Carmela Combe
Carmela Combe Thomson (1898 – 10 May 1984) was the first Peruvian woman to become an aviator and the second Peruvian to earn a driver’s license. She learned to drive at age 14 and began aviation training in 1920 at Lima’s National Aeronautics Company, part of the Curtiss Aeroplane Company, at its Bellavista airfield. At 20 she joined the Civil Aviation School of Bellavista, studying under American pilot Lloyd R. Moore. She also loved auto racing and competed in cars and motorcycles.
On 6 May 1921 she made her first solo flight in a Curtiss Oriole after four hours of instruction, despite objections from many male colleagues. Her flying career faced a serious setback on 9 July when an engine failed during a payroll flight from San Vicente de Cañete, forcing an emergency landing in Chorrillos. The failure was caused by using ordinary gasoline instead of 100-octane fuel. She survived but injured her spine and became deaf in one ear.
Undeterred, she borrowed money to buy a Curtiss biplane, which crashed in Ancash a few months later, killing pilot Emilio Romance to whom she had lent the aircraft. Her mother urged her to quit flying, but she persisted and, in 1922, earned her pilot’s license from Elmer Faucett, founder of Faucett Perú. She later traveled to France, married Julio Bardi, and flew alongside famous pilot Marcel Doret. She retired from aviation in 1932.
Combe wrote about social issues for Mundial magazine under the pen name “Marisabidilla.” She received two awards for her aviation work: in 1960 the Peruvian Cross for Aeronautical Merit from the Peruvian Air Force, recognizing her as a pioneer of civil aviation, and in 1982 the Jorge Chávez Dartnell merit medal from the Ministry of Aeronautics. Carmela Combe died on 10 May 1984 after a long illness.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 16:28 (CET).