Women in Aviation & Space History
  • First Female Pilots Per Country
  • Women Breakthroughs Per Category
  • Centennial Legacy

Marga von Etzdorf – Germany

  • Women Aviation Breakthroughs
Marga von Etzdorf

Born in Etzdorf, Marga von Etzdorf (1907 – 1933) lost her parents in an accident when she was only four years old. She was a very athletic woman with interests in fencing, riding and hockey. At the age of nineteen, she decided to become a pilot.

After earning a pilot licence, she became the first female airline pilot in the world when she got a job as a Lufthansa co-pilot in 1927 and flew passengers on the Berlin-Breslau and Berlin-Sttugart-Basel routes in Junkers F-13 aircraft.

In 1929, she took some gliding training and became one of the first women in the world to earn a glider pilot licence. One year later, with the help of her grandparents, she bought a Junkers A 50 CE airplane. She participated in the first German Women Aerobatic Championship and got fourth place. In late 1930, she flew to the Canary Islands. In 1931, she took off from Berlin towards Tokyo. She flew over the Urals and Siberia before reaching Tokyo 12 days later becoming the first woman to fly over Siberia.

1920 - 1929
July 25, 2015 Centennial Team

Post navigation

Mary Bailey – England → ← Bessie Coleman – USA

Perpepuate the Legacy

Fly It Forward

Recent Bios

Virginie Guyot – France

Virginie Guyot – France

Born in Angers, France, Virginie Guyot (1976 – ) went on a discovery flight when she was 12 years old. Thereafter, she decides to become a pilot. She goes to […]

Eileen Collins – USA

Eileen Collins – USA

Collins’s parents were immigrants from Ireland. As a child, Eileen Collins (1956 – ) expressed an interest both in space flight and in being a pilot. After graduating from Elmira […]

Barbara Harmer – England

Barbara Harmer – England

Born in Bognor Regis, England, Barbara Harmer (1954 – 2011) left school aged 15 to pursue a career in hairdressing. Harmer’s first experience in the aviation industry was six years [...]

Geraldine “Jerrie” Mock – USA

Geraldine “Jerrie” Mock – USA

After having had several jobs, Geraldine (Jerrie) Mock (1925 – 2014), née Fredritz became manager of the Colombus Airport (Ohio). She had married Russell Mock in 1945 and they had […]

Valentina Tereshkova – Russia

Valentina Tereshkova – Russia

Valentina Tereshkova (1937 – ) was born in a small village in the Yaroslavl Oblast in western Russia. Tereshkova’s father was a tractor driver and her mother worked in a […]

Ada Rogato – Brazil

Ada Rogato – Brazil

Ada Rogato (1910 – 1986) received from her parents, Italian immigrants, the same education given to most women of that time – but she wanted to learn to fly. She […]

Submit a Portrait

Categories

  • First Female Pilot
  • The Beginnings
  • Women Aviation Breakthroughs

Tags

1784 - 1909 1910 - 1919 1920 - 1929 1930 - 1939 1940 - 1949 1950 - 1959 1960 - 1969 1970 - 1979 1980 -1989 2000 - 2009

Watch the Legacy Unfold

Powered by WordPress theme Stained Glass