French pilots show women can fly

Meet Virginie Guyot. She flies Mirage fighter jets for the French air force and has done two tours based at Kandahar in the Afghan war zone. Captain Guyot, who is 33 and a mother, has just made the news by becoming the first woman assigned to la Patrouille de France, the air force display team.

The eight-jet Patrouille is one of the best. It is equal or superior to the US Air Force Thunderbirds and Britain's RAF Red Arrows. Its tight formation aerobatics is breath-taking (watch one of their videos). Every July 14, the team opens the Bastille Day parade with a low-level run down the Champs Elysees trailing their trademark tricolor smoke.

Guyot, whose father was in the military, got the bug with her first flight in a light aircraft at the age of 12. She is due to become commander of the Patrouille from next year. She never saw flying as a men-only job, she says. "Flying a plane nowadays requires finesse more than physical force."

That has been the case for decades. Only in movies do pilots wrestle with the controls. Most planes are flown with the tips of the fingers. The need for delicacy is part of the reason why women make such good pilots -- including aerobatic ones. Look at Patty Wagstaff who in the 1990s was US aerobatics champion three times. When she was asked how a woman could beat men at such a demanding sport, she used to reply: "Do you think the airplane knows the difference?".

Another advantage is female judgment.

I'm not taking about the stuff needed for fighting, which is another matter. Quite a few countries have opened combat flying to women over the past 15 years. France now has eight flying fighter jets and six in the back seat as navigators. Obviously doing battle at the controls of an F-16 or a Dassault Mirage is not a common ambition among teenage girls. You need aggressiveness and a killer instinct. But there is nothing intrinsically masculine about simply driving an aeroplane. Piloting is more about decision-making than physical skill. You need a certain level of self-confidence to take charge of a flying machine, but an excess, which often comes with testosterone, leads to bad decisions and trouble. Women pilots are less afflicted by the dangerous bravado that makes men push on into thunder storms or stall out while buzzing their girl-friends' homes

Women pilots had a remarkable record when they ferried US and British military planes of every type to free up men for combat duty in world war two. Two of my best instructors when I learnt to fly in the 1980s were women. The US Thunderbirds team now have two women pilots. The Red Arrows have never had one.

Women began flying in the earliest days. Some, like Amelia Earhart, became celebrity "aviatrixes",  yet a century on, few go into aviation. Despite efforts in France, the USA, Britain and elsewhere to draw women into piloting, they are still vastly outnumbered in both professional and recreational flying. Only six percent of the 600,000 professional and private licensed pilots in the USA are female, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. About 5,000 have airline pilot qualifications. In France, which has a great tradition of promoting amateur flying in aeroclubs, only nine percent of private pilots are female.

Part of the reason that women are deterred is that men keep them out with the boys-only aura that still surrounds flying. Most pilots, from jet jockeys and Boeing drivers to humble amateurs, are romantics at heart. But they cultivate the image of aeroplanes as a guy thing with male camaraderie and boasting about your exploits at the bar. Flying magazines in the gender-correct USA are unabashed about using "he" rather than "she"

France has just celebrated an extraordinary flyer who died last August at the age of 33. Major Caroline Aigle qualified in 1999 as the air force's first female fighter pilot. She was also a brilliant scholar and French military triathlon champion. She died of melanoma cancer a few days after giving birth to her second son. On March 8, 100 female pilots flew an impressive fleet of planes into Paris le Bourget airport for a day of ceremonies in her memory and to salute the women who make it into flying careers.

The event, organised by the Ministry of Defence and the Bourget Air Museum, was intended "to show to the world that women have a place in this profession,  despite the vast cultural and religious prejudices against them."

[The late Caroline Aigle]

Comments

[dot king]

I'd already heard of Virginie Guyot, her promotion made it on to the national news, but not a word about Caroline Aigle - what a wonderful name for a flyer!

I believe Mme Guyot is second in command in the team, or flies the second lead plane in the Patrouille, and has the very unattractive title of "charognard" - any explanation of this, Charles? Why this word?
PS: I don't know whether they've feminised the title to "charognarde" :)

[It's the traditional tag (vulture, or carrion-eater) for the number two/second in command. They are called this because they take the place of the number one after a year in the team -- eating him/her. Incidentally the eight on the Patrouille use the code name Athos -- from the Musketeer. Athos 1, 2, 3 etc .. The charognard is Athos 4 CB]

[dot king]

"The event, organised by the Ministry of Defence and the Bourget Air Museum, was intended "to show to the world that women have a place in this profession, despite the vast cultural and religious prejudices against them." (CB)

If it was "to show to the world" - then how come we didn't see it in France? Or did I just miss it somehow? Miss it, on TV, radio, in the papers, on the net??

The circumstances of her death as described very briefly, suggest a very difficult and quite heroic story, of which there has been another recently, perhaps that's the reason . . .

[Dot, she was very heroic. It was a sad story. There were reports in the media on the Bourget event, but not many. There's quite a lot on the net. CB]

[colin grayson]

romantic at heart are you charles ; perhaps I should have guessed :)

caroline aigle...what a sad loss ; but what an appropriate name ! long may she be remembered

and am I correct in believing that the pilot of the concorde that crashed at roissy was also a well known sportsman ?

[Robert Marchenoir]

"The event, organised by the Ministry of Defence and the Bourget Air Museum, was intended 'to show to the world that women have a place in this profession, despite the vast cultural and religious prejudices against them.' "

Religious prejudices against women flying planes? Never heard of them.

Unless you mean a Certain Religion whose believers tend to get into fits of rage, burn embassies and kill people whenever the suggestion is aired that theirs might not be, after all, a Religion of Tolerance and Peace?

I mean, if you forbid women to drive cars, I am sure you would not allow them to fly planes.

Besides, have you ever tried flying a plane with a niqab?

[dot king]

[Dot, she was very heroic. It was a sad story. There were reports in the media on the Bourget event, but not many. There's quite a lot on the net. CB]
(On Caroline Aigle)

Then it's wonderful - and fitting - that she appear here; as a kind of world-wide obituary.

[Linca]

Since you have mentioned comics recently, Tanguy et Laverdure and Buck Danny are probably compulsory reading for French aspiring pilots ; one of the evil characters in Buck Danny was indeed a woman. And reading those, I learned the charognard also had this name because he has to fly in the last place of the patrouille (like a charognard, coming last), and has the hardest piloting task, as he catches all the air disturbances caused by the other planes.

[That's what I thought too, but I checked on a couple of sites and came up with the other explanation. You're right about all the pilots in the strip albums. And women pilots are also good movie fantasy. Remember Honor Blackman as Pussy Galore and her female killer squadron in the James Bond film Goldfinger: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058150/
CB]

[Eva]

Je suis en train d'apprendre a piloter (pas un Mirage, un petit Cesna 152) et je me demandais, en lisant le blog de Charles Bremner, pourquoi il y a si peu de femmes pilotes. . Les psychanalystes disent que l'avion est un symbole phallique, que piloter est une marque de volonte de puissance. Pourtant elles ont bien l'air d'etre des femmes, et tres jolies, ces deux pilotesses.

[Azloon/Rob Furlong]

very sad story about Caroline Aigle.

when woman are good in a field which traditionally excluded women, often they are VERY good. Aigle seems to have fit this description.

re testosterone in male fighter jocks

i was an navy air intercept controller in an era of unsophisticated onboard radar, just prior to the F-4 Phantom in the mid-1960s (the F-4 had a second-seat RIO).

at a training seminar, i ran into a guy i remembered from college who happened to have been the craziest bastard in the entire dormitory: 'penciling' other students into their rooms, then sliding ignited trays of lighter fluid under their doors, and the like. he was expelled from the unversity for his antics. when i ran into him in the navy training facility, i asked him what he was doing, and he said, "i am flying F-4s.' i immediately knew what sort of people they were looking for to fly these killer machines,

[Azloon/Rob Furlong]

[psychanalystes disent que l'avion est un symbole phallique] EVA

if true, wouldn't you expect more, not fewer, female pilot?

[Romain]

Dot
To make it short, there was a dilemna between her pregnancy and her own survival. She chose to give birth.

[dot king]

"To make it short, there was a dilemna between her pregnancy and her own survival. She chose to give birth." (Romain)

I'd guessed that - I had a close friend who, some years ago, faced a similar decision, with the same consequences.
Though in Caroline Aigle's case it must have been slightly different and not so much a choice. I read on one of the web articles Charles mentioned, that the cancer was diagnosed only a month before she died. She must have been well into her pregnancy by that time and died as Charles says "a few days after the birth".
My friend saw her son's second birthday. It was slower than "foudroyant".
Des femmes courageuses . . .

[Terry]

Charles said:

"That has been the case for decades. Only in movies do pilots wrestle with the controls."

What are you talking about? I fly a Cherokee. Im always wrestling with the damn controls. Sometimes I win. Not all of us can afford the high performance planes, Charles.

There was a female instructor at my flight school but no female students. Embry Riddle, the US premier flight school, is attracting more female pilots.

There was a popular flight team known as "The French Connection" that used to perform in the US. They were a married couple from France. I saw them twice. Once as a kid and once as an adult. Their routine was quite good and very exciting to watch. And they were very popular. Unfortunately, they died in a plane crash in 2000.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_French_Connection_(aerobatics)

[Come on, Terry. You don't wrestle with a Cherokee... except maybe if you're out of practice with gusting cross-winds on take-off and landing... It's very light providing you're using the trim properly. I knew the late French Connection and did aerobatics training with their (French) manager in a Cap10, same as their planes, out of Long Island Macarthur in 1992. CB]

[Mauvezin]

I mean, if you forbid women to drive cars....
**************
In 1899 the first driving license in the world( N° 0001 ) was delivered to the duchess Anne de Crussol d'Uzès.
In 1899 she has too the first ticket for hi-speed ( 20 Km/h or 12 Mph ) in the Place des Augustin in Paris
------------
As for french females aviatrix you can check for Maryse Bastié and Jacqueline Auriol among some others.

[Azloon/Rob Furlong]

Terry --

embry-riddle, west, is located in prescott. dozens of cherokees are flying over my house, on top of a hill, all day and all night. and, no CB, i don't have a beautiful daughter.

and you're correct: a reasonably high % of E-R students are women. 15% i just discovered via google. but this is twice the % of registered remale pilots in the u.s.

and female captains of commercial aircraft in the u.s. are commonplace. you are as likely to have a female captain as a male steward.

[Terry]

I do like the cherokee. It is a light plane. We get a lot bad crosswinds with gusting at Morristown airport and I find the controls heavy on landing. But I am ALWAYS out of practice.

On my second solo, I found the controls really heavy one time when I ran all the fuel off of one wing and I had to land in with a nice crosswind. You know, I havent forgot to switch tanks every 15 minutes since.

I was sorry to hear about your friends in the French Connection. I didnt know them, obviously, but they performed at the first air show (Sussex County Air Show) I ever went to (12 y.o., circa 1980). And I fell in love with the idea of flying at that show in no small part to their performance among others. I think there werent many women flying aerobatics then.

I also heard women pilots can take G forces better than men. I never pulled a G, (one worth talking about) so I have no idea.

[Fernandez]

I took flying lessons, got my license and then quit. I realized I didn't have the time or money to put into it and I was only a danger to myself and others in such heavily trafficked airspace. So that's one less female pilot.

I know the Navy was heavily pushing women fighter pilots in the nineties (which is odd since women even now aren't deliberately placed in combat units) and overpromoted them. One woman approached a carrier too fast, crashed and died.

In WW2, they used to use women (WASPS) to ferry bombers and other planes cross country and Europe routinely.

[Jorg Andersen]

The trouble is that flying costs too much money in Europe, unless you are being paid to do it. In Austria, it's simply too expensive for any average person to take up as a sport. A hundred euros an hour at least. Young people are lucky because there is a shortage of commercial pilots coming up, so they can find ways of being paid to fly.

PS: Charles, I remember you reporting on the first batterey-powered plane flying in France last Christmas time. Did you see that the Americans have built one too.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article3672029.ece

[Monika]

[Obviously doing battle at the controls of an F-16 or a Dassault Mirage is not a common ambition among teenage girls.]

The same may be said about most of apparantly male jobs (engineers, fire fighters, ...)

A historical footnote: in ww2, there had been female fighter and combat pilots in Russia who gave their German adversaries quite a hard time. A few achieved some fame in their profession.

[Mauvezin]

in ww2, there had been female fighter and combat pilots
*****************

Hanna Reitsch was too a top pilot

[peter kinsley www.peterkinsley.com]

"Hanna Reitsch was too a top pilot"

She was indeed, an incredible flyer, but not a combat pilot. She flew the first helicopter, also the VI Rocket, but not under power (it was towed by gliders then released). She was injured in a crash on the Dutch coast. She was a production adviser on the Me 163 rocket plane, and the Me 262 jet plane and it was Reitsch who pesuaded the Luftwaffe pilots to show Scottish test pilot Captain Eric Brown,*** OBE, DSC, AFC FRAes, RN of the Fleet Air Arm (see my comment - 17 March - in the St. Exupery thread) Germany's latest jets, which he flew to England for full tests. He could not have done this without the co-operation of Hanna Reitsch because the pilots were under threat of death by ODESSA if they talked. She admired Brown for his own incredible skill as a pilot (see Guinness Book of Records). It was nothing other than friendship through flying, her preference being for women. She corresponded with him up until her death. From her last letter Brown suspected that she might have committed suicide. Her name was not mentioned in Germany. Even today, her name is rarely spoken as she was a fanatical Nazi. It was Hanna Reitsch who went to Hitler with the proposal of suicide pilots (i.e. Kamikaze), but he turned down her proposal as "I believe strongly that a man should die for his country in c o m b a t but not in this way."
I asked "Winkle" Brown about Adolf Galland saying that Hitler had told him the battle of Britain was "a feint" for Barbarossa.
"When I interrogated Goering, he said he had wanted to continue with the Operation Sealion, but Hitler insisted that they had lost enough planes (half of the Luftwaffe) to British and Allied pilots, to endanger the full attack on Russia, and Barbarossa had to take preference, and he did not want to lose more men crossing 22 miles of water,so they withdrew."
Bringing Capt. Brown up to date on the comments on Horst Rippert and St Exupery, he is suspicious of the decorations Rippert claims. A check would have to be made on the Ritterkreuz Trager (list) of awards, but 28 "kills" is not enough.
"Many Luftwaffe pilots had 100 victories and one pilot shot down 352 planes, but all of this was on the Eastern front."
""" Capt. Brown was to interrogate Heinrich Himmler but he took cyanide when a British army Sergeant ordered him to get undressed ready for the doctor. He found Himmler's private plane and flew it. "It had a fully equipped kitchen, and an iron throne high at the back, and beneath his feet a trapdoor so that he could jump first." he said.

[EYGH]

Re Caroline Aigle and french military news in general

Interesting info and comments at :

http://secretdefense.blogs.liberation.fr/defense/2007/09/gabriel-la-dern.html

[Katie John]

I noticed the (very sad) mention of the Concorde above. Both the French and the British Concorde fleets included female pilots: Beatrice Vialle for Air France, and Barbara Harmer for British Airways.

[Shane]

"Flying a plane nowadays requires finesse more than physical force."

Yes, but this isn't something that only just happened, it has been the case for decades on jet fighters.

However, your continued suggestion throughout the article that this somehow means women automatically make excellent pilots, and men bad and dangerous ones (example: "The need for delicacy is part of the reason why women make such good pilots -- including aerobatic ones" and further "You need a certain level of self-confidence to take charge of a flying machine, but an excess, which often comes with testosterone, leads to bad decisions and trouble" is an obviously false premise. The reason? If your implications were correct, all male pilots would have crashed by now (including your precious Red Arrows). This clearly is not the case.

[dot king]

"You need a certain level of self-confidence to take charge of a flying machine, but an excess, which often comes with testosterone, leads to bad decisions " Shane

I don't think Charles meant to suggest that ALL men, even ALL pilots have uncontrolable rushes of testosterone. It hardly bears thinking about if such were true . . . :)

[Right, Dot. I wrote that excessive risk-taking of the kind that men go in for, can cause trouble. Of course it's nonsense to say that this means all male pilots are dangerous. I was voicing a very orthodox view anyway. CB]

[michael]

Amelia Erhart? Check out Bessie Coleman. Because her desire to enter flight school in the U.S was denied due to racism, she trained in France, receiveing her license in 1921. She performed aviation stunts to raise money for a flight school for blacks, and refused to perform unless show entrances were open equally to blacks and whites.
In 1926 a mechanic's wrench was left in her plane, jammed the contrlos and caused a crash which took her life. Bessie Coleman 1893-1926. Amelia never treated her like a sister in flying.