Jacqueline Auriol

Jacqueline Auriol, 82, France's first female test pilot and one of the first women to fly faster than the speed of sound has died. Born in the Vendee region of western France along the Bay of Biscay, Auriol was the daughter-inlaw of former French President Vincent Auriol. She took up flying in 1946 after a conversation with a French pilot who told her that the sensation of flight gave a feeling of freedom.

She got her pilot's license in 1948 and became an accomplished stunt flier and test pilot. But she was severely injured in a crash in which she was a passenger in 1949 - many of the bones in her face were broken - and spent nearly two years in hospitals undergoing reconstructive operations. To occupy her mind, she studied algebra, trigonometry, aerodynamics and other subjects necessary to obtain advanced pilot certification.

Returning to the skies on her release from the hospital, she set a world speed record for women aviators in 1951. On a visit to the United States in the early 1950s, she was allowed by Lawrence Bell, the president of Bell Aircraft, to take helicopter flying lessons to qualify for a license. Bell later called her the most extraordinary woman in the world. She has met fear head-on and conquered it."

Auriol continued to set speed records in the 1950s and 1960s. She first flew faster than sound in 1953 in a Mystere IV. On three occasions she was awarded the Harmon International Trophy by American presidents in recognition of her aviation exploits. She once explained her passion for flying by stating, "I feel so happy when I'm flying. Perhaps it is the feeling of power, the pleasure of dominating a machine as beautiful as a thoroughbred horse. Mingled with these basic joys is another less primitive feeling - that of a mission accomplished. Each time I set foot on an airfield, I sense with fresh excitement that this is where I belong." When her family in Paris announced her death, they did not indicate where or when she died.