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= Sarah Van Deman Lang =

Sarah Van Deman was the first woman in the United States to fly in an airplane. On October 27, 1909, Wilbur Wright took Mrs. Van Deman up in a Wright Model B for 4 minutes at the College Park Airport in College Park, Maryland. She was a friend of Wright's sister, Katherine Wright and the wife of Captain Ralph Van Deman of the United States Army.

Early Life
Sarah “Sadi” Van Deman was born as Sarah McCune Rice in 1880 in Dixon, California. She was the only child of wealthy Californians, Coffee Adams and Jessie Rice. Her mother was the daughter of Senator Henry E. McCune (Democrat) of Solano and Yolo counties in California.

Sarah grew up on a ranch and was such an adventurous child that employees called her "Jack." This was a nickname that grew to become "Lady Jack," as she got older. In particular, she loved the outdoors and horseback riding.

In 1903, at the age of 23, she married Captain Ralph Van Deman of the 21st Infantry, and with him, she traveled to places like the Philippines, where Ralph was stationed for a few years. In 1907, the couple moved back to Washington, D.C. and it was there that Mrs. Van Deman met the Wrights.

Interest in Aviation
In 1908, Orville and Wilbur Wright were in the DC area, demonstrating their airplane for the U.S. Army Signal Corps in Fort Myers, Virginia. Their sister Katharine also joined them there after Orville was injured in a fatal crash. It is unclear exactly when and why Mrs. Van Deman was introduced to them, but by 1909, newspapers reported that the Wrights accepted dinner invitations from the Van Demans, which was something they rarely did. Mrs. Van Deman's mother also noted later her daughter had become close friends with Katharine. She regularly watched the Wright brothers fly in Fort Myers, and when they started training Army officers on how to fly at the College Park Airfield, she visited almost daily. It is a testament to her close friendship with the Wrights, when Wilbur, who refused all other women’s requests to fly with him in America, agreed to fly Mrs. Van Deman.

On the morning of October 27th 1909, Sarah Van Deman became the first woman in the United States to fly in an airplane. She was flew by Wilbur Wright at the College Park Airport, where Wilbur was teaching Army Signal Corps officers to fly his Wright Model B. No one other than her husband and the Army Signal Corps at the airfield knew a woman was going to fly that day until Sarah walked up and sat down next to Wilbur in the airplane. She had her skirt tied down with string across her ankles to make sure her skirt did not catch in any of the airplane's open gears. (This was a common practice for early female airplane passengers, which in turn inspired Paul Poiret's hobble skirt in 1910-11 ) Initially, they had a false start when the airplane did not get enough trust from the catapult to lift off, but on the second try, they got in the air. They flew for 4 minutes at about 60 feet and then returned to the ground.

Afterward, Ralph Van Deman said that there would finally be peace at home, as flying became her obsession. Yet, that was not the end of her ambition to become among the first women aviators. The next day, Mrs. Van Deman told The Baltimore Sun that Wilbur Wright allowed her to control the levers and fly the aircraft for a few seconds. She then claimed she would not be satisfied until she could fly as much as she wanted. It continued to state that Mrs. Van Deman wanted to buy an airplane and that Wilbur promised to teach her. Her mother also told a newspaper that she believed her daughter would become apart of the great women aviators of the time. However, that was not meant to be. Soon after, Wilbur finished teaching at College Park and the Army closed the flight school after two officer pilots crashed.

Before Wilbur Wright flew Sarah Van Deman, he asked her husband’s permission. This detail was noted in many newspapers of the time and caused one newspaper to entitle their article on the flight, “Gets Hubby’s Consent and Takes Trip in Aeroplane.”

Later Life
In 1910, Sarah Van Deman annulled her marriage to Cpt. Ralph Van Deman and remarried Navy Lieutenant Commander Charles Jonas Lang in 1911. Ralph also remarried Irene Kingcombe, and she became the new Mrs. Van Deman. Consequently, some places state that Irene was the first woman to fly in the United States, but Sarah Rice McCune Van Deman Lang holds that title.

In 1927, Mrs. Van Deman Lang went with her husband on a trip throughout Africa that lasted more than a year and across more than 23,400 miles. She wrote of her adventures in a book called "Critters in Africa," under the pseudonym Lady Jack. The book was published in 1931.

Sarah Van Deman died on March 26, 1967 in Monterey County, California at the age of 86. She is now buried in Dixon Cemetery in California.