Beatrix de Rijk

Beatrix de Rijk (1883–1958) was a pioneering Indonesian Dutch aviator. On receiving her pilot's licence from the Aéro-Club de France on 6 October 1911, she became the first Dutch woman pilot.

Early life

Born on 24 July 1883 in Surabaya in the Dutch East Indies Beatrix de Rijk was the daughter of Henriëtte Josephina van den Dungen (1850-1919), who was Javanese, and Dutch banker Augustinus Wilhelm de Rijk (1838-1905). She later described the Hanriot machine she flew in as no more than "some slats with a lot of tension wires, some aeroplane dust and a weak little engine", in which she sat "without any shelter with a threatening fuel tank above her head and no floor, but a fathomless depth under the flying seat". She changed the year of her birth to 1888 on her license as she "had to show it so often."

Some of Beatrix de Rijk's documents, including her pilot's licence and some notes, were preserved when they ended up in the possession of Wilhelm Teuben (1928–1985), a First Lieutenant in the air force and a collector.