In late 1911, Harriet Quimby is determined to become the first woman to cross the English Channel. Another woman Trehawke-Miss Davis has already flown as a passenger.
The feat of crossing the sleeve is for Quimby to achieve, but she is afraid that somebody do it before the exploit. It is therefore a party secretly in March 1912 for England, has borrowed a monoplane 50 HP Louis Blériot, who was the first person to cross the English Channel in 1909.
Quimby left for England in March 1912, and to pursue its main objective aviation and becoming the first woman to cross the English Channel. Although Louis Blériot flew the English Channel in July 1909, no woman has ever accomplished the feat.
Blériot, intrigued by the objective of Quimby, his expedition to one of his Blériot monoplanes of 50 horses (37 kW), a single seat aircraft for Blériot vol.A hand and a few others, nobody knew the plan Quimby.
On 16 April 1912, Quimby took off from Dover, England, en route to Calais, France. Flying at altitudes between 1000 and 2000 feet (305 and 610 meters), Quimby followed its path through the fog and made the flight in 59 minutes, having derived some of the planned landing about 25 miles ( 40 km) from Calais on a beach in Hardelot, France.
Harriet Quimby became the first licensed female aviator in the United States on 11 August 1911.
She wanted to keep secret because she feared that another woman can try to do it before the flight. She also feared that people can try to stop it because of the risks involved, especially the unpredictable weather.
Gustav Hamel, one of the friends of Quimby was one of the people who tried to stop it. With the best of intentions, Hamel offered to hide with a purple dress and the flight for her. He suggested that she could hide in a remote area in France and quickly reach the scene of the landing, but Quimby has refused the offer.
Very few people have learned of his feat, though, because of the bad press it receives. The Titanic sank only two days before and was still the main news of the day.
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