Joan Hughes

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Joan Hughes
The first female pilots of the ATA Womens' Section in front of a de Havilland Tiger Moth. Right to left: Pauline Gower , Women's Division Commander, M. Cunnison (partially obscured), Winifred Crossley, Margaret Fairweather, Mona Friedlander, Joan Hughes, G. Paterson, and Rosemary Rees

Joan Hughes (born April 27, 1918 in West Ham , England , † August 16, 1993 in Somerset , England) was an English flight captain and stunt woman . She flew as a pilot with the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) during World War II .

life and work

Hughes began flight training at the East Anglian Aero Club with her brother at the age of 15 and was soon flying alone. An accident in which a sixteen-year-old boy was killed resulted in a legal restriction of seventeen years for solo flying, which is why she did not receive her pilot's license until 1935. She was currently the youngest qualified female pilot in the UK at age 17. In 1940 she was inducted into the ATA as the youngest female pilot and was one of the first eight female pilots to join the service. The women flew unarmed, without radio, and navigated by reading maps. She first flew a Tiger Moth from Hatfield Airfield in Hertfordshire and then flew all types of aircraft including heavy four-engine bombers such as the Short Stirling . She became a senior pilot and was the only woman qualified to instruct all types of military aircraft that were in service at the time. After World War II, she worked as an instructor, teaching many Air Training Corps cadets who became Royal Air Force pilots. In 1961 she received the Jean Lennox Bird Trophy for having trained more than 50 pilots. In the 1960s she was a flight instructor with the Airways Aero Association, first at White Waltham Airfield and then at Booker Airfield. In 1964, due to her light weight and considerable experience, she was recruited to test a replica of the 1909 Santos-Dumont Demoiselle monoplane and eventually fly for the filming of the 1965 film These Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines . She also flew replicas of World War I aircraft for the film The Blue Max (1966) and a Tiger Moth biplane for the live-action aerial photography in Thunderbird 6 (1968). Because of this film, she ended up in court for allegedly flying dangerously under a motorway bridge. She retired in 1985 after spending more than 10,000 hours instructing other pilots. She died of cancer in Taunton in 1993 at the age of 75.

Honors

In 1946 she was appointed a member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for her war work . In 1967 the Royal Aero Club of Great Britain awarded her the bronze medal for outstanding services to aviation in all areas. A Hatfield bus company named eight buses after the "first eight" of the Tiger Moth female pilots in the ATA, including Hughes. In 2008, the fifteen surviving female ATA members (and 100 surviving male pilots) received a special award from Prime Minister Gordon Brown .

Filmography

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Hughes, Joan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hughes, Joan Lily Amelia
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English pilot and stuntwoman
DATE OF BIRTH April 27, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH West Ham , England
DATE OF DEATH August 16, 1993
Place of death Somerset , England