Edith Ogilby Berg

Edith Ogilby Berg (born c.1868 - 1949) was the first American woman passenger on a controlled airplane flight, flown by Wilbur Wright in September 1908 and is considered a key influence in the hobble skirt as a fashion trend.

For some years she was married to Hart O. Berg, who represented the Wright Brothers' business interests in Europe.

She was a daughter of actress Louise Paullin and Robert Edwin Ogilby, who had immigrated from Britain or Ireland to California in the Gold Rush of 1849, then became a professor of drawing at the University of California-Berkeley.

He agreed, and on 7 October 1908 Berg rode as his passenger in a two-minute flight at nearby Auvours, France, thus becoming the first American woman to fly in a fixed-wing aircraft.

Foy conducted the first prosecution for “furious driving in the air” in October 1909, following the crash of a Blériot monoplane into a crowd of spectators, several of whom were injured, during a display at Port-Aviation in Viry-Chatillon.

Edith O. Berg, the first American woman to fly as a passenger in an airplane, pictured beside Wilbur Wright shortly before their takeoff at Auvers, France. [ 1 ]