The early aviation achievements of Amy Johnson
Early in 1930, she chose her objective: to fly solo to Australia and to beat Bert Hinkler's record of 16 days.
Amy set off alone in a single engine Gypsy Moth from Croydon on May 5, 1930, and landed in Darwin on May 24, an epic flight of 11,000 miles. She was the first woman to fly alone to Australia.
In July 1931, she set an England to Japan record in a Puss Moth with Jack Humphreys. In July 1932, she set a record from England to Capetown, solo, in a Puss Moth. In May, 1936, she set a record from England to Capetown, solo, in a Percival Gull, a flight to retrieve her 1932 record.
With her husband, Jim Mollison, she also flew in a DH Dragon non-stop from Pendine Sands, South Wales, to the United States in 1933. They also flew non-stop in record time to India in 1934 in a DH Comet in the England to Australia air race.
After her commercial flying ended with the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Amy joined the Air Transport Auxiliary, a pool of experienced pilots who were ineligible for RAF service. Her flying duties consisted of ferrying aircraft from factory airstrips to RAF bases.
It was on one of these routine flights on January 5, 1941, that Amy crashed into the Thames estuary and was drowned, a tragic and early end to the life of Britain's most famous woman pilot.
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