Sally Smith recalls the adrenaline-fuelled lengths taken by aviation pioneer Winifred Brown to show that women could and should be allowed to fly
When it comes to flying modern airliners, having women in command is far from unusual. However, there continues to be chronic underrepresentation across the industry. To help counter this, many carriers now have proactive programmes to encourage more females to consider a career in the flight deck to help rebalance what has historically been a male-dominated profession.
Of course, it wasn’t always like this and for the first century or so of commercial aviation, even the keenest women faced enormous opposition and a seemingly infinite number of challenges to get in the air.
A new book by Sally Smith, Magnificent Women and Flying Machines, tells the personal stories of many of Britain’s female aviation pioneers – those who, with humour and determination, managed to show the world that they too could fly.
