First Australian woman to obtain a pilot's licence?

[old man emu]

Who was the first Australian woman to obtain a pilot's licence?

 

AUSTRALIA'S PIONEER AIRWOMAN. - The Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld. : 1866 - 1939) - 24 Jan 1920

 

Although the comments at the bottom of the article howl "sexist:

 

OME

 

 

[FlyingVizsla]

It's a moot point - first Australian with an overseas licence or first with an Australian licence flying in Australia, or first pilot (unlicensed because they weren't granted to women)

 

Millicent Bryant is the first woman to gain an Australian licence. Others had flown in Australia before her, piloting gliders.

 

Sister Hilda Hope McMaugh (in OME's article) was an Australian woman who gained a pilot's licence in England, but could not use it in Australia as women were not permitted to fly there.

 

A brief summary

 

Early Australian female aviators - Wikipedia

 

Went looking for the Australian Aviation Hall of Fame - their website is "missing"

 

 

[flying dog]

So where does Nancy Bird Walton fit in to the story?

 

 

[FlyingVizsla]

So where does Nancy Bird Walton fit in to the story?

1909 First woman to fly (not licenced) Florence Taylor - glider

1927 First woman to get an Australian licence, Millicent Bryant, after the ban on women holding licences in Australia was lifted. Others followed close behind, enough to stage the Ladies Oaks Race that year.

 

From then on, women started setting records through the 1930's

 

Nancy was born 1915. At thirteen she was reading Swoffer's Learning to Fly while working in her father's store at remote Mount George NSW. At 17yrs she took her earnings and went to Sydney determined to get a licence. Charles Kingsford Smith had recently opened his flying school at Mascot and Nancy was one of his first students. September 1933 (after about a month's tuition) she gained her A Licence. She went on to get her B Licence two years later, becoming the youngest female commercial pilot in the British Empire. Her father helped her buy a Gypsy Moth and together with Peggy McKillop (later Kelman), the only other woman with a Commercial, they went barnstorming to earn a living. They covered over 20,000NM in 3 months.

 

Nancy went on to fly a nursing sister around remote areas from Bourke NSW for the Far West Health Scheme. She mortgaged herself to the hilt and ordered a Leopard Moth. It was quite a struggle to find remote properties, places to land, in sparse drought stricken areas, no radio or weather reports, but she did 500 accident free hours. Eventually the Scheme ran out of funds and she moved to Queensland doing 14,000NM in charter and ambulance work. Eventually she sold her plane, paid her debts and was left with what she had when she entered aviation. "She had gained neither fame nor fortune, but she had proven herself by earning a living in the most male dominated field of all."

 

Nancy Bird (Mrs Walton) became famous after the War when "she stepped from the cockpit to the podium and is Australia's First Lady of aviation". She founded the Australian Women Pilots' Association in 1950, was a member of the 99's. She has written books, been conferred with honorary degrees, OBE, Dame of the Knights of Malta, A.O. She did return to flying briefly in 1958, coming 5th in the American Powder Puff Derby.

 

- Information and quotes from Australian Women Pilots, AWPA, 1995 and "My God - It's a Woman" Nancy Walton