Maryse Hilsz
Maryse Hilsz was a French aviator known for endurance flights. She also served the French Resistance.
From parachuting to aviation
Maryse Hilsz was born March 7, 1901 in Levallois-Perret (France) from Alsatian parents. She started a millinery career but was especially passionate for aviation. She enrolled in a parachuting competition in 1924, whereas she had never flown in an airplane. Performing exhibition skydiving (jumping over one hundred and twelve times, of which twenty in double), she could finance and get her pilot's license, that was officially delivered in 1930. Contemporary of Maryse Bastié, she quickly became an outstanding aviatrix.
Woman of action, elegant and with a strong personality, Maryse Hilsz broke many plane speed and distance records in the 1930s. On April 9, 1932, after leaving Madagascar, failure occurred but she managed to land on the Juan de Nova Island. On 19 August 1932, she broke the female world altitude record, climbing to 10,200 m at Villacoublay (France). In 1935 and 1936, she won the Hélène Boucher Cup, flying from Paris to Cannes in 2 hours and 29 minutes, and later in 1 hour and 52 minutes. In November 1936, while she tried to beat the women's speed record on base, she was ejected from her seat and saved by her parachute. Most of the time, she flew alone, without a mechanic, and would have to repair the plane on her own on some occasions.
A romantic but tragic adventure
In the early 1930s, Maryse Hilsz has a passionate relationship with another exceptional pilot, André Salel. They are not married, neither wishing to end their career for a peaceful and uneventful life. Maryse endures heartbreak at the death of her companion in the afternoon of 18 June 1934: André Salel and his mechanic Roger Robin perish at Châteaufort while performing the second test flight of the prototype fighter Farman F 420-01.
From Resistance to the Air Force
Maryse Hilsz joined the Resistance in 1941, in the Buckmaster network. During one of her missions, she had to ditch near the city of Arsuz, in Turkey.
In 1945, Charles Tillon, the Communist Air Minister of the first Charles de Gaulle government (GPRF) decided to create a corps of female military pilots, following the USSR example of World War II. Prestigious aviators are then recruited, including Maryse Bastié, Elisabeth Boselli, Elizabeth Lion and Anne-Marie Imbrecq. They all succeed after some training in Chateauroux and studies in Tours. This experience of Women Air Force recruitment, however, ends in July 1946, with the departure of Charles Tillon from the Félix Gouin government.
Topping the list of female pilots in the French Air Force, Maryse Hilsz was appointed second lieutenant and assigned to the ministerial air links Group (GLAM). January 30, 1946, victim of bad weather, she crashed in the Bourg-en-Bresse region (France) aboard a GLAM Siebel 204. Maryse Hilsz perished in the accident. Her grave is located in the Levallois-Perret cemetery (France).
Non-exhaustive list of records
- November 9, 1931: Long distance record Paris-Saigon-Paris flight, in a Gipsy Moth airplane.
- August 19, 1932: Female altitude record, (10,000 meters) at Villacoublay.
- April 28, 1934: Distance and speed record on a Paris-Tokyo-Paris raid in a Breguet 33 R with 650 hp Hispano engine.
- June 17, 1934: World altitude record for Women in a Morane, (11,800 meters) at Villacoublay.
- June 23, 1936: World feminine altitude record on propeller plane: 14,310 meters, performance never equaled since by a woman. The aircraft was a 770 hp Potez 506 biplane.
- May 1937: Flight between Saigon and Paris Le Bourget airfield.
- December 23, 1937: speed record, linking Paris to Saigon in 92 hours, 31 minutes and 30 seconds with a 220 hp Caudron–Renault Simoun, beating the previous record of André Japy who took 6 hours and 21 minutes more to complete the journey.
Decorations
- The Monique Berlioux price of Sports Academy in 1936 (best female sporting performance of the year).
- Officer of the Legion of Honor in 1937.
- Medal of Aeronautics, posthumously.
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