Amelia Earhart first crossed the Atlantic Ocean by air as the first female passenger from Newfoundland and landed in south Wales on 18 June 1928. Amelia earned even greater world recognition and acclaim when she became the first female in the world to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean from Newfoundland to County Derry where she landed on 21 May 1932. For both these events Amelia attracted world-wide media attention.
On 17 May 1928 Limerick born Sophie Peirce (later Lady Heath) landed at London’s main airport at Croydon after her record breaking and world-renowned solo flight that commenced at Cape Town, South Africa on 5 January 1928. A week after Amelia landed in the United Kingdom Lady Heath organised a secret rendezvous at Croydon Aerodrome on 24 June 1928 with Earhart after her first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. Here Amelia took Lady Heath’s Avro Avian, G-EBUG, for a flight and was so impressed she purchased it and had it shipped home to the United States. They developed a friendship that continued when Lady Heath was on her tour of America in the summer of 1929.
Monaghan born Mary Westenra (then Lady Bailey) flew to Derry from England to greet the transatlantic flyer on 21 May 1932, but Amelia had already left for London. Lady Bailey was by then a world recognised female aviator as a result of her record-breaking solo flight from Croydon to Cape Town in January 1928 and return via the then unexplored aviation route along the west coast of the African continent. Lady Bailey was a guest along with Amy Johnson to meet Amelia at the Royal Aero Club in London on 26 May 1932.
Belfast born Adelaide Cleaver earned her Aviator’s Certificate on 3 June 1930. She had already completed a flight accompanied by Captain Donald Drew from Croydon Aerodrome to Karachi (then in India) between 7 March 1929 and 10 June 1929. Adelaide crated her single-engine Gipsy Moth, G-AAVY, and had it shipped to New York. On 22 October 1930 she commenced a transcontinental flight to California following the established Contract Air-Mail routes flown by air mail pilots like Charles A. Lindberg. On 25 May 1932 Adelaide was among the prominent female aviators of the period that met Amelia when she was being entertained at the American Embassy in London. One of the aviators included in the small group of female guests was Pauline Gower who pursued the Air Ministry to permit female aviators to join the Air Transport Auxiliary as ferry pilots. Mable Glass from Belfast was the ninth female to join the ATA.
Nancy Corrigan from Achill in County Mayo commenced flying after emigrating to Cleveland, Ohio in August 1929. After four and a half hours of instruction she undertook her first solo flight on 25 August 1932. Nancy was an admirer of Amelia and in the media announcing Nancy’s achievement they captioned her Nancy ‘Amelia’ Corrigan. In an interview after her first solo flight, she expressed a desire to fly the Atlantic at some future date. This was in the aftermath of Amelia’s historic flight in May 1932. When working as a model in New York Nancy flew from Floyd Bennett Field where Amelia also flew from and quite likely Nancy encountered her heroine. The ‘Ninety-Nines’ was an organisation of female aviators in the United States of which it’s first president was Amelia Earhart. Nancy was a member of this organisation.
The Irish female aviators referred to above were household names and their achievements were recognised by the media worldwide and their adventures were followed with keen interest by the general public at the time. These events occurred during the adventurous aviation heydays of the 1920s and 1930s. These ladies also excelled in many aviation events including air races and setting records for altitude and endurance flights. In many regards these women broke the barriers for other women in what was then regarded as a male dominated area.
Story: Michael Traynor
Photo credits:
Josefinas – Portugal
Michael Traynor
SSPL/Getty Images
The New York Times
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