Nancy Bird
From Women Aviators
Nancy Bird Walton (October 16, 1915 – January 13, 2009) was an Australian aviator.
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Childhood
Nancy Bird was born in Sydney, Australia.
At age 4, the "Great England-Australia Race" was much in the news, and it inspired her to want to learn to fly.
During a visit to Sydney in 1930, she went on a trial instruction flight – and fell in love with flight. She returned home, bought herself a flying helmet, and when she reached the age where lessons were permitted, took the plunge.
She got her pilot's license at age 17. A short girl, she needed two cushions to reach the pedals and see out of the cockpit. Her instructor was Charles Kingsford Smith, (who made the first trans-Pacific flight from the US to Australia in 1928 and later founded a flying school in Sydney.) Ironically, "Smithy" disapproved of female pilots.
With the financial assistance and support of her family (Her father had wanted her to run the family business, a general store, in northern New South Wales, but supported her in her own ambition), Nancy bought a Gipsy Moth and flew around New South Wales, promoting aviation and taking paying passengers on joy rides. While touring, Walton met Reverend Stanley Drummond, who suggested that she help him establish an Air Ambulance service for the remotest areas of the Outback.
Nancy became the first woman in Australia to obtain a commercial pilot's license at age 19, and shortly afterwards started up that service.
Air Ambulance Service
At age 19, with that commercial license, she was hired to operate Stanley Drummond's ambulance service in remote outback areas, ferrying medical staff, patients and expectant mothers. It was named the Far West Children's Health Scheme, and covered territory that was not yet reached by the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Initally she used her own Gipsy Moth, but soon purchased a better-equipped plane.
This was 1935, when aviation was still in its infancy. Nancy landed on unsealed roads and in cattle-filled paddocks, "glancing at nearby washing lines in an effort to gauge the wind direction."
Marriage
In 1938 she decided to take a vacation from flying. A Dutch airline company, KLM, invited her to do some promotional work in Europe, and she worked on the continent for a couple of years.
In 1939, at the age of 24, Nancy married Englishman Charles Walton, and in time would give birth to two children, a boy, John, and a girl, Anne Marie. Her husband always referred to her as Nancy-Bird (and that is how the Qantas Airbus 380 was named in her honor in 2008. The Nancy-Bird Walton.)
World War II
When World War II broke out, Nancy returned to Australia.
Nancy was commandant of the Women's Air Training Corps from 1940 to 1945. This WATC was equivalent to the WASP in the US and the ATA in England - women who flew transport to free up men for the Royal Australian Air Force.
Australian Women's Pilot Association
Nancy founded the Australian Women's Pilot Association in 1950 - with 35 women meeting for the first time on September 15. She served as its president until the 1990s.
Races
In 1936, Nancy entered the Adelaide to Brisbane air race, and won the Ladies' Trophy. Nancy also participated in three Powder Puff Derbys, in 1958, and 1961. She was also a passenger in the final, 1977 Derby.
Legacy
Nancy was named a Living National Treasure by the National Trust of Australia in 1997.
In October, 2008, Nancy attended the inaugural ceremonies for Qantas' first super passenger jet. The A380 Airbus was named in her honor.
"I was asked if Qantas could name this plane after me at my 90th birthday three years ago, and I made it my decision to stay alive," she said in the speech she gave at the ceremonies in Sydney.
Family
Nancy Bird Walton is survived by her daughter, Anne Marie, her son John, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
References
- Times of the Internet Obituary
- The Independent Australians Mourn Angel of the Outback
- Nancy Bird
