Edith Maud Cook

Edith Maud Cook (1 September 1878 – 14 July 1910), was an early British parachutist, balloonist, and aviator, recognized as Britain's first female pilot.

Clinging on she continued to gain height and drifted during the night before she finally came down some twenty-five miles from her starting point.

Edith was a pupil at the Blériot flying school[citation needed] and at Claude Grahame-White's school at Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques in 1909 or early 1910,[4] where she learnt to fly; and, according to the journals of the day, became the first British woman to pilot a plane.

It was reported that another gust of wind caught the parachute and she fell from the factory roof sustaining serious injuries.

Apparently Dolly Shepherd had been due to make the jump at Coventry but Cook took her place.