The fiancées of the air
Jacqueline Auriol
Jacqueline Auriol does not go unnoticed in the Parisian high society. Sportswoman, beautiful, immense blue eyes, she considered as one of the most elegant women of the capital. But in 1948, at the age of 31, Mrs Auriol turns the back in this worldly existence which does not satisfy hers taste for the action. Jacqueline is in love with speed. By challenge and by taste of the sport, she learns to pilot on a Stampe biplane and obtains her licenses, first and second degree. The aviation becomes then a passion and she passes in the air acrobatics to perfect.
On July 11th, 1949, she is a victim of a terrible accident on the Seine while she is passenger of an amphibian plane which flies too low. It is the hard blow: the device crashes on the river, in Mureaux. She has several fractured skulls and is disfigured. She undergoes in two years about twenty surgical operations. Between two interventions in private hospitals French or American, she slogs away to become a professional pilot of public transports. She obtains her license in 1950. She picks up while being at it the license for helicopters.
The amphibian plane SCAN 30 prototype bumped in Mureaux (1949)
On December 21st, 1952, she beats a feminine speed record on jet plane Mistral in the average of 855,92 kph. The American Jacqueline Cochran takes back to her this record on May 20th, 1953 in 1 050 kph.
On May 11th, 1951, she is crowned " the fastest woman of the world " on closed circuit 100 km: the 818 km/hour.
On August 15th, 1953, Jacqueline Auriol is the European first one to break the sound barrier, aboard a Mystère II.
In July, 1953, Jacqueline Auriol marks a point. President Eisenhower grants her personally the trophy international Harmon: The Goncourt prize of the pilots. The Frenchwoman is the whooping idol of the country. Insatiable, the Parisian attacks a reserved domain to the men. On April 20th, 1954, she enters the School of the flight crew of essays and reception ( EPNER) and on November 18th, 1955, she is patented test pilot in flight.
On May 31st, 1955, she takes back the speed record with 1 151 kph on Dassault Mystère IV.
On June 22nd, 1959, she beats the record in 1 849 kph on Mirage III C then on June 14th, 1963 in 2 030 kph on Mirage III R. The Dassault company asks her then to realize records on the executive jet Mystère Falcon 20.
In 1962, she is credited with 1.849 km/hour on the French fighter Mirage III-C, then of 2.030 km/hour on the Mirage III-R in 1963. But Jacqueline Cochran, who became her best friend, will have the last word in this sprint: the American reaches 2.097 km/hour on Lockheed F-104.
Jacqueline Auriol received four times the Harmon Trophy, one of the most prestigious aeronautical awards, in 1951, in 1952, in 1955 and in 1956, was a prize-winner of the Prize Roland Peugeot of the Academy of the sports of the most beautiful French mechanical exploit of the year in 19631, and already prize-winner of the Prize Henri de la Meurthe of the Academy of sports in 1951, rewarding a sports fact which can pull a material, scientific or moral progress for the humanity.
Test pilot in the center of essays during flight of Brétigny, Jacqueline Auriol tested hundred of models of military planes, among which the prestigious Mistral-2, Mystère-IV, one of the first fighters endowed with wings in arrows, and Mystère-20.
She is the first woman to fly on Concorde, but as test pilot. Only two women will be professional pilots, British Barbara Harmer and the Frenchwoman Béatrice Vialle.
Jacqueline Auriol was Great Officer of the Legion of Honor.
Jacques Chirac, president of the French Republic, paid tribute to Jacqueline Auriol in February, 2000 by declaring: "This great lady embodied for the French people, during decades, the courage and the modernity. Her incredible exploits of the 50s and 60 had been worth to him(her) a world fame and made the pride of our country. Her name will remain for ever associated with the heroic history of the aviation and the aeronautical research. "
Nobody, maybe, so much reflected the alive image of the irresistible Frenchwoman. In the years " 50 ", at the top of the fame, Jacqueline Auriol embodied at the same time the feminine charm, the intelligence and the courage with the eyes of the whole world. She died in the evening of Friday, February 11th, 2000 at the age of 82, in the term of an extraordinary life.
The aviation is in mourning of one of her best pilots.
Le 11 mai 1951 après son record de vitesse sur Vampire. Photo DR-Dassault
(Collection Jean Liron)
To the commands of the prototype Mystery 20 Salon-de-Provence 1985 (Collection Jean Liron)
Salon-de-Provence 1985, with Jacques Lecame,
test pilot LeO & SNCASE
(Photo Daniel Liron)
Jacqueline Auriol, le ciel pour royaume - Obituary article, La Dépêche, in February 13th, 2000
EDITOR'S NOTE - Very few complete texts exist in English language about Jacqueline Auriol. So this work is a mixture of several texts in French, translated by myself in the care to make it understandable without too many faults of syntax. Thank you.