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I enjoyed every moment of the trip and when the time finally came for us to land I felt greatly disappointed - the two hours spent in the balloon had sped like minutes and I am anxiously awaiting another opportunity when I can ascend in a larger balloon and with a brisker wind."  Mrs. Thompson also stated that she planned to try to convert her friends in the Wilkinsburg Automobile Club to ballooning.

Since women flying in aircraft even as passengers was such a rarity, "firsts" were noted for women passengers as well as for women pilots. Mrs. Hart O. Berg, wife of the Wright brothers' European representatives, was the first American woman to fly as a passenger in an airplane. She made a two-minute three-second flight with Wilbur Wright at Auvers, France, in 1908.  Mrs. Berg is also credited with having inspired the famous lady's fashion of the day, the "hobble skirt."  Apparently, a French couturiere was quite taken with the manner in which Mrs. Berg walked away from the aircraft with her long skirt still tied around her ankles.  She had done this to keep it from blowing in the wind during her flight.

The first women to fly as an airplane passenger in America was Mrs. Ralph Van Deman of Washington, D.C., a good friend of the Wright brothers' sister Katherine.  Mrs. Van Deman developed an interest in aviation, and when Wilbur and Orville were giving flight instruction to U.S. Army officers at College Park, Maryland, in the fall of 1909, Mrs. Van Deman often went with