1915
Overview:
Nancy Bird-Walton was the founder of the Australian Women’s Pilots Association, which was the starting block for a proud generation of female pilots, who now fly alongside men in Australia’s skies.
Country:
Australia
Type
of hero: Trailblazer
Attributes:
Challenged conformity, strove to achieve against the odds.
Biography:
Nancy Bird was born in Sydney, NSW in 1915. When she was four, she attempted to launch herself off the backyard fence after hearing news about the Great England-Australia Race, which was gripping the country.
When she turned thirteen, she went for a joy flight in a Gypsy Moth aeroplane at a local fair, and her future was decided. She began saving for flying lessons immediately.
Despite her actions being unapproved by her father, Nancy’s first flying lesson was conducted by Charles Kingsford Smith – a legend himself. She was seventeen at the time and the year was 1933. She learned to fly at a time when women pilots where a rare breed. Given that it was “not the done thing” for women to wear long pants in those days as well, she required a degree of persistence in order that she continued in her chosen career. In the beginning Kingsford Smith didn’t take her as seriously as he should have, as Nancy only stood at five foot nothing (150cm), but she soon regained his respect.
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. Nancy’s own Gypsy Moth was used as an air ambulance. As well as saving the lives of patients by flying them to hospital, she required a good deal of skill to save her own life when using the airstrips available in those days. Often, landings had to be made in paddocks that were dotted with rabbit holes. Navigation instruments were basic and frequently road maps rather than aviation maps were needed in order to get from one place to another. She continued to rouse feathers belonging to the conservative country people she came across in her work.
Later in 1935, the state defence leader H.V.C Thorby, stated that flying was not “biologically suited “ to women, and after much pressure from politicians and colleagues, 1938 became Bird’s last year of flying for a while.
In 1939 Bird fell in love while aboard an ocean liner bound back for Australia, she was returning after undertaking aviation research in England. She was 24 when she married Englishman Charles Walton and they had two children named Anne Marie and John. While domesticity ruled for Bird-Walton at this time, her passion for flying stayed strong, and in the works was the idea to set up an Australian Women’s Pilots Association.
She founded the organisation in 1950 and Bird-Walton remained president until 1990, their motto was “skies unlimited”.
Thanks to Bird-Walton’s pioneering air days, women are now working as airline captains, helicopter musterers, search and rescue pilots, and even flying nuns. The Australian Airforce currently has ten female pilots and the Navy has eight.
Now aged eighty-four she is celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the Australian Women’s Pilot Association and recently received the honour of having a terminal at Bourke Airport, N.S.W. named after her.
Citations
& References:
Links:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/9811/07/text/national4.html
http://www.smh.com.au/news/9811/07/text/national4.html
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