Who was the first woman to fly in a hot-air balloon, in France in 1784?

Élisabeth Thible was the first woman to fly in a hot-air balloon, in France in 1784.

Thible flew from Lyon on 4 June 1784 aboard a balloon called La Gustave. She took the place of a male passenger who had withdrawn and reportedly wore a costume associated with the Roman goddess Minerva during the flight. The balloon was operated by Monsieur Fleurant, who had been scheduled to fly with the original passenger.

Her journey came only months after the first free human balloon flight. Thible was not the first woman to pilot a balloon, but she is recognized as the first woman known to have made a balloon flight. That distinction matters because later women became celebrated professional balloonists and pilots.

Sophie Blanchard, for example, became a prominent balloonist decades afterward and served as an aerial entertainer for Napoleon. Thible’s brief flight is less famous, but it marks an important early milestone in women’s participation in aviation.