Celebrating 'The Human Arrow': aviator and cycling champ Hélène Dutrieu

That’s one hell of a chain.

And that’s one hell of a speed merchant. Meet the woman nicknamed ‘The Human Arrow’, Hélène Dutrieu: Belgian cycling world champion, motorcycle stunt rider, aviation pioneer, all round daredevil legend.

Anything she couldn’t do?

Take things easy? Born in 1877 in Tournai, by the age of 21, Dutrieu was already a multiple biking world champ, and had set a bunch of cycle speed records. Clearly finding this career path was a bit safe and sensible, she promptly pivoted into stunt riding, pioneering a new trick that saw her fling herself from a narrow take off ramp onto another landing ramp 15 metres away. X Games skills, a century before the X Games. And then, apparently still feeling her life lacked adrenaline, Dutrieu upgraded to flinging herself off yet higher ramps on a motorbike.

Sounds... crashy.

It was, frequently. Dutrieu never shied away from putting her body on the line, even suffering a shunt when first taking control of a plane in 1908 as one of history’s first female pilots. Naturally this failed to deter the Human Arrow, who within a couple of years was setting aviation endurance records, and beating male pilots in air races around the world.

Despite causing scandal when the press discovered she flew without wearing a corset – because yep, that’s the important story here – Dutrieu soon proved herself one of the gutsiest, most skilled pilots on the planet. In 1913, she became the first woman aviator to be made a member of the French Legion of Honour.

Just in time for the outbreak of the World War One. Bad news for those pesky Germans, I’m guessing?

It unquestionably would have been... had the French and Belgian military not banned female pilots. Top decision there, lads. Dutrieu appears to have taken this... let’s say tactically questionable judgement with surprisingly good grace, serving in the war as a frontline ambulance driver before running a military hospital.

So what happened next?

Dutrieu would prove that rarest of phenomena: a pioneering aviator who lived to tell the tale. She would spend her later years championing female aviation, living long enough to see the dawn of jet aircraft and commercial flight, and the merciful end of corset-based prudishness. Vive la flèche!