Meyers was the first woman in the United States to pilot her own aircraft. She set a world altitude record of four miles (20,000′) without oxygen equipment. She set the record for the most one-woman piloted balloon trips during the 19th century. In 1871 Mary Breed Hawley, a descendant of the Breeds of Boston’s Breed’s Hill, married New York balloon inventor, Carl Myers, a self-taught engineer whose experiments led to a patent for a new kind of balloon fabric—lightweight and impervious to hydrogen gas. Mary decided that she, too, wanted to fly. Her first ascent took place in Little Falls, New York on Main and Second Streets, during the rain. Thinking her own name was not exciting enough for such daring behavior, she took the moniker Carlotta the Lady Aeronaut and on July 4, 1880, made her debut as fifteen thousand people, mesmerized by her daring antics, watched from the ground. “At a little before five o’clock, she stepped bravely into the basket, …and the balloon “Aerial”, with its precious freight – rose slowly and very majestically above the house-tops. At first it was borne northerly, till reaching an upper current, it floated off eastward, remaining in sight until a cloud obscured it. Mrs. Myers took as companions on the voyage four carrier pigeons which she was to let off with news to her Mohawk friends of her flight and of her safe arrival again upon earth.”That day she became the first American woman to fly solo in a lighter-than-air balloon. In August, she made her second flight, staying aloft in a calm blue sky for more than an hour. The following spring, Mary gave birth to a daughter, who was christened Elizabeth Aerial (little Elizabeth Aerial went on a flight with her mother at the age of three and again when she was seven). The following Fourth of July she opened the balloon season by making two ascensions in one day—the first at Hamilton, New York, and the second at Utica.For thirty years, “Carlotta” made ascensions at special events, and helped test new balloon designs with her husband on their “Balloon Farm” in New York.“She retires from the field,” Carl announced in 1891 to the public, “with a record of having made more ascensions than all other women combined throughout the world, and more than any man living in America.” The Myers operated the Balloon Farm for many years. Carl was still riding his sky cycle at the age of sixty-eight, and both he and Mary lived to be over eighty.As a grown woman, daughter Elizabeth Aerial would make exhibition flights on an invention of her father’s, a foot-pedaled dirigible,which he called the “Sky Cycle” at the St. Louis Exposition in 1903. The flights were made inside a large auditorium, and “Bessie” was so adept that she could maneuver the craft without hitting the walls or roof of the hall; she left the great outdoors to her mother.