amy johnson aviator...

Amy Johnson, aviator.

Amy Johnson (1903-1941) was a pioneering British aviator who became the first female pilot to fly solo from London to Australia. It took her 19 days to complete the flight.

Her flight, in 1930, was plagued throughout by poor weather, engine malfunctions, and accidents, but although discouraged, through sheer will and determination, she carried on.

When she returned to Britain, she received

congratulations

from many dignitaries including the prime minister, and an honor, the CBE (Commander of the British Empire) from the king and queen. Songs were written in her honor, and her image was all over the newspapers. The “Daily Mail” wanted her to do a publicity tour around Britain, but Johnson needed time to rest and recover.

Johnson made further record-breaking flights to Japan in 1931, and to Cape Town, South Africa in 1932, and again in 1936. After the disappearance of Amelia Earhart in 1937, however, she cut back on her flying, and took up gliding instead. “The silence,” she wrote in an article on gliding, “broken only by the soft swish of the wind in my hair, is rapture after the deafening roar to which I have been accustomed for so many years.”

But during World War II, Johnson was recruited by the Air Transport Auxiliary, who transported Royal Air Force aircraft around Britain. On January 5 1941, she went off course in adverse weather conditions, and bailed out as her plane crashed into the Thames Estuary. An attempt to save by her life was made by the commander, Walter Fletcher, of a passing British vessel, the HMS Haslemere Fletcher died of exposure in the attempt, and Johnson's body was never recovered. She was 37 years old.

The cause of her death has not been solved, and the reason for her flight was never revealed. It is highly likely she was on a war-related government mission.