Abigail Horton
English 7
Ms.Vue
2/10/15
SOPHIE BLANCHARD BY:ABIGAIL HORTON
INTRODUCTION
Normally when you think of woman in flight you may think of Amelia Earhart or Bessie Coleman. But really woman in flight has been around much longer than that, it has been around more than 200 years. Maybe airplanes were not around but that did not stop people, for the hot air balloon had recently been invented. Sophie Blanchard was the first woman to fly in a hot air balloon solo, and one of the first woman pioneers in flying.(Foulkes)
EARLY LIFE
Sophie Blanchard was born in 1778 at Trois-Canon and her given name was Marie Madeleine-Sophie Armant. Very little is known about Sophie’s early life.” Other than the fact that she was born in western France to protestant parents , almost nothing is known about her young life”(Foulkes). Sophie disappeared in history until she was 16 when she got married to the french balloonist Jean-Pierre Blanchard.(Foulkes)…show more content… She loved the peace, calm, and tranquility of the air. Soon she became the first woman to fly solo in a balloon. The dislike of woman in a powerful position was forgotten as seeing a woman in hot air balloon was a novelty and very entertaining. So Sophie’s career took off, unfortunately the same was not with her husband. “In 1809, Jean-Pierre was flying over The Hague when he had a heart attack and fell from his balloon. He died from his injuries.”(Foulkes). While his career was over Sophie's was just beginning. Napoleon appointed her as “Head Aeronaut of Festivities”. To celebrate the birth of Napoleon’s child she flew over Paris dropping announcements of his birth. At the boy’s baptism she set off fireworks to commemorate the