Barbara Harmer

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Barbara Harmer (* 14. September 1953 in Loughton , Essex , † 20th February 2011 in Chichester ) was the first female Concorde - captain , the regular service transatlantic flights in supersonic conducted Mach second

Life

Barbara Harmer was born in 1953, the youngest of four sisters, in the seaside resort of Loughton, West Sussex , England. She attended a convent school, left it at the age of 15 and learned the trade of hairdressing.

Five years later, when she was working in a hairdressing business at London's Gatwick Airport , she applied for a job advertisement from the aviation authority for training as an air traffic controller . She also started taking flying lessons. After receiving her private pilot's license (PPL) at Goodwood Aviation School, she began professional pilot training, which she completed in May 1982 with approval as a commercial pilot (CPL). She initially worked for smaller airlines and got a job as a flight captain for British Caledonian Airways in March 1984 . There she flew BAC One-Eleven for three years and then long-haul on a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 .

In 1987 British Caledonian Airways merged with British Airways . At that time, the airline was already operating Concorde in Great Britain. Barbara Harmer was selected at British Airways in 1992 as the first woman to complete a six-month training and retraining on the Concorde. From March 25, 1993, Harmer was the first qualified Concorde pilot and at the end of the year she flew her first Concorde flight as First Officer to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City.

In 2001, received the Air France -Pilotin Béatrice Vialle as the second of only two women, the type rating for the Concorde. The two pilots completed around 35 flights between Paris, London and New York before Concorde ceased service in 2003. Harmer then flew on the Boeing 777 in scheduled service until the end of her professional pilot activity until 2009 .

Barbara Hamer's second passion was sailing. She often took part in international sailing events in her spare time. She lived in a house with a Mediterranean garden in Felpham , West Sussex, overlooking the English Channel. In 2010 she wanted to take part in a transatlantic sailing event with her yacht Archambault A35 . However, due to a terminal illness that suddenly appeared, she had to give up this plan. She died in 2011 at St. Wilfrid's Hospice, Chichester.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Air France - une Histoire d'Amour (French)
  2. ↑ Barbara Harmer, Obituary In: The Times on February 23, 2011 (English)
personal data
SURNAME Harmer, Barbara
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British professional pilot
DATE OF BIRTH September 14, 1953
PLACE OF BIRTH Loughton
DATE OF DEATH February 20, 2011
Place of death Chichester