Carmela Combe
Peruvian pioneer aviator
Carmela Combe Thomson (1898 – 10 May 1984) was the first Peruvian woman aviator and the second Peruvian to obtain a driver's license.
Biography
Carmela Combe was precocious in regard to vehicles, learning to drive a car at age 14. In 1920, she began her apprenticeship as an aviator at the National Aeronautics Company of Lima, a school belonging to the Curtiss Aeroplane Company, which had its airfield in Bellavista District.
At 20, after completing her aviation course, she enrolled in the Civil Aviation School of Bellavista, where she was a student of the American pilot Lloyd R. Moore. In addition to flying, she had a passion for auto racing, competing in both cars and motorcycles.
On 6 May 1921, after four hours of instruction and over the objections of her male colleagues, Carmela Combe had her first solo flight in a Curtiss Oriole.
Her aviation career was very short. On 9 July, after transporting money to pay the wages of farm workers in San Vicente de Cañete, she had to make an emergency landing in Chorrillos due to an engine breakdown. The mechanical failure was caused by the use of ordinary gasoline instead of 100-octane fuel. The incident was reported by El Comercio as "Pilot Moore and Miss Carmela Combe fall from high altitude.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Carmela Combe” as peruvian pioneer aviator. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as peruvian pioneer aviator. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 19, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q50411971. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1898, 1984, 1920 and 1921.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Carmela Combe”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Carmela Combe primary sources, Carmela Combe archive and Carmela research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Carmela Combe”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Carmela Combe” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.