Nancy Bird Walton
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Nancy Bird Walton, AO, OBE, DStJ (16 October 1915 – 13 January 2009) was a pioneering Australian aviator, and was the founder and patron of the Australian Women Pilots' Association.
In the 1930s, defying the traditional role of females of her time, she became a fully qualified pilot at the age of 19, and became the youngest Australian woman to gain a pilot's licence.
Born in Sydney on 16 October 1915 as Nancy Bird, she wanted to fly almost as soon as she could walk. As a teenager during the Depression in Australia, Nancy Bird found herself in the same position as many other children of the time, leaving school to assist her family. In 1933, at the age of 18, her passion drove her to take flying lessons. Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, who was the first man to fly across the mid-Pacific, had just opened a pilots' school near Sydney, and Bird was among his first pupils. Most women learnt to fly for recreation, but Bird planned to fly for a living.
When Bird was awarded a commercial pilot's licence at the age of 19, through a legacy of 200 pounds from a great aunt plus money loaned from her father(which she paid back)Nancy bought her first plane, a Gipsy Moth. Soon after Nancy Bird and her friend Peggy McKillop took off on a barnstorming tour, dropping in on country fairs and giving joyrides to people who had never seen a plane, let alone a female pilot before. Whilst touring, Bird met Reverend Stanley Drummond. He wanted her to help set up a flying medical service in outback New South Wales. In 1935, she was hired to operate an air ambulance service in outback New South Wales. It was named the Far West Children's Health Scheme. Bird's own Gipsy Moth was used as an air ambulance. She bought a better-equipped plane, and began covering territory not yet reached by the Royal Flying Doctor Service. She told others that it was rewarding but lonely work.
In 1936, Nancy Bird entered an air race from Adelaide to Brisbane, and won the Ladies' Trophy. In 1938 she decided to have a long break from flying. A Dutch airline company (KLM) invited her to do some promotional work in Europe, where she stayed for a couple of years. She returned to Australia soon after World War II broke out. She began training women in skills needed to back up the men flying in the Royal Australian Air Force. She was 24 when she married an Englishman, Charles Walton, and had two children. He preferred to call her "Nancy-Bird" rather than "Nancy", and she became generally known as "Nancy-Bird Walton". In 1950, she founded the Australian Women Pilots' Association, where she remained president for 5 years. Nancy-Bird Walton became Patron of AWPA in 1983 following the death of Lady Casey, the original Patron. In 1958, she decided to return to flying after a twenty year absence.
Throughout her life Walton was notable for her support of charities and people in need. This generous spirit saw her invested as an Officer of Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1966. She was later appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia. She was the starting block for generations of female pilots. She was never involved in an accident, despite the risks of early aviation.
The National Trust of Australia declared her an Australian Living Treasure in 1997.
The first Airbus A380 delivered to Australian national airline Qantas was named in her honour.[1] Her name on the plane was originally written "Nancy Bird Walton"[2], but Qantas respected her preference for the hyphenation that her late husband used ("Nancy-Bird"), and the hyphen was added before the plane's naming ceremony.
One of her last main interviews was for the feature length documentary film Flying Sheilas which provided a unique insight into her life along with seven other Australian female pilots.
On January 13, 2009, she died of natural causes at the age of 93.
References
- ^ Platt, Craig (2008-12-16). "Qantas receives second A380 superjumbo". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2009-01-13.
- ^ "Video showing Qantas plane "Nancy-Bird Walton" being painted for the first time". Retrieved 2009-01-27.
External links
- ABC, 2002, Australians, Nancy Bird-Walton
- Monash University, 2004, Hargrave : the Pioneers, Celebrating the bicentennial of aviation 1804-2004
- Bird, Nancy [1961] Born to Fly Angus and Robertson
- Walton, Nancy Bird [1990] 2002 My God! It's a woman: The inspiring story of one woman's courage and determination to fly HarperCollinsPublishers ISBN 0-7322-7370-6
- Aviation pioneer Nancy Bird Walton dies Sydney Morning Herald
- Aussie female air pioneer Nancy Bird Walton dies News.com.au
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