Since 1975 the United Nations formalized the celebration of International Women’s Day on March 8.
On this day there is a special recognition of the struggle of women for their participation, on an equal footing with men, in society and in their full development as a person. In order to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women, through their active and equitable participation in the world.
In the world, there are 130,000 pilots. Only 4,000 are women. Just over 3%. The figure, contributed by ISWAP (International Society of Airline Pilot Women), reveals that this profession is one of those with the greatest gender inequality.
In reference to the RPA the metrics are not very different, it is more could bet that the percentage of female drone pilots in the world is lower than in aviation.
We wanted to make a review of the first women to mark some milestone in the history of aviation
The first woman to obtain an aviation pilot license
In 1910 the French baroness Raymonde de Laroche became the first woman in the world to obtain an aviation pilot’s license.
From her first attempts she showed aptitude, she could drive on the straight flight field, be turned by a mechanic and return to her starting point. From then on, she progressed making small boats. On her first attempt, she revolutionized the 50 horsepower engine and drove across the field, turned towards the wind, and with maximum power quickly returned across the field. Suddenly the wheels took off from the ground and continued in the air for three hundred meters before landing again on the ground.
During World War I, as flying was considered too dangerous for a woman, she served as a military driver, carrying officers from the rear to the battlefront.
The first woman to cross the English Channel
Harriet Quimby was an early American aviator and a movie screenwriter. In 1911, she was awarded a U.S. pilot’s certificate by the Aero Club of America, becoming the first woman to gain a pilot’s license in the United States.
Just one year later, In 1912, she became the first woman to fly across the English Channel by piloting a Blériot-Eindecker equipped with a clock, a compass that he barely knew how to handle and a hot water bottle, on a flight of just an hour without incidents. But his feat was overshadowed by the wreck of the Titanic, which collapsed the newspapers of the time, relegating their courageous action to the last pages. Her reception in New York also did not get the notoriety she deserved.
Although Quimby lived only to the age of 37, she influenced the role of women in aviation. She brought down much of the female stereotypes in the society of his time.
The first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean
Amelia Mary Earhart was an American aviation pioneer and author. Earhart was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She set many other records wrote best-selling books about her flying experiences and was instrumental in the formation of The Ninety-Nines, an organization for female pilots.
By 1923 she obtained the pilot license of the International Aeronautical Federation, being the sixteenth woman to receive it.
In 1927 she joined the National Aeronautical Association (Boston chapter). She dedicated herself to investing money to build an airstrip, sold Kinner planes and promoted aviation, especially among women. She was already beginning to make a name for herself in society. The Boston Globe recognized her as one of the best pilots in the United States.
In 1932 She made the Atlantic jump in 13 hours and 50 minutes, departing from Habour Grace (USA) and landing in Londonderry (Ireland), on this crossing she imposed some marks, the first woman to make a solo flight in the Atlantic, First person to do it twice, the longest distance flown by a woman without stopping and record for crossing it in the shortest time.
The first Venezuelan Aviator
María Asunción Calcaño Ruiz She graduated as an aviator pilot in November 1939, obtaining her private pilot license No. 73,550 from the Civil Aeronautics Authority of the United States of America (predecessor of the current FAA) on the 13th of that month, thereby becoming Venezuela’s first female pilot.
She was the founder of Ala Venezolana, the first association of Venezuelan Civil Pilots, in Caracas, 1941. She was also the founder of Aeroclub Caracas, and the first private civil aviation school, called Servicios Aéreos CA, SACA, both in La Carlota, in 1946.
After her, the Venezuelan Carolina Herrera of Molinari would graduate in late 1941 in the United States of America; and in Venezuela, Ana Luisa Branger of Mc Gill, in Maracay in July 1942 (the first to get her pilot wings in the country) and Luisa Elena Contreras, in Maracay in 1943.
The youngest woman to become a pilot in Latin America
Andrea Palacios, born in Caracas 27 years ago, fulfilled the dream of being at the helm of a commercial aircraft, specifically the Embraer E190, one of the most advanced and modern in the world with a capacity for 100 passengers.
Andrea Palacios has made her first flight as captain of Conviasa, fulfilling the Caracas-Panama-Nicaragua route on October 20, 2019, becoming the youngest woman to become a pilot in Latin America.
The first woman to obtain drone pilot license part 107 in the United States
Stephanie Robinson was one of three women in the UAS Management program and was the first woman of the course to obtain her FAA Part 107 drone pilot license in November 2018 in Monroe, Louisiana.
The first Venezuelan woman to obtain a pilot license for drone part 107 of the US FAA and Venezuela
Maria Alejandra Rodriguez, First Venezuelan woman to obtain the drone pilot license Part 107 of the FAA in the United States (November 2019) and second women in obtain RPA pilot license in Venezuela.
She was born in San Fernando de Apure, she is an Electrical Engineering, she is currently our Operations Manager, and is convinced that drones are a work tool that provides instant data and optimizes processes, reducing costs and risks labour.
She is most passionate and motivating about being able to inspire and empower other women to find their potential in the world of drones so that we all have the opportunity to create, grow and bet.