User:Aabn2424/Louise Poitevin

Louise Goujon Poitevin (June 8, 1819, Paris - April 3, 1908) was an early female balloonist.

Poitevin was a professional balloonist and parachute jumper, starting in 1845, when she made her first balloon flight from the Paris Hippodrome with her husband. In 1851, she made her first solo flight on horseback. In 1852, during a parachuting exhibition, Poitevin made a famous parachute jump in the Cremore Pleasure Gardens in London. The next day, the police arrived and, citing public outrage, closed the show. Poitevin went on to make a tour of Europe, making thirty-five descents. In 1874, she completed her last two demonstrations, in Copenhagen and Bordeaux, where she landed on a roof on horseback. By age fifty-five, she had completed 571 hot air balloon ascensions and thirty-two parachute jumps. In 1848, she married Eugene Poitevin, another balloonist.