Pioneer of aviation and Glory of sport, Maryse Bastié (1898 – 1952) broke many records in her time, both in distance and duration. Alongside Adrienne Bolland and Hélène Boucher, she campaigned for women's right to vote.
The birth of a passion
Marie-Louise Bombec was born on February 27, 1898 in Limoges, in rue de Beaumont, which would later be renamed rue Maryse Bastié. Fatherless at age eleven, she comes up against the hardship of life early on as her family struggles to survive. Having passed the primary school certificate, Maryse works in a shoe factory as a leather stitcher to help meet the needs of the family. She marries for the first time but the union ends in divorce and their son does not survive.
During the First World War, Maryse corresponded with a war godson, the pilot lieutenant Louis Bastié. In 1922, they married and, alongside her aviator husband, Maryse discovered a passion for aviation. After taking flying lessons, she obtained her pilot's license in Bordeaux in 1925. Barely a week after obtaining her license, she achieved a first feat by passing under the ferry bridge in Bordeaux.
Records
In November 1925, Maryse Bastié made her first plane trip, flying from Bordeaux to Paris in six stages. The following year, Louis died in a plane crash, but Maryse did not give up flying. For six months, she worked as a flight instructor until her school closed. She then earns her living by giving first flights and doing aerial advertising.
Having bought her own plane, a Caudron C.109, Maryse participates in races and sets French and international records. In 1929, she broke the women's record for the longest flight by flying for 26:44. The record having been taken from her by Léna Bernstein, she undertakes to recover it. In September 1930, she pushes the limits of exhaustion and lack of sleep by flying for 37h55. The following year, she broke a distance record by flying 3,000 kilometers from France to Russia. The prowess earned him the Knight's Cross of the Legion of Honor.
Maryse Bastié Aviation
Maryse Bastié joins two other pioneering aviators, Hélène Boucher and Adrienne Bolland, in their fight for the right to vote. In 1935, she created her aviation school. In 1936, she crossed the Atlantic from Dakar to Natal in 15 hours 5 minutes. During World War II, she volunteered with the Red Cross; this activity will allow him to gather information on the occupant. Pushed by a German soldier, she fractures her elbow and her wound will never heal completely; Maryse will no longer drive.
After the war, Maryse was hired at the Flight Test Center, in the public relations department. Maryse Bastié died on July 6, 1952, in the crash of a plane in which she was a passenger.