Programme 5: Amy Johnson: Maiden Flight

Programme Outline

A large crowd, including Amy's father and sister, are anxiously scanning the sky. The narrator explains that Amy Johnson is due to land in Australia, having flown solo from Britain. Most pilots in 1930 were men, but Amy wanted to change that. After her first flight, she was determined to learn to fly her own plane. She managed to raise the money to pay for lessons and finally qualified as a pilot. Now she wanted to show the world that women could be just as good at flying as men by flying solo from England to Australia, faster than had ever been done before. She set off in her wooden and cloth, single-engined plane, with no radio or navigational aids other than a compass. This was a dangerous venture and she had many hair-raising experiences en route. She almost crashed into a mountain, she was attacked by wild dogs, she ran out of petrol and had to make an emergency landing on a small island. Finally she reached Australia – not quite the fasted pilot, but the first woman to make this 11,000-mile flight. And after that? She planned to fly to China.