April 1, 1921 Adrienne Bollard, test pilot for the French airplane manufacturer Caudron, flew over the Andes Mountains in an open cockpit biplane. She skimmed the tops of mountains in bitter cold, thin air at an altitude of 14,750 feet, the top of her plane’s range. The French Consul refused to attend her landing celebration because he thought the flight was an April Fool’s joke.
