Bacon, Gertrude (1874–1949)
Bacon, Gertrude (1874–1949)
British aeronaut, writer, and lecturer. Born Gertrude Bacon, April 19, 1874, in England; died Dec 22, 1949; dau. of Rev. John Mackenzie Bacon (balloonist and scientist); m. Thomas J. Foggitt (chemist and botanist), 1929 (died 1934).
During 1st flight of Stanley Spencer's 84-foot-long craft, became 1st woman to fly in an airship (1904); on a Farman plane, was the 1st Englishwoman to fly in an airplane (1909); was the 1st passenger in a hydroplane (1912) and 1st woman in a hydromonplane; lectured in England, wrote books on flying, and was active in botany; codiscovered Carex microglochin, a species of rush new to Britain (1923); writings include: Memories of Land and Sky (1928) and The Record of an Aeronaut: Being the Life of John M. Bacon (1907).