Royal Air Force History

Amy Johnson -
A flying life

Part 1 - Queen of the Air

The 4th of January 2001 is the sixtieth anniversary of the death of one of the most influential women in British aviation, Amy Johnson. Her flying career inspired many women of her generation to take up flying, and led to there being a pool of experienced women pilots at the beginning of the Second World War. These women pilots and navigators were to find vital wartime roles in such organisations as the ATA, of which Amy herself was a member until tragedy overtook her. However, Amy is best remembered for her record breaking flights during the 1930s, and considering her background and the attitude toward women in aviation, these were all the more spectacular for her success.

Amy Johnson was born on July 1st 1903, in Kingston-upon-Hull, the eldest daughter of Amy and John William Johnson. Her father was a successful fish merchant and herring importer, and was also a religious man, a dedicated Methodist. Amy also had two younger sisters, Irene and Molly. At the age of fourteen Amy was hit in the mouth with a cricket ball, which caused her to lose several front teeth. Although she was fitted with expensive dentures, indistinguishable from her real teeth, she considered herself permanently disfigured. It has since been recognised that this accident and the dentures caused Amy severe embarrassment during her early life, and were the foundation for her depression, moodiness and over-sensitivity in later years.

Unusually for a young woman of the time, Amy Johnson attended the University of Sheffield and graduated with BA in Economics. She found that employment for a woman in any responsible or fulfilling post was almost impossible to attain, so lowered her sights and worked at several jobs she found demeaning, including secretary for Peter Jones department store in London. After this she took a position as secretary for William Charles Crocker, a London firm of solicitors.

Lacking fulfilment at work, Amy threw herself into her interests. Most of her spare time was spent at the London Aeroplane Club where she worked on her hobbies of mechanical engineering and flying. She was the first woman in Britain to be granted the Air Ministry's ground engineers licence as well as gaining both commercial and private pilots licences during 1928. She was taught to fly by Captain Valentine Henry Baker, MC AFC, who boosted her self-confidence greatly after it had been dashed so badly by an earlier instructor. Alongside her pilots and engineers licences, Amy also qualified as a navigator. At the time this was no mean feat for a woman.

With success in her aviation studies came ambition and the realisation that this was a field in which she could excel and compete fairly. On May 5th 1930 Amy attempted to break the light aeroplane record for a solo flight to Australia. Regrettably she failed on this attempt by three days and arrived at Darwin in her de Havilland DH-60G Gipsy Moth, G-AAAH, which was called Jason, on May 24th. On the next leg of her journey, to Brisbane, Amy was still weary from the long flight, and dispirited at having failed in the record attempt. Consequently she damaged the aircraft on landing at Brisbane airport. This gallant attempt gained her vast publicity and popularity among the British people, and she was awarded a CBE from King George as well as a £10,000 gift from the Daily Mail. The British press dubbed her "Queen of the Air".

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