I see 107 years ago today was the birthday of a true pioneering aviatrix, Jean Batten.
She set the fastest time from England to Australia in 1934. Flying a Gypsy Moth taking 14 days and 22 hours beating Amy Johnson's time by 5 days. The aircraft was shipped to New Zealand as it was not capable of the long legs across the Tasman Sea. After sending some weeks flying around New Zealand she then flew it back to the UK. The first woman to make the return flight.
She also broke Jim Mollison's record of 85 hours and 20minutes flying from England to Brazil doing it in 61 hours 15 minutes.
Then in 1936 she made the first flight between England and New Zealand, setting a new solo record of 6 days between England and Australia. 14,000 miles with the last 1300 across the Tasman Sea being potentially the most treacherous. George Hood and John Moncrieff had gone missing 8 years earlier, it's thought they over flew the Auckland area and never saw New Zealand and ran out of fuel.
Oh by the way, they were all solo flights too.
Last edited by 27/09; 14th Sep 2016 at 23:30.