Biographical Sketches

BESSICA MEDLAR RAICHE

Born: April 1875    In: Beloit, WI
Died: April 11, 1932    In: Balboa Is, Newport Beach, CA

While studying in France at the turn of the century, Mineola resident Bessica Medlar Raiche became interested in aviation -- so much so that when she and her husband returned to the United States, they built a silk-and-bamboo biplane. The couple transported the finished aircraft to the Hempstead Plains, and on Sept 26, 1910, Raiche climbed aboard and took off, landing in the history books as the first American woman to make a solo flight -- though the flight lasted only a few minutes and ended in a crash.

One local paper described the aftermath this way: "She scrambled to her feet and before any one of the mechanicians and others who had witnessed the fall of the biplane could reach her, she had shut off the engine and stopped the propeller. She calmly said she was not injured to those who ran to her aid, and then she directed the men to drag the wrecked plane back to the shed."

In the next few weeks, Raiche made several more flights; for her efforts, the Aeronautical Society later awarded her a gold-and-diamond medal inscribed "First Woman Aviator of America." (She might have been more accurately described as the first woman to fly intentionally. Rochester native Blanche Stuart Scott had soloed two weeks before Raiche, but the society refused to give her credit because her flight was accidental: She had been practicing her taxiing along the ground when a gust of wind lifted her plane 40 feet into the air.) Raiche and her husband later built and sold two more planes, but Bessie soon gave up flying and became a physician.

Denotes an individual known to have soloed an aircraft prior to December 16, 1917, whether they were members of the "Early Birds of Aviation" Organization or not.