My (German) father always told me that his aunt was the first female pilot observer in World War One, meaning that she flew across the front. I have no further information regarding this, I don't even know, which front he was talking about. Also, I don't know if she has any living descendants, I could ask. I spent a lot of time in libraries, sruching old lists of pilots or reading about the history of female pilots. But I only get that there were no female pilots in German military during World War One, because they were only allowed to make a pilot's licence for civilians. I know, this is a tough one to ask, but can anybody tell me, if it is possible that there was a female pilot in the German army during WWI? And how I could find information on her?
To my knowledge there were no german female combat pilots during World War I. However, there were a few female test, and combat pilots during that time:
Melli Beese, accepted as Germany's first female pilot, she had her own flying school, trained several well known pilots of the era, and patented several aircraft. However, her marriage to a Frenchman resulted in her being labeled as a "persona non grata" and was unable to work on German airfields.
Princess Eugenie M Shakhovskaya, Russia's first female combat pilot, reportedly flew reconnaissance missions, ultimately charged with attempting treason, died during a gunfight while under the influence.
Lyubov A. Golanchikova, not much is known about her, she trained aviators during the Russian civil war, eventually fled the country, becoming a cab driver in New York.
Marie Marvingt, a french aviator, is thought to be the very first woman to ever fly in a combat mission, flew bombing squadrons over Germany, and helped establish some of the first air ambulances throughout the world.
Hélène Dutrieu, an early Belgian aviation pioneer, Dutrieu participated in the war as an ambulance driver, and later became the director of the Val-de-Grâce military hospital.
And finally Nedeshda Degtereva another russian pilot who has the distinction of being the first female pilot to be wounded during combat.
Gosh, if you had asked about WWII I would have been all over that. But in World War I, the only female 'combat' pilots that I know of are Russian. Here's a start: http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/women_combat_pilots_ww1.html. That's not actual evidence, or even scholarly, more like a conversation, but searching around for those different names might be a start.
I'll do some more searching when I get home now that I've learned how to search for this type of information (I wrote my senior thesis on the British and American women pilots of WWII, and started poking around in Russia and Germany because it's just so interesting). Hopefully we can find something out!