Die ersten Fliegerinnen - Zwischen Triumph und Tragödie

Documentary (2025)
French title: Les pionnières de l’aviation - Entre gloire et tragédie

Starring:
Lilith Hässle (Melli Beese)
Alina Weillechner (Lilly Steinschneider)

A look on the aviation pionner ages focusing on the very first German langage women trailblazers.

Note: This film utilises a significant quantity of Computer Generated Images (CGI). Aircraft portrayed in this film may not be entirely accurate and have been identified as closely as possible to real aircraft.

Unidentified Aircraft

Wright Model A

Unidentified Aircraft

Hélène Dutrieux maybe at the controls of a (Henri) Farman III.

Breguet 1

Louis Breguet accident involving his Breguet 1 (race No. 19) on 29 August 1909 at the Grande Semaine d'Aviation de la Champagne, near Reims, France (the first international public flying event).
Same footage already used for Le ciel est à elles.

Melli Beese Project

Amelie Hedwig Boutard-Beese (13 September 1886 – 22 December 1925), also known as Melli Beese working on her seaplane project.

Antoinette

Antoinette IV, V or VII ?

Curtiss Model D

Cessna 172 Skyhawk

Reg. OE-KAL Cessna 172S Skyhawk SP of Airlink.at (brand markings digitally erased) c/n 172S9784 built in 2005.

Otto (AGO ?) Pusher

With AGO on front of the two-seat gondola of the Otto Pusher # 131 but with engine arrangement of the AGO Pusher S.16.

Unidentified Aircraft

Curtiss Model D

again ?

Blériot XI

Voisin Biplane

Frenchman Louis Paulhan piloting a Voisin biplane (close to the type used by Farman) race number 20.
Grande Semaine d'Aviation de la Champagne between 22 August and 29 August 1909.
Same footage in other movies at Frequently Seen Aircraft (Civil Fixed-Wing).

Antoinette VI

Hubert Latham’s taxiing before his first attempt of flight over English Channel on the 19th July of 1909.

(Henri) Farman III

Henri Farman and his two passengers, ready to take off on the winning flight in the 1909 Reims "Prix des Passagers".
Although born in Paris but being a British citizen by birth, Henry Farman always regarded himself as a Frenchman and so his first plane was the "Henri Farman N°1" as written on the tail. He officially became a French citizen in 1937.
Same aircraft in other movies at Frequently Seen Aircraft (Civil Fixed-Wing).

Sloan Bicurve

Otto Lilienthal Segelflugzeug N°11

Same aircraft in other movies at IMPDb: Frequently Seen Aircraft (Gliders).

Otto Lilienthal Segelflugzeug N°3

Otto Lilienthal Segelflugzeug N°13

Unidentified Wright Aircraft

Voisin Delagrange I

Blériot XI

Diamond DA62

Wright Flyer III

Picture of the first fatal plane crash digitally modified (by adding the two people in the foreground) to illustrate the accident involving Melli Beese and Robert Thelen. The original picture can be seen in the beginning of Les avions de la première guerre mondiale 1914-1916.
Wreck of the Wright Brothers' plane on September 17, 1908 in the first fatal plane crash. This occurred at Fort Myer, where Orville Wright was demonstrating his plane to the US Army. His passenger, Lieutenant Selfridge, was killed in the crash, and Wright himself was badly injured. The crash was caused by a cracked propeller.

Antoinette IV

Antoinette IV of the first failed attempt to cross the Channel by Hubert Latham (19 July 1909).
Footage used too in Les faucheurs de marguerites.

Unidentified Aircraft

Not a Blériot XI (tank under the angine between the landing gear; horizontal stabilizer upper than the Blériot XI; aircraft equipped with a vertical stabilizer)

Various Aircraft

Flypast (or photomontage ?) during a German or Austrian airshow.

Unidentified Aircraft

Karl Illner in front of ?

Etrich Taube Variant

Due to the lack of licence fees, 14 companies built at least 20 variants, few with inline engine and front radiator like the Gotha Taube LE.4 fitted with a Mercedes D.I (100 hp). Here the engine and so the variant (and the manufacturer too !) is not identified but the structure's wing is from a Taube fitted with a massive undercarriage with skis preventig nose-flip.

Unidentified Aircraft

Unidentified Aircraft

Close to Alfred von Pischof's Autoplan (replica under building in Germany).

Unidentified Aircraft

Variant of the Bristol Boxkite itself derivative of the (Henri) Farman III ? Or brand new design by Pietschker ? The engineer (and pilot) is seen in the bay of an unidentified sesquiplane shortly before his death while testing the aircraft he designed himself (15 November 1911).

Melie Beese Project

A flying boat powered by an engine enclosed in the fuselage and set behind the side-by-side seat, driving a pusher propeller through a bicycle chain (not drawn here). Together with her husband Frenchman Charles Boutard (wedding on 25 January 1913), and designer Hermann Dorner (not Dornier), she worked on a two-seater biplane that was entered in the Baltic Seaplane Competition in Warnemünde, scheduled for August 1914.

Unidentified Aircraft

Circular winged flying machine designed by Dr. George F. Myers during the (failed) run by Emil Rupprecht, the Curtiss Field test pilot (source : The New York Times published on July 23, 1927)

Pitts Sky Car (1928)

Same aircraft in other movies at Frequently Seen Aircraft (Rotary-Wing).

Gerhardt Cycleplane

Archive footage also seen in other movies at IMPDb: Frequently Seen Aircraft (Human Powered Flight / Ornithopter section).

Unidentified Aircraft

Archive footage also seen in other movies listed at IMPDb: Frequently Seen Aircraft (Human Powered Flight / Ornithopter section).

Unidentified Aviette

Rumpler C.IV

Rebuilt ongoing for a museum (static display) from an airframe in poor condition.
Rumpler C.IV ordered in February 1917 under order number 1463/17, and with serial number 2693, this aircraft having been delivered in August 1917 for service with Fliegerabteilung Fl.Abt. 224, got shot down after only a short service life, on the 11th September 1917.

Blériot XI-2 (replica)

Blériot XI-2 replica of the plane in which Jens Tryggve Herman Gran flew 550km from Peterhead in Scotland to Orrevatnet in Norway on 30 July 1914. Engine was an original one restored.
The real aircraft is seen in Ep. 22 of Norsk Films revy.

Charles Boutard at the controls of the (Poulain-Renneindecker ?)

Borel-Morane Monoplane

Jules Védrines landing on the beach at San Sebastián, 25 May 1911. The 'Paris-Madrid' type was a Borel-Morane, race number 14, sometimes known as Morane-Saulnier Type A (the partners Morane-Saulnier and Borel parted ways at the end of 1911 to pursue their industrial aeronautical activities separately). The type came second in the Circuit of Britain (July 1911) again with Védrines at the controls.

Caudron G.3

Pierre Chanteloup (29 may 1890 - 10 August 1976).

Antoinette IV

Wright Flyer

1911 : Wright Flyer at Weimar with M. Beese (not on this screenshot but at the next second).

Etrich Taube

Gothaer Waggonfabrik (LE.1 ?) alias Gotha A.I (by the Idflieg -Inspektion der Fliegertruppen / Inspectorate of Flying Troops-).

Grade II „Libelle“ alias Eindecker

Etrich Taube (various variant)

Rumpler 4C Taube N° 4.

Giulio Gavotti in front of the (early) Etrich Taube in Lybia, 1911. Note the partially deflated balloons on the right background.

Rumpler 4C Taube.

Boeing 767-3Z9

Reg. OE-LAZ Boeing 767-3Z9(ER) c/n 30331/759 of Austrian Airlines.
Built in 1999 and owned first by Lauda Air which christened it Frank Sinatra. From March 2002 till October 2004, leased to Condor and registered as D-ABUW. After that leasing, fly again as OE-LAZ and from now on always named India successively for Lauda Air, Tyrolean Airways and Austrian Airlines.

20 minutes later ...

Albatros D.III

Knoller C.II

Unidentified Aircraft

Same footage used in other movies at Frequently Seen Aircraft (Military Fixed-Wing).

Airco DH.2

Firing at an Airco DH.2

Fokker Dr.I

Fokker F.I / Dr.I (F.1 stands for Frühe / early series) s/n F.1 102/17 seen here with Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen (surnamed by the Allies the Red Baron). This aircraft was lost on 15 September 1917 with Kurt Wolff at its controls.

Another one or the serial Dr.I (end 1917 or January/February 1918).

Albatros D.V

Albatros D.V late in the World War One (Summer 1918 ?).

Farman MF.11.Bis

Nieuport 10

Deperdussin A Monoplan

Close-up on a postcard with caption :
"Nancy-Jarville, 7 and 8 April 1912
Miss MARVINGT with her Deperdussin Monoplane" (unidentified type -A or B ?- as the wing is hidding the engine).

Nieuport 11

or Nieuport 16 ?

Voisin III

Unidentified Aircraft

Fitting a 6-cylinder engine to an unidentified airframe.

?

Hansa-Brandenburg C.I

Series 26 built by Phönix (s/n 26.45)

Two Different Unidentified Aircraft

Potez 29-2

Most of the 120 French Air Force Potez 29s were used in Africa for EVASAN and liaison duties.

Hanriot LH.437

One of the two airframes built of this air ambulance for a pilot and a stretcher.

Unidentified Darmstadt Glider

Maybe Darmstadt D-19 Darmstadt II.

Unidentified Sailplane

Close to Falke RVa but the landing gear with two wheels.

Rhön-Rossiten-Gesellschaft Zögling

RRG Zögling designed in 1926 by Alexander LIPPISCH and Fritz STAMER. Built from 1928 onwards in large numbers by various manufacturers, companies, and associations; variants in 1933 and 1935 (increased wingspan).

Raab-Katzenstein Rk 26 Tigerschwalbe (aka -later- Fieseler F 1 Tigerschwalbe)

Lisel Bach and her Rk 26a "Tigerschwalbe" built as D-1616 and later registered as seen here : D-EVUK.
Liesel Bach (14 June 1905 – 22 January 1992) was one of the best German aerobatic pilot of the mid 1930s (and flight instructor).

Unidentified Aircraft

Rumpler ? logo RLV ?

Lockheed Vega 5C

Reg. NR-965Y Lockheed Vega 5C after completing the nonstop solo flight (Hawaii to Oakland, California).
Same aircraft in other movies at Frequently Seen Aircraft (Civil Fixed-Wing).

Caudron G.3

Reg. F-ABEW Caudron G III c/n 4902 piloted by Adrienne Bolland with a woman as passenger. At Aéroparc de Buc.

Heinkel He 71 B

Elly Beinhorn (30 May 1907 – 28 November 2007) and Heinkel He 71 B once modified with an enclosed cabin and a 78 hp (58 kW) Hirth HM 4 engine.
Used for a long-distance flight across Africa from 4 April to 27 July 1933, during which she covered a total distance of 28,000 km. The following year, the Heinkel 71 was lost in an accident but Elly gained nationwide fame in Germany by flying around the world.

Desoutter Mk I (Fokker F.K.41)

Reg. G-AANB Desoutter Mark I c/n D.15 (janvier 1930; Impressed by the RAF on 9 December 1941 as HM508. Scrapped in April 1944).

Dornier Do X

Of the three Dornier Do X built, two were ordered by Italy and recognizable by their engine mounts being covered by a streamlined fairing (no evidence on this screenshot but all three fooateges used feature anymously the Italian flying boat.

Dornier Merkur

Reg. D-972 Dornier Merkur (c/n 98) named Königstiger by Deutsche Luft Hansa built in 1926. Later registered D-UQET.

Junkers G 38

Reg. D-2000 (later D-AZUR) the first Junkers G 38 (c/n 3301).
Same aircraft in other movies at Frequently Seen Aircraft (Civil Fixed-Wing).

Boeing 767-3Z9

Austrian Airlines branding digitally removed but the tailplane (itself incomplete) and under fuselage SERVUS.

Various Aircraft

(background, top center to the right) :
D-248 Dornier Komet II (c/n 30.5) built in 1923;
Dz-6 (now hidding by the front upper wing) and Dz-3 : Fokker-Grulich F.II of Deutsche Luft-Reederei (Free City of Danzig), so before 1926 when the airline merged with Junkers Luftverkehr to form Deutsche Luft Hansa) ;
two unidentified single-seat or two-seat aircraft.

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Breguet 1

Melli Beese Project

Otto (AGO ?) Pusher

Diamond DA62

Various Aircraft

Melie Beese Project

Charles Boutard at the controls of the (Poulain-Renneindecker ?)

Borel-Morane Monoplane

Wright Flyer

Knoller C.II

Potez 29-2

Hanriot LH.437

Rhön-Rossiten-Gesellschaft Zögling

Raab-Katzenstein Rk 26 Tigerschwalbe (aka -later- Fieseler F 1 Tigerschwalbe)

Heinkel He 71 B

Desoutter Mk I (Fokker F.K.41)

Various Aircraft

See also