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"WOMAN FLIES OVER ANDES; Mlie. Bolland of France First of Her Sex to Accomplish the Feat" (NYTimes 1921/04/02)
?What comes first for me is freedom. And we were free! Once we took off, we didn?t care about what was going on below. We had no contact with Earth. There was no control tower, there was nothing! ? (Adrienne Bolland, 1972)
BOLLAND, Adrienne, aviatrix and first woman to cross the Andes in 1921. A group of important miscellaneous documents, both printed and manuscript, probably put together by family members (Adrienne's father Henri Bolland and a certain Marie Bolland), including:
1) Photo folder containing 3 photo cards, including one in flight suit, autographed and dated May 5, 1921; a photographic print dated on the rear "10 mai 1938" and a newspaper cutting of Bolland standing in flight suit.
2) Manuscript "Hommage du Comité des Sociétés Françaises de Buenos Aires" (Tribute from the Committee of French Societies of Buenos Aires), May 27, 1921, in the form of a water-coloured handwritten poem signed by committee members, 33 x 25 cm; with Bolland's portrait.
3) "Notice descriptive et règlement de man?uvre et d?entretien du moteur d?aviation Renault, 300 HP, 12 cylindres" (Descriptive notice and operating and maintenance regulations for the Renault aviation engine, 300 HP, 12 cylinders). Paris, A. Omeyer Graveur-Imprimeur, s.d. 8vo paperback, 47 pp., with 5 final fold-out plates.
4) Promotional brochure of the Adolphe Bernard aviation company promoting the two-seat trainer used by Bolland.
5) La Vie aérienne illustrée, n°5, September 4, 1920, with Adrienne Bolland on the cover and two inserted cutout illustrated newspaper articles on Bolland.
6) A bunch of letters (some envelopes are empty) and a telegram addressed mainly to Henri Bolland (also Boland) ? probably Adrienne's father ? and Émile Semence, husband of Marie Bolland. A ms. letter dated "Les Charmettes [Donnery] 7 Mai 1941."
On April 1, 1921, the 25-year-old aviatrix took off from Mendoza (Argentina) at the controls of a two-seater Caudron G3, without map or compass. The Caudron G.3 was a pioneering French sesquiplane designed in 1913. Reaching a speed of 50 km/h, she crossed the Andes near the highest peak, the Aconcagua ? almost 7,000 meters above sea level, and landed in Santiago de Chile after a 4h15-hour flight, during which she had to endure extreme temperatures (-26°C).
Adrienne Bolland (1895-1975) was a leading French aviatrix, famous for her technical exploits and her involvement in the Second World War. She enrolled at the Caudron brothers' flying school in November 1919 and obtained her brevet on January 29, 1920, in just ten weeks. She was the 13th woman in the world to obtain this title. On August 25, 1920, she became the first woman to fly across the English Channel from France, and the first woman to be recruited as a test pilot by aircraft manufacturer René Caudron. Her most famous achievement was the historic Cordillera de los Andes (1921). On April 1, 1921, she made the first female aerial crossing of the Andes, flying from Mendoza (Argentina) to Santiago (Chile). On her arrival in Santiago after a flight of over 4 hours, no French official was present to welcome her, the consul having thought it was an April fool's joke. In 1924, at Orly, she broke the women's looping record, completing 212 loops in 72 minutes. She became one of the most famous aerobaticists of her time, taking part in numerous airshows across Europe. Adrienne Bolland was also a woman of conviction. In 1934, she joined forces with Louise Weiss to win the right to vote for women in France. During the Occupation, she and her husband, Ernest Vinchon, joined the CND-Castille resistance network (Free French intelligence movement). She worked there as a P2 agent and radio operator, tasked in particular with identifying sites for clandestine landings and parachute drops in the Loiret region.
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