Women in Aviation

Women in Aviation by Julian Hale

Paperback by Shire Publications (27 Jun. 2019)

Amy Johnson and Amelia Earhart may be the most famous trailblazing women within the world of early aviation, but there were many others. From the Wright brothers’ sister Katherine, who was awarded the Légion d’honneur, to Mary, Lady Heath, the first woman to pilot a light aircraft from South Africa to England, the history of aviation is peppered with pioneering women who broke down the barriers of this male-dominated field. This is the story of those female aviators: not only the widely celebrated records of Johnson and Earhart, but also the now lesser-known exploits of those such as Mary, Lady Bailey, who was awarded an OBE in 1930. This essential guide also covers the new opportunities carved out for women during the Second World War, the age of space flight and women’s ongoing work in aviation in the modern age of equality.

Julian Hale read History at Lancaster University and completed an MA on the RFC and RAF in the Middle East during the First World War. In 2012, he joined the RAF Museum and catalogued the Jack Bruce Collection, an archive of First World War and inter-war aircraft and personnel images. He was the Assistant Curator for the Museum’s Centenary Programme until June 2018 and is the author of The RAF: 1918-2018.