2020 10 Peter Stammers
“Those Magnificent Ladies in their Flying Machines – Female Pilots throughout the Years
Monday 5th October 2020
On Monday 5th October the combined Rotary and Inner Wheel Clubs, via Zoom, enjoyed a talk by Rotarian Peter Stammers from the Rotary Club of Nonsuch about “Those Magnificent Ladies in their Flying Machines – Female Pilots throughout the Years”.
Peter is an expert on aviation history and took us through the history of flight literally from the very beginning: I particularly liked the story of how the US authorities actually denied the Wright brothers recognition for the first powered flight, and they were so annoyed that they initially donated the legendary aircraft to a UK museum!
Peter took us from the first woman pilot in the UK, Hilda Hewlett, in 1910 who ran the world’s first Flying School, through several of the unsung heroes of the Air Transport Auxiliary of the second World War, right up to Group Captain Sara Mackmin of the RAF and astronaut Karen Nyberg. It was a very interesting and sometimes poignant talk, interspersed with fascinating and quirky facts – I certainly did not know that Amelia Earhart was also an editor of Cosmopolitan magazine, or that the author, Barbara Cartland, had a world record for aero-towing! It was notable how many World Records and World Firsts for flying were achieved by women: one of the first commercial female pilots, Jackie Cochran, held more flying records than anyone, of any gender.
Tim Melville Walker
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