Dr. Barbara Ganson to Speak About Harriet Quimby’s Fashionable Flight Suit

Dr. Barbara Ganson

As part of Women in Aviation Week Worldwide, March 5-11, 2012 and the one hundredth anniversary of the first crossing of the English Channel by airplane piloted by a woman aviator in 1912, that is by America's own Harriet Quimby, the first U.S. licensed woman pilot, I will be giving a power point talk on the morning of March 10, 2012 at Lashenden Air Warfare Museum at Headcorn Aerodrome on the history of pioneer women aviators' fashion.   In particular, I will be demonstrating the plum colored satin flying outfit Harriet Quimby wore.   I had a replica of her flying suit sewn using a pattern from IWASM made from plum satin for this special event. The hood is backed in plum colored wool.   I will also be explaining the influences or origins of  the design of early aviatrices flying costumes and how these women's socioeconomic backgrounds and career choices in part determined what they wore when piloting airplanes.   I then will be flying left seat in a Cessna 172 with a British instructor across the English channel to Le Touquet, France, along with at least 99 other aircraft that have registered for this special event. My aircraft and instructor is being provided by Headcorn Aerodrome. Since I do not have a UK pilot's license or a U.S. registered aircraft in England, I have to fly with an instructor.     There is  a special celebratory dinner at Le Touquet, a French coastal resort, on Saturday evening, March 10.  I then fly back the next day to Headcorn and make my way back to the U.S. and my classes at Florida Atlantic University.  French aviator Mireille Goyer who resides in Canada is the international team leader for this event.  I talked about celebrating this event at Oshkosh with Mireille last summer.  That the event is taking place underscores her outstanding organizing ability. (As a November we will not sure anything was going to happen!).   I have been thinking about the importance of celebrating Harriet Quimby's achievements nearly for two years.  An American woman who had to be a nonpilot  won a video contest to accompany Mireille in her Robin across the channel and be a part of this special event  (See womenofaviationweek.org/channel for more details about this young woman and my talk, "Women did not always wear pants,").  We will be introducing women to aviation by providing rides on March 10 for a reasonable price at Headcorn.  (see website for event schedule).  

2 Responses so far.

  1. Maggie says:

    I am interested in making a replica of Harriet Quimby’s flying suit myself, but I am having trouble finding a pattern. Could you show me where I could get a pattern?

  2. casper says:

    Nice answers in return of this query with real arguments and explaining all about that.

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