Leila Marie Becomes The First Woman To Fly, Using A 'Man-lifting War Kite'. 
 
 

Mrs. Leila Marie Cody became the first woman to fly with her ascent in the 'Man-lifting War Kite' in 1902. The British Army was interested in the single-passenger-carrying kite's reconnaissance potential, for it could be flown in winds too strong for balloons. Her husband Samuel Franklin Cody, a former cowboy and gold prospector, left the United States to Britain in 1889 to set up a Wild West show.