Julia Clark

Julia Clark (1880-1912) was the third woman to receive a pilot's license (on May 19, 1912) from the Aero Club of America, and the first to die in an air crash.

Julia was born in London, and emigrated to the U.S., became a citizen, married a westerner, and settled in Denver. Clark enrolled at the Curtiss Flying School at North Island in San Diego, and, like Scott, soloed in a Curtiss plane and then joined an exhibition team. On June 17, 1912, she decided to make a test flight around duck; visibility was poor, and, on takeoff, one wing struck a tree limb, and the plane tumbled to the ground, pinning her beneath the wreckage. She was the first American women to die in an air accident, her death preceding Harriet Quimby's by two weeks.