The World's First Supersonic Lady...

[MightyGem]

...Diana Barnato, died this week, aged 90.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=564237&in_page_id=1879

[papajuliet]

Not entirely certain of this but I thought the first woman to fly "supersonic"was French.
Daily Mail article loses credibility by describing the Walrus as a huge flying boat - I really don't know why I persist in buying the paper.

[Hot Charlie]

Jackie Cochran in 1953 I believe.

Doesn't take anything away from a remarkable life, and sterling service with the ATA during the war years.

RIP

[A A Gruntpuddock]

'balked' - supposed to be a reporter and can't even spell?

[Warmtoast]

Despite her obvious aeronautical expertise Diana Barnato wasn't the first British woman to fly supersonic. This was achieved a year earlier by a serving WRAF Officer as this cutting from The Times dated 14th September 1962 shows.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/FirstWomantobreaksoundbarrier14thSe.jpg

Why was Middleton St. George such an attraction for ladies who wanted to go supersonic?

[MightyGem]

Well, I think that Diana was probably the first British female PILOT to break the sound barrier.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1927116/Diana-Barnato-Walker.html

She certainly appears on the RAF website as breaking the Women's Airspeed Record.

http://www.raf.mod.uk/history_old/dianabw5.html

[TheInquisitor]

What a girl! Very fetching too, might I say.

But THIS part of the obituary, is priceless:

she fell madly for a handsome squadron leader and after just three weeks, they got engaged. A quick wedding was planned.

It never happened. Her fiancÈ died in the wreck of his Spitfire. Only later did she discover the cause of his death - he had a WAAF from the base on his knee at the time, taking her for a joy ride in the single-seater, and the weight meant he lost control.

:D:D:D:D:D:D

You can't buy lines like that!

[Gainesy]

A bit later she married another RAF pilot and they each "borrowed" a Spitfire and flew to Brussels for their honeymoon.:)

[brakedwell]

A bit later she married another RAF pilot and they each "borrowed" a Spitfire and flew to Brussels for their honeymoon.

Beat that Willy Wales. :D

[LowObservable]

Idiot.
Every one knows that the Spitfire IX with the two-stage engine has a cg problem, resulting in a strict limitation on the total mass of WAAF to be carried on the pilot's knees.
Unless it was a PIO :E.

[GreenKnight121]

Jackie Cochran did hers solo... Diana Barnato was in a two-seat Lightning, with an IP.

Flying a Canadian built (Canadair) F-86 Sabrejet, which was powered by an Orenda turbojet in place of the GENERAL ELECTRIC J-47 turbojet generally, installed in the American-built F-86 aircraft, Jacqueline Cochran set a new speed record of 652.337 mph at Edwards Air Force Base, California on May 18th, 1953.

Not content with setting a new World Speed Record, Miss Cochran wanted to have the honor and distinction of being the first woman to fly faster than sound. Jackie took her Canadair F-86 up to over 45,000 feet and sped towards the earth in her assault on the sound barrier. On the first dive she failed to record a “sonic boom” that is usually evidence of piercing the wall – a compressibility effect of shockwaves that results in an earth-level explosive wound. There was no doubt that Jackie had gone through Mach 1.0 on that first dive, but when she was told that the tower had not heard or recorded the boom, she was a little deflated. An observer asked her if and when she would like another attempt on the sound barrier – Jackie’s answer – “Lets go right now!” On the second dive the blast was clearly heard, according to observers at the Air Force Flight test Center at Edwards AFB, who said she probably pierced the wall on her first dive with the air conditions preventing the shock waves from being heard. Jackie was on cloud nine.

In 1961, Jacqueline Cochran set eight major speed records in a Northrop T-38, including speed over a 1000 kilometer closed course; 639.38 mph, distance in a straight line; 1492.39 miles, sustained altitude of 56,071.80 feet high, speed over a 15 kilometer course; 844.20256 mph, speed over a 500 kilometer closed course; 680.855 mph, speed over 1000 kilometer closed course; 649.3924 mph.

On June 1, 1961, Jacqueline Cochran flying the Lockheed F-104G Starfighter, claimed her third jet speed record in less than a month when she flew the difficult Edwards 100 Kilometer circular course at 1,303.241 mph, bettering the existing women’s record of 1,266 mph held by the well-known French Aviatrix Jacqueline Auriol.



Diana set the British women's record on 26 August, 1963... 1.262 mph, but Jacqueline Auriol already had the French women's record at 1.266 mph, and Jackie Cochran the world's womens record of 1,303 mph 2 years, 2 1/2 months earlier.

[airsound]

And what about the PMRAFNS gals who used to go supersonic in 24 Sqn Herculeses en route to a small island in the South Atlantic (and who have certificates to prove it)

airsound

PS I thought Diane Barnato was fantastic, and the world is a poorer place for her leaving it.

[Bronx]

More here -- http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=325331

Awesome lady.

[GreenKnight121]

All of those ladies were indeed "world-class"!

While today many women do these kind of things routinely, when these ladies did them they were shattering more than records, and making a mark much larger than the entries in their logbooks indicated.

Saludo to all of the pre-1965 generation of Aviatrixes... they lit the way forward for half of the human species.

[FFP]

So do females wear male underwear when they go supersonic ? ;)
(Or was my thong wearing experience all in vain ....:E)