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Bessie Coleman

贝西·科尔曼

Bessie Coleman was the first African American and Native American woman pilot. She was known for her daring stunt tricks in the air and performed for audiences in both the United States and Europe. Coleman was born on January 26, 1892, in Atlanta, Texas, to a large family. She grew up in Texas and briefly attended college at the Colored Agricultural and Normal University in Oklahoma before dropping out due to a lack of tuition money.

贝西·科尔曼是第一位非裔美国人和美国原住民女飞行员。她以大胆的空中特技表演而闻名，并为美国和欧洲的观众表演。科尔曼1892年1月26日出生在得克萨斯州亚特兰大的一个大家庭。她在得克萨斯州长大，曾短暂就读于俄克拉荷马州有色农业师范大学，后来因交不起学费而辍学。

In 1915, Coleman moved to Chicago to join her brothers. They served in World War I and told her about how women in France were more commonly allowed to fly airplanes, unlike in the United States. This inspired Coleman to apply to flight schools across the United States, but she was rejected from all of them due to her being African American and a woman. Undeterred, Coleman began taking Frenches and applied to flight schools in France, which were more welcoming.

1915年，科尔曼搬到芝加哥与她的兄弟们团聚。他们曾在第一次世界大战中服役，并告诉她与美国不同，法国女性通常被允许驾驶飞机。这激发了科尔曼申请美国各地的飞行学校，但由于她是非裔美国人和女性，所有学校都拒绝了她。科尔曼没有气馁，开始上法语课，并申请了在法国更为友好的飞行学校。

Coleman was eventually accepted at the Caudron Brothers’ School of Aviation in France and formally received her international pilot’s license on June 21, 1915. To earn money for her own plane, Coleman went on speaking tours and showed films of her flights to audiences all over, with the caveat that the places she went to could not discriminate against African Americans. In 1922, she became the first African American woman to complete a public flight and audiences were thrilled with her loop-the-loop and Figure 8 tricks in her plane. She also became known for giving flight lessons and inspiring both Africans Americans and women to fly planes.

科尔曼最终被法国考德龙兄弟航空学院录取，并于1915年6月21日正式获得国际飞行员执照。为了挣自己飞机的钱，科尔曼进行了巡回演讲，并向各地的观众放映了她的飞行电影，但她的要求是，她去的地方不能歧视非裔美国人。1922年，她成为第一位完成公开飞行的非裔美国女性，观众对她在飞机上的绕圈和8字形技巧感到兴奋不已。她还因教授飞行课程和激励非裔美国人和女性驾驶飞机而闻名。

Coleman was involved in several serious plane accidents early in her career but was able to recover and fly again. On April 30, 1926, Coleman was a passenger on a flight with a mechanic, William Wills. While they were flying, a wrench got caught in the engine and Wills lost control of the plane, causing it to flip over. Coleman was not wearing a seatbelt and most planes at this time did not have a roof over the passengers, so Coleman fell out of the plane and died in the crash. Her legacy lived on through flying clubs for African American women named in her honor, and she was commemorated on a United States postage stamp in 1995.

科尔曼在职业生涯早期曾遭遇过几次严重的飞机事故，但她都得以康复并再次飞行。1926年4月30日，科尔曼和一位名叫威廉·威尔斯的机修工一起乘坐飞机。当他们飞行时，一把扳手卡在了发动机上，威尔斯失去了对飞机的控制，导致飞机翻转。科尔曼没有系安全带，而此时大多数飞机乘客的头顶都没有顶棚保护，因此科尔曼从飞机上摔了下来，在坠机中死亡。她的遗产通过以她的名字命名的非裔美国女性飞行俱乐部得以延续，而且1995年，为了纪念她，她被印在了美国的邮票上。

【Source】www.archives.gov

【Translated by】Spark Liao (廖怀宝)

【Illustration】From Bing

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