"C-460 Record du monde de Vitesse 1934" pullover

Hélène Antoinette Eugénie Boucher was the daughter of Léon Boucher, a Parisian architect, and Élisabeth Hélène Dureau. From an early age, she collected photos of aviators and articles about aircraft in the press covering the First World War.

After studying at the Lycée Montaigne and the Collège Sévigné, she first worked as a sales assistant in a fashion shop, but her passion for aviation soon caught up with her and, aged just 22, she made her first flight on 4 July 1930 at Orly. Make a note of that date, because just 1 year later she obtained her tourist pilot's licence on 21 June 1931, then her professional public transport pilot's licence in June 1932, making her the fourth woman in France after Adrienne Bolland, Maryse Bastié and Maryse Hilsz.

She immediately bought a small second-hand plane and took part in the Caen - Deauville air rally in July 1932. Her plane, poorly prepared, broke down. It crashed and got stuck in the branches of a tree, but she escaped unhurt.

She continued to take part in major aeronautical events, the Paris - Saigon raid began in January 1933, followed by the Angers 12-hour race in July 1933.

On 2 August, she won her first world record: the women's altitude record for a second category light aircraft, at 5,900 metres aboard her Mauboussin Corsaire with a Salmson 60 hp engine.

In September 1933, she took up aerobatics, with test pilot and aerobatics champion Michel Détroyat, her instructor, declaring at the end of her training:

"In a few months, she'll be the best acrobat in the world!"

In 1934, Hélène Boucher took up speed racing, beating the 1000 km world record for the first time on 8 August at an average speed of 409 km/h the previous record belonged to the American Amelia Earhart at... 282 km/h, and Maurice Arnoux at 393 km/h for the men.

‘We can do better!’

said Hélène Boucher

And the very next day, she set off again, with the secret ambition of taking the pure speed record held by the American May Hailip (405 kph). Hélène Boucher smashed the old record, taking it to 444 kph. She was to conquer the envied title of ‘fastest pilot in the world’.

On 30 November 1934, during a training flight, her plane, a Caudron C.430 Rafale, crashed in the forest between Voisins-le-Bretonneux and Magny-les-Hameaux. The pilots Raymond Delmotte, Fouquet and Goury, who witnessed the accident, were the first to arrive on the scene.

Hélène Boucher, seriously injured, died in the ambulance that evacuated her to Versailles hospital.

Before being buried in the cemetery in Yermenonville, the Eure-et-Loir commune where she spent her youth, a national tribute was paid to her at Saint-Louis-des-Invalides cathedral in Paris. Her coffin lay in state for two days. She was the first woman to receive such an honour.

In 3 years, she conquered 7 world RECORDS and the title of ‘fastest pilot in the world’.