Who became the first woman to pilot a balloon solo in 1805?

Sophie Blanchard became the first woman to pilot a balloon solo in 1805.

Born Sophie Armant, she married balloonist Jean-Pierre Blanchard and learned ballooning through his demonstrations. After his death in 1809, she became a professional balloonist and one of the best-known aeronauts in Napoleonic France.

Blanchard performed ascents for public audiences and became associated with spectacular nighttime displays, fireworks and aerial demonstrations. Napoleon appointed her chief air minister of ballooning festivities, and later she served under Louis XVIII.

She died in 1819 when fireworks carried aboard her balloon ignited the envelope during an ascent over the Tivoli Gardens in Paris. She is sometimes confused with Élisabeth Thible, who was the first woman known to fly in a balloon, but Thible did not make the same solo-piloting achievement.