Elsa Andersson was Sweden's

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 first female aviator

Aviator

An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...

 and stunt parachutist.

She was the daughter of a farmer in Strövelstorp in the Scania

Scania

Scania is the southernmost of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden, constituting a peninsula on the southern tip of the Scandinavian peninsula, and some adjacent islands. The modern administrative subdivision Skåne County is almost, but not totally, congruent with the...

n countryside. Her mother died when she was aged six. Her elder brother left the family and sought a new life in America.

Always showing determination and ambition, she wanted to become more than just a farmer's wife and so, aged 21, in 1920, she learned to fly, becoming Sweden's first woman pilot. Her diploma was "no. 203". Not content with that, she went to Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 to learn parachute jumping.

In 1922, Andersson was killed on her third jump in Askersund

Askersund

Askersund is a locality and the seat of Askersund Municipality, Örebro County, Sweden with 3,937 inhabitants in 2005.- Geography :The city is located in the northern bay of Lake Vättern....

, Sweden. Thousands of spectators were gathering below on the ice of the frozen lake Alsen. She had trouble releasing her parachute, which finally unfolded only at a small distance from the treetops and she crashed violently into the ground.

In 1926, the Swedish Aero Club erected a three-metre-high obelisk

Obelisk

An obelisk is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape at the top, and is said to resemble a petrified ray of the sun-disk. A pair of obelisks usually stood in front of a pylon...

 as a memorial in the place where she was found dead.

Novel and film

• In 1996 the Swedish novelist Jacques Werup
  Jacques Werup
  Jacques Werup, born January 14, 1945 in Malmö, is a Swedish musician, author, poet, stage artist and screenwriter. Werup's poetry is often associated to jazz. He was a childhood friend of Mikael Wiehe and Göran Skytte and had his first novel published in 1971...
  
   adapted her life in his novel Den ofullbordade himlen ("The Imperfect Sky").
• In 2001 the novel was the basis for the film by Jan Troell Så vit som en snö
  Så vit som en snö
  As White as in Snow is a Swedish film directed by Jan Troell. It was released in 2001. It won three Guldbagge Awards, for best film, best direction and best cinematography, and was nominated for best screenplay....
  
  (aka As White as a Snow) in which Andersson was played by the actress Amanda Ooms
  Amanda Ooms
  Amanda Ooms is a Swedish actress and writer. She has acted in both film and TV in Sweden and internationally. She was born in Kalmar, Sweden.-Partial filmography:*1986 – Bröderna Mozart*1988 – Hotel St...
  
  . The film was awarded the Swedish critics' prize for best Swedish film of the year. The film depicted her as having affairs with both sexes, but it is not clear how accurately this reflected Andersson's real life.
• Werup, Jacques: Den ofullbordade himlen. [Stockholm] : Bonnier, 1996. - ISBN 91-0-056231-9 (Swedish edition).

External links