Aviatrix Amy Johnson
British pilot Amy Johnson CBE, born July 1, 1903, was the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia in 1930. She flew in a Gipsy Moth named Jason.
The following are extracts from an Associated Press story released when Amy Johnson went missing in the Thames Estuary, presumed dead, in January 1941.
London - Jan. 6 – Amy Johnson Mollison, Britain’s greatest aviatrix, drowned in the icy waters of the Thames estuary yesterday after she was forced to bail out of the aircraft she was flying for the Air Transport Auxiliary.
Surface craft tried in vain to rescue the war-working ladybird, who had winged, during her spectacular career from Britain to Australia and America, Japan and China and across Africa.
Amy Johnson stands in front of her plane named Jason III, at the Stag Lane Aerodrome in Edgware, London, before flying to China on Jan. 1, 1931. She says that she hates being “Earthbound”. (AP Photo)
Pilot Amy Johnson stands in front of a car given to her by Sir William Morris, on Aug. 5, 1930. A model of her plane 'Jason' sits on the car bonnet. (AP Photo/Len Puttnam)
L-R: Amy Johnson; Charles Spencer Chaplin known as Charlie Chaplin; Lady Nancy Astor MP; and Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw, in St. James' Square, London after a luncheon on May 2, 1931. (AP Photo)
Pilot Amy Johnson shown in the cockpit of a plane as she left Stage Lane Aerodrome in Edgware, London for her home in Hull where a wonderful reception has been prepared for her on August 11, 1930. She did not pilot the plane herself. (AP Photo)
The laughing happy airwoman - “Johnny” as she was known to fellow pilots – gained world-wide attention in 1930 when she set out in a light airplane for Australia from England.
Twenty-two at the time, she had never flown more than 140 miles – the distance from London to her Yorkshire home.
World interest mounted to enthusiasm as she was reported in Vienna, Istanbul, Aleppo and Baghdad on successive days. She reached India in six days, two days under the previous record, but damaged her plane at Rangoon and eventually arrived at Port Darwin, Australia, in twenty days.
Pilot Amy Johnson, a 22-year old, on her arrival at Stag Lane Aerodrome in Southampton, England on Jan. 10, 1930. She is the first woman in England to gain an Air Ministry ground engineer’s license. She intends flying alone to Australia in an attempt to beat the record set up by Bert Hinkler. (AP Photo)
Story by AP as published in the Trenton Evening Times on May 24, 1930. (AP Corporate Archives)
British pilot Amy Johnson waves from her car as she travels down The Mall to The Savoy Hotel, London, where she is the guest of honor on Aug. 6, 1930. (AP Photo/Len Puttnam)
Seven months later she tried to reach Peiping via Siberia, but was forced down near Warsaw. In six months she was off again across Russia, Siberia and China to Tokyo. In one day she covered 1650 miles, establishing a new record.
English pride in “Johnny” knew no bounds, and she was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Female pilot Amy Johnson in the center of a crowd who greeted her on arrival in Tokyo, Japan around Aug. 24, 1931. She reached Japan in nine days which was a record flight, via Siberia, and was accorded a great welcome on her arrival at Tokyo, accompanied by Jack Humphreys. Wearing a straw hat and white mustache is General Nagaoka. (AP Photo)
British pilot Amy Johnson, photographed just before she left Stag Lane in London, England, carrying her luggage and sun helmet, on Nov. 5, 1932. (AP Photo/Len Puttnam)
British pilot Amy Mollison nee Johnson, with her husband Jim Mollison as she made her final preparations at Stag Lane aerodrome, Edgware, London on Nov. 8, 1932, for her attempt to beat her husband's record to fly from England to Cape Town, South Africa. (AP Photo/Len Puttnam)
Amy Mollison nee Johnson, and her husband Jim Mollison in front of the plane named Heart Content at Stag Lane Aerodrome, London, on Aug. 16, 1932, before he flies over to Baldonnel Aerodrome, Ireland to begin a flight over the Atlantic. (AP Photo/Len Puttnam)
British pilot Amy Mollison nee Johnson, leaving Croydon Aerodrome, England on Dec. 18, 1932. (AP Photo/Len Puttnam)
In 1932 she was married to James A. Mollison, himself already a widely known flyer.
A few months after her wedding she broke her husband’s record for a flight to the Cape of Good Hope by 10 hours and 18 minutes. She and her husband planned to fly the Atlantic to New York, rest briefly, span the Atlantic from New York to Baghdad and then fly back to London.
After damaging their plane on the takeoff they tried once more and fifty-seven miles from New York crashed in a forced landing at Stratford. Conn, July 24, 1933. Both she and her husband were injured.
Story by AP as published in the Evening Star on Nov. 18, 1932. (AP Corporate Archives)
Amy Mollison, formally Amy Johnson, waves to crowds, outside the Grosvenor House Hotel, London, with her husband Jim Mollison, on Dec. 18 1932, after her record breaking flights to Cape Town, South Africa (AP Photo/Len Puttnam)
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, center, stands with husband and wife aviators James A. Mollison and Amy Mollison, formerly Amy Johnson, at the president's Krum Elbow estate near Hyde Park, N.Y., July 30, 1933. The president congratulated the fliers for their recent flight and narrow escape after crashing near Bridgeport, Connecticut. (AP Photo)
Three trans-Atlantic flyers were the guests of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and first lady Eleanor Roosevelt at the Roosevelt estate in Hyde Park, N.Y., July 30, 1933. Standing on the lawn, from left: Mrs. Roosevelt, Amelia Earhart, Jim Mollison, his wife Amy Mollison nee Johnson, and President Roosevelt. (AP Photo)
L-R: George Palmer Putnam, Mrs. Putnam, the former Amelia Earhart, Mrs. Amy Mollison nee Johnson and Capt Jim Mollison basking in the sand at Rye, New York on July 29, 1933. The flying Britons celebrated their first wedding anniversary with the Putnams. (AP Photo)
The flying couple’s last attempt at long-flight records was in the Melbourne air race in 1934. Amy and Jimmy started with a brilliant non-stop flight … to Baghdad in just over twelve hours but hard luck plagued them in the form of plane trouble and they withdrew from the competition.
Amy smashed another England-Cape Town record in 1936 when she made the flight in 3 days 6 hours and 26 minutes.
That same year, however, she announced that she and Jim Mollison had decided “soloing” was their best marital course and that they would go their separate ways. Two years later, in 1938, they were divorced.
Amy entered a New York-Paris race in 1937, but the United States Government banned it on the ground that is was a stunt.
Amy then turned to glider piloting, aerobatics and motor racing and became an instructor in the Civil Air Guard. When war came, she became a ferry pilot.
Pilots Amy Mollison nee Johnson and her husband Jim Mollison bring out their baggage at Gravesend Airport on the morning of May 4, 1936. Johnson left the airport on another attempt to break the England-Cape record. (AP Photo/Eddie Worth)
A vast crowd waited for aviator Amy Mollison nee Johnson on her return to the UK from the Cape at Croydon airport on May 15, 1936. Amy is pictured with her husband Jim Mollison. (AP Photo)
Aviator Amy Mollison nee Johnson, right, arrived at Croydon on May 15, 1936, on her return to the UK from the Cape. Pictured with a bouquet of flowers and her husband Jim Mollison. (AP Photo)
Aviator Amy Mollison nee Johnson waving to the crowd as she drove away from Croydon airport after her tumultuous welcome after returning from the Cape, on May 15, 1936. (AP Photo)
British aviator Amy Johnson is pictured in 1939. (AP Photo)
Aviator Amy Mollison nee Johnson arrived back in England on the evening of April 10, 1936, at Gravesend airport. (AP Photo)
The AP Corporate Archives contributed to this blog.