Flying
In 1923 she took up flying, gaining her pilot's licence at the De Havilland Flying School, probably the second woman since World War I after 'Mrs Atkey', bought a plane, and expressed a determination to be the first woman to fly the Atlantic Ocean. She was regarded as a contemporary role model amongst women, with dark looks, graceful manner, habitually well-gowned and bejeweled appearance. She was renowned for driving her Rolls Royce at great speed, galloping her horses, plus being a familiar sight in her Avro biplane in the skies over South Ayrshire and Wigtownshire. She even participated in an "outside loop," the most dangerous of all stunts in air, with Capt. E.C.D. Herne as her pilot. During this manoeuvre her safety-strap broke but she clung to bracing wires while her body swung outside the plane like a stone twirled on the end of a piece of string. She was one of the first women in Britain to gain her Royal Aero Club pilot’s licence and was later elected to the advisory committee of pilots to the British Empire Air League.
Read more about this topic: Elsie Mackay
Famous quotes containing the word flying:
“Years in wingspans go
Across and over our heads. Watch them:
They are flying east. They are flying to the ebb
Of dark.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“In song and dance man expresses himself as a member of a higher community: he has forgotten how to walk and speak and is on the way toward flying up into the air, dancing.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Bonnie Lee: Oh, it’s the most wonderful thing I’ve ever seen.
Geoff Carter [sarcastically]: Yes, it reminded you of a great big, beautiful bird, didn’t it?
Bonnie: No, it didn’t at all. That’s why it’s so wonderful. It’s really a flying human being.
Geoff: Well, you’re right about one thing. A bird’d have too much sense to fly in that kind of muck.”
—Jules Furthman (1888–1960)