The aviatrix Amy Johnson, considered First ATA Officer, was born in London on July 1, 1903. She was the first female pilot to have the opportunity to fly alone from Great Britain to Australia and pioneer British aviation.
Their parents were John william johnson Y Amy hodge. She was the oldest of four sisters.
She married in 1932 with the pilot of Scottish origin, Jim mollison. Union that did not last long, as the couple divorced in 1938.
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Studies and career of Amy Johnson
Study Bachelor of Arts and Economics in the Sheffield University, in his hometown.
After completing her studies, Amy began working as a secretary in London. His beginnings in the field of aviation arose as a hobby and in 1929 he obtained his pilot’s license. His training as a pilot was received in the London Airplane Club, where he received aviation classes. She then went from having a monotonous, totally routine office job and being an amateur aviator, to becoming the first lady in Britain to earn the title of “ground engineer’s license”, issued by the Air Ministry. Which is a bit difficult to imagine, in a world dominated by the male sex. She quit her job as a secretary and became a mechanic at the Stag Lane airfield.
His vocation for aviation became evident and he expressed it this way, after his first experience in the air: “Mollie and I went up in an airplane. We both enjoyed it, but I would have liked to have done some stunts. “
Amy Johnson, in her fascination with flying, came to have her own plane, which she named Jason.
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The first of its milestones
Already in 1930, the daring Amy, performed her first great feat, becoming once again the first woman, this time, to make a flight of 17,600 kilometers, piloting a solo flight, in command of a “De Havilland Gipsy Moth ”. This adventure was carried out from England to Australia. Although his intention was to break the record of Bert Hinkler, who took 16 days to do the same route, did not make it. Amy took 20 days, departing on May 5 from Croydon Airport, with no reliable weather data or radio connection. She landed in Australia on Saturday, May 24, where she was greeted like a hero, by the crowd.
The two-seater plane flown by Amy is currently on display at the London Science Museum.
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Other records of the adventurous aviator
After the feat that made her famous, she added other records to her short career, among which are: speed on the London-Tokyo route, piloting a flight alone from England to Cape Town and flying another solo flight from London. to Moscow in just one day. Also, together with her husband, she marked a milestone that almost cost them their lives: the flight from the United Kingdom to the United States. Trip in which they had to make an emergency landing because they had run out of fuel.
After the separation from her husband, Amy continued with her solo flights, however, she wanted to work in a more normal way, flying commercial airplanes. A moment that finally came when World War II began, when he was presented with the opportunity to work as a pilot in the Air Transport Auxiliary. His job was to transport machinery and soldiers for the RAF. Unfortunately, this was the last of many achievements made by the fierce aviator, being again the first aviator to do so.
Controversies over his death
At 37 years of age, the renowned aviator Amy, left this world flying through the air. He died on January 5, 1941, in London. His death occurred from a tragic accident, when he was flying an Airspeed plane near Oxford, while working for the ATA, en route from Prestwick via Blackpool to RAF Kidlington. In the noisy accident Johnson deviated his course due to bad weather conditions and then fell into the River Thames. Apparently, because she ran out of fuel and the first female pioneer aviator jumped from the parachute after the plane crashed into the Thames estuary, near Herne Bay. But his body was never found.
The real causes of death are unknown, in fact, there are three possible causes that could cause the death of Amy Johnson. However, nothing has been confirmed. In the first version, the information is handled that the crew of a ship of the Royal Navy, the HMS Haslemere, saw her fall into the water. The lieutenant commander of the ship, Walter fletcher, jumped into the water to try to save Johnson, but failed. Due to the strong tide, the falling snow and the great cold, the commander died days later. For this reason, they granted him the Albert medal, posthumously in May 1941.
The second theory is the one formulated by the historian Alec gill, who claims that, according to the son of a crew member, Amy Johnson’s body was possibly caught by the propellers of the boat. According to statements to The Daily Telegraph, Gill stated: “The Royal Navy did not want to admit to a nation in the midst of war that it had killed Amy Johnson, the famous pilot.”
And a third version explains that Amy’s plane was brought down by friendly fire projectiles. In 1999, information was received that Tom mitchell, from Crowborough , affirmed that due to a communication problem, where Johnson twice did not indicate his valid identification code, he fired at the plane, thinking it was from enemy troops.
Honors
He received “the Order of the British Empire in his degree of Commander” (CBE) and the Harmon Trophy. These accolades were awarded to him for his first heroic flight.
Women in Aviation, International. This brave woman was “commemorated by Commonwealth War Graves Commission at Air Forces Memorial in RunnymedeBy the name of Amy V. Johnson. He obtained his recognition as a member of the ATA, despite not having a known grave.
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