Magnificent Women and Flying Machines

The talk covers the lives of the British women who achieved real firsts in aviation, from the very first British woman to go up in a balloon in 1785 to the first woman who gained her pilots’ license (her husband flatly refused to allow her to take flying lessons, so she did it under a different name!) and from the first woman to make a parachute descent (brought up in a Victorian workhouse, she went on to parachute from 3,000 feet over Cheltenham in 1889, an amazing story) right up to the fabulous women of the ATA in the second world war, to Diana Barnato who was the first British woman to go through the sound barrier and finally Helen Sharman, the first British woman in space. She is the only woman in the book still alive and it was fascinating to talk to her about the experience of circling the earth so high up.

Each woman has the most wonderful story, not one of them came from aviation backgrounds, and my talk is really about their personal stories, how or why they got involved in what in those days was a new and very male orientated field. Some of the stories are funny, some are breathtaking…   but it is all a fascinating look at different eras and a snapshot into the different lives of women in more restricted times. My talk is entertaining rather than technical, although of course some aviation details are covered.