Aida de Acosta

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Aida de Acosta was the first female to fly a powered aircraft, alone. In 1903, while in Paris with her mother, the Cuban American caught her first glimpse of dirigibles. She then proceeded to take only three flight lessons, before taking the sky by herself.

On June 21, 1903, in Paris, a pretty young Cuban-American woman named Aida de Acosta charmed pioneer aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont into showing her how to operate his personal dirigible, “No. 9”. Santos-Dumont was then the toast of Paris, frequently flying his dirigible downtown to his favorite restaurant and parking it on the street while he had dinner. Aida flew Santos-Dumont’s aircraft solo for five miles while Santos-Dumont ran along below shouting advice^[1]. At the age of nineteen, she was the first woman to pilot any kind of motorized aircraft. This happened six months before the Wright brothers first flew in a heavier-than-air powered aircraft. Aida’s parents were appalled. They were certain that no man would marry a woman who had done such a thing, so they managed to hush it all up until many years later.

Aida married Henry S. Breckinridge, attorney to Charles A. Lindbergh during the Lindbergh kidnapping case. She divorced Henry in 1947.

During the 1920s, Aida was afflicted with glaucoma. Her ophthalmologist was William H. Wilmer. Although she lost the sight in one eye, Dr. Wilmer’s care inspired her to organize a fund-raising campaign that resulted in $3 million to fund the establishment of the Wilmer Eye Institute, the first eye institute in America. In her later years, she was Executive Director of the Eye-Bank for Sight Restoration in New York, the first eye bank in America.

She was a sister of the writer and socialite Mercedes de Acosta.