This highly entertaining talk covers the lives of the British women who achieved real firsts in aviation, from the very first British woman to go up in a balloon in 1785 to the first woman who gained her pilots’ licence (her husband flatly refused to allow her to take flying lessons, so she did it under a different name!) and from the first woman to make a parachute descent (brought up in a Victorian workhouse, she went on to parachute from 3,000 feet over Cheltenham in 1889, an amazing story) right up to the fabulous women of the ATA in the second world war and finally Helen Sharman, the first British woman in space.
Each woman has the most wonderful story, not one of them came from aviation backgrounds, and Sally’s talk is really about their personal stories, how or why they got involved in what in those days was a new and very male orientated field. Some of the stories are funny, some are breathtaking… but it is all a fascinating look at different eras and a snapshot into the different lives of women in more restricted times. The talk is entertaining rather than technical, although of course some aviation details are covered.
Sally Smith is a journalist and writer who has worked for various publications and media including as a foreign correspondent for the Daily Mail and for BBC News in England and ABC News in Australia. She was named Business Writer of the Year, has a Churchill Fellowship and is an established author with books published by Pelham Books, Rigby Books and The History Press. She has also has a distinguished career in various aviation sports, team leader of the world’s only all girl skydiving display team and representing both Great Britain and Australia in parachuting and ballooning. In December 2024 Sally was awarded the Royal Aeronautical Society’s 2024 Women in Aviation, Aerospace and Space award.
Along with aviation and sky sports, Sally has devoted much of her life to travel. She has lived on four continents, visited 72 countries and worked in major cities around the world from Cairo to Singapore and Tokyo to Perth, Western Australia. Sally is an elected Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. She now continues to write from her home base in Somerset, UK.
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