Diana Barnato Walker
Diana Barnato Walker (born Barnato , born January 15, 1918 - April 28, 2008 ) was an English pilot and the first British woman to fly faster than sound.
Life
Diana Barnato was the younger of the two daughters of the financier and well-known racing driver Woolf Barnato and his wife Dorothy Maitland at Falk of White Plains, New York. Her grandfather was the South African diamond magnate Barney Barnato . When Diana was four years old, her parents separated. A few years later, the mother remarried. The new man was Richard Butler Wainwright, a highly decorated fighter pilot from the First World War . A paternal uncle was also a pilot. Jack Barnato flew for the Royal Naval Air Service during World War II . Barnato's family was very wealthy and enjoyed social recognition in the highest circles. Diana was introduced to King Edward VIII as an 18-year-old debutante .
Diana Barnato was interested in aviation from an early age and decided to become a pilot at the age of 20. She received her basic training at the Brooklands Flying Club in Surrey on Tiger Moth biplanes . She turned out to be very talented and completed her first solo flight after just six hours of flying.
After the outbreak of World War II , Barnato volunteered. In 1940 she served as a nurse in France until the Battle of Dunkirk . After the evacuation from France, she drove in the London ambulance, which was bombed by the Air Force .
In February 1940, the Air Transport Auxiliary was set up to transfer aircraft. Since there was a chronic shortage of trained combat pilots due to the high losses, civilian pilots were recruited, which soon included women.
Diana Barnato was one of the Air Transport Auxiliary's first female pilots . She passed the aptitude test on March 9, 1941 in White Waltham ( Berkshire ) on a Tiger Moth . She began her basic training in November 1941 and completed it in May 1942.
After completing her training, the young pilot initially flew single-engine, less powerful aircraft. After further training, she transferred high-performance hunters such as B. Supermarine Spitfire , Hawker Hurricane , North American P-51 and Hawker Tempest . Barnato expanded her training and later also flew twin-engine machines such as B. Armstrong Whitworth Whitley , Bristol Blenheim , de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito , North American B-25 and Vickers Wellington .
Barnato served in the Air Transport Auxiliary until its dissolution in late 1945. Diana Barnato Walker flew 80 types of aircraft during her active service. This included 260 convicted Spitfires .
After Diana Barnato's fiancé Squadron Leader Humphrey Gilbert was killed on a training flight in his Spitfire , she married Wing Commander Derek Ronald Walker on May 6, 1944 . Walker crashed on November 14, 1945 in bad weather with a P-51 and was also killed. Diana Barnato Walker later had an affair with Air Commodore Whitney Straight . Straight, like Diana's father, had been a successful racing driver before the war. Their son Barney was born in 1947. Diana had decided never to marry again after Walker's death and did not ask Straight to leave his wife.
Diana Barnato Walker remained loyal to aviation even after the war. For many years she flew for the Women's Junior Air Corps (later: Girls' Venture Corps ), a British youth organization committed to aeronautical training for young women. In July 1948, after an engine failure of a training machine of the Women's Junior Air Corps , she again proved her flying skills when she landed her burning Fairchild safely in pure glider flight after draining all fuel.
On August 26, 1963 Diana Barnato Walker reached a speed of Mach 1.65 as co-pilot of Squadron Leader Ken Goodwin in an English Electric Lightning T4 . She became the first British woman to break the sound barrier. Cancer was diagnosed shortly after the record flight. She had to be operated three times.
Diana Barnato Walker was a member of the Royal Aeronautical Society and was made a Member of the British Empire in 1965 for her services to aviation .
Diana Barnato Walker died on April 28, 2008 at the age of 90.
Web links
- Biography on the homepage of the Royal Air Force ( English )
- Obituary in the New York Times, May 12, 2008
- Obituary in the Times of May 8, 2008
Individual evidence
- ↑ She flew Spitfires and was the first woman to break the sound barrier - the very racy life of the original fast lady Daily Mail of May 6, 2008 (Engl.)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Barnato Walker, Diana |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Barnato, Diana |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British pilot |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 15, 1918 |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 28, 2008 |