This is a real tribute to an exceptional aviator, primarily known for having been the first woman to cross the Andes by air. But Adrienne Bollard had other strings to her bow...
This is a real tribute to an exceptional aviator, primarily known for having been the first woman to cross the Andes by air. But Adrienne Bollard had other strings to her bow…
She was a woman of the air most certainly, but also a woman of conviction and action! That is how we could define Adrienne Bolland, who was born at the end of the 19th Century, and died more than 45 years ago.
Her story begins shortly after the First World War, when she trained at the Ecole de pilotage Caudron, where she became the first woman in the world to obtain her license – something that made the front pages of many of the biggest newspapers of the time. This achievement was followed by others, as she also became the first woman to cross the English Channel, and the first (again) to successfully perform a loop-the-loop.
At the end of 1920, she set off for Buenos Aires, Argentina, where a few months later she would set the women’s world record for altitude, at almost 16,000 feet. Her achievements once again made the front pages, this time in South America, and thus she managed to raise the funds required for her most expensive mission to date: to be the first woman to cross the Andes by air! After several tries, she managed, making her name as a heroine, on April 1, 1921 in Chile.
So, she was a pilot, but she was also a feminist (she fought for women’s right to vote in the 1930s) and a fighter (she fought against Franco, and later was part of the French Resistance). Adrienne Bolland lived many lives, that this biography offers the chance to discover or rediscover. Find it in your local book store!
Book. “Les Vies d’Adrienne Bolland”. Authors: George Joumas, Sophie Deschamps, Isabelle Klinka-Ballesteros. Publisher: Regain de Lecture. ISBN: 2353910793
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