# Youngest Female British Pilot



## oldman (Oct 10, 2014)

Wasn't sure where to put this, so it 'landed' here. This young lady is only 25 and earned her wings by going to flight school in Spain. She went through flight school in about a year, which is also remarkable. She flies for Flybe in Great Britain.


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## Warrigal (Oct 10, 2014)

It will be a great day when no-one thinks that this is in any way remarkable.


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## SeaBreeze (Oct 10, 2014)

Good for her Oldman, that she accomplished that at such a young age, and went through the schooling so quickly.  Hopefully she will fly safe, and be a role model for other young women.


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## AprilT (Oct 10, 2014)

What SeaBreeze said.


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## Meanderer (Oct 10, 2014)

I think it is a remarkable accomplishment for a 25 year old!


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## oldman (Oct 10, 2014)

Dame Warrigal said:


> It will be a great day when no-one thinks that this is in any way remarkable.



Well, 26 is pretty darn young to get a job in aviation. Mainly at that age, the best one could hope for is flying regional or maybe corporate. I see she has two stripes on her epaulet, so she is just beginning, but even so, with her desire (read the article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ngest-female-airline-pilots-aged-just-25.html) she will be sitting in the left seat before too long. This is what separates good pilots from ordinary pilots. Some view it as a job while others have the 'passion.' That's what saved Sully and his passengers from crashing into the Hudson, instead of landing in the Hudson. "The Passion."


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## Warrigal (Oct 10, 2014)

It certainly is an accomplishment but I don't find it remarkable.
The heading does say the youngest FEMALE British pilot.
How old is the youngest MALE British pilot. 
I'll be surprised if there are no men of that age becoming pilots.

Trawling around accounts of early aviators, there are plenty of examples of very young pilots, including women.

For example -



> *Elinor Smith* (August 17, 1911 – March 19, 2010) was a pioneering American aviator,[SUP][1][/SUP] once known as "The Flying Flapper of Freeport".[SUP][2][/SUP] She was the first woman test pilot for both Fairchild and Bellanca (now AviaBellanca).[SUP][3][/SUP] She was the youngest licensed pilot in the world at 16.[SUP][4][/SUP]


Elinor Smith later became the oldest woman to land a space shuttle in a simulated flight.

Here's another example.



> Born in Houghton, Michigan on February 14, 1914 as the daughter of a wealthy physician, Nancy Harkness  developed an intense interest in aviation at an early age. At 16, she took her first flight and earned her pilot's license within a month.[SUP][1][/SUP] Although she went to all the right schools, including Milton Academy in Massachusetts and Vassar in New York, she was restless and adventurous. In 1932, by the end of her freshman year, dubbed, “The Flying Freshman!”, she earned her commercial license and received national attention.[SUP][1][/SUP] At Vassar, she earned extra money taking students for rides in an aircraft she rented from a nearby airport.[SUP][2][/SUP]



Nancy Harkness was just 18 when she obtained her commercial licence. In WW II she and her female co-pilot were the first women to fly the  Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber. At the end of the war, Nancy Harkness Love and her husband had the unique distinction of being decorated simultaneously.[SUP][9][/SUP] He received the Distinguished Service Medal, and she the Air Medal for her "Operational leadership in the successful training and assignment of over 300 qualified women fliers in the flying of  advanced military aircraft."

Australia's Nancy Bird Walton was just 20 when she was hired to operate an air ambulance service in outback New South Wales. It was named the Far West Children's Health Scheme. Nancy's own Gipsy Moth was used as an air ambulance. As well as saving the lives of patients by flying them to hospital, she required a good deal of skill to save her own life when using the airstrips available in those days. Often, landings had to be made in paddocks that were dotted with rabbit holes. Navigation instruments were basic and frequently road maps rather than aviation maps were needed in order to get from one place to another.

Perhaps this paragraph explains why we still think that young female pilots are "remarkable".



> She continued to rouse feathers belonging to the conservative country people she came across in her work. Later in 1935, the state defence leader H.V.C Thorby, stated that flying was not "biologically suited" to women, and after much pressure from politicians and colleagues, 1938 became Bird's last year of flying for a while.


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## oldman (Oct 10, 2014)

Dame Warrigal said:


> It certainly is an accomplishment but I don't find it remarkable.
> The heading does say the youngest FEMALE British pilot.
> How old is the youngest MALE British pilot.
> I'll be surprised if there are no men of that age becoming pilots.
> ...




I apologize if you think I used the word remarkable because of the sex of the pilot. I was strictly referencing the age. I know that most people are not aware of how long it takes to get to the point where she is, so maybe I should have been more concise as to why I was making the post, but I can assure you that it had nothing to do with her being a female. In fact, it never even came to my mind. It was the "AGE" that I was referencing. That is all.


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## Falcon (Oct 10, 2014)

Yep, And lest we forget Amelia Earhart.

I wish they'd quit hanging their handbags on the undercarriage lever.


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## SeaBreeze (Oct 10, 2014)

I didn't think male or female Oldman, I just thought it was a positive article of a young person's accomplishments.  I didn't think twice about the use of the word remarkable, certainly nothing sexist intended I'm sure.


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## BobF (Oct 10, 2014)

Amazing to me is that no has commented on where her money must have come from.   It takes time to get those ratings and she must have done much of her work in multi engine situations in order to be hired into a larger aircraft business.   I had to work to pay for each hour I flew for training and ratings.   Pretty real hard to do and have time to fly too.   I feel that this person must have been lucky to have  had well to do parents or somehow had her own.


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## Warrigal (Oct 10, 2014)

Amelia Earhart was 26 when she gained her pilot's licence in 1923. I can't find a reference to her ever having a commercial pilot's licence.


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## Warrigal (Oct 10, 2014)

We have a photo of this young woman but we don't know her name. Who is she?


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## SeaBreeze (Oct 10, 2014)

Here's more about her and the money spent on her training.  It seems she took out a pilot loan and is now paying off her debt for the intensive live-in course she took...http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ngest-female-airline-pilots-aged-just-25.html


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## SeaBreeze (Oct 10, 2014)

Her name is Kate Moran, Warrigal.


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## Falcon (Oct 10, 2014)

Takes money to learn how to fly and earn your wings.

 The U.S. Government  PAID ME to do it.


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## Warrigal (Oct 10, 2014)

Thanks SeaBreeze. I had just discovered those facts for myself.
Good luck to her, I say. I hope she has a great career.


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## drifter (Oct 10, 2014)

That is quite an accomplishment, however the CEO of Microsoft said a woman should never asked for a raise in pay on her job but to trust her karma.


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## SeaBreeze (Oct 10, 2014)

Drifter, he wormed his way out of the statement he made, with this notice to employees:



> *From:* Satya Nadella
> *Sent:* Thursday, October 9, 2014 5:24 PM
> *To:* Microsoft – All Employees (QBDG); Retail: All FTE
> *Subject:* RE: Empowering Others
> ...


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## Warrigal (Oct 10, 2014)

I just followed the link to the interview in SeaBreeze's post and I wouldn't be too hard on him. His response allowed the interviewer to express a different opinion and some excellent advice to the female audience. 

It was a very long interview and that was just one contentious answer out of many.

BTW, I'm a great admirer of Grace Hopper. My kind of role model for young women. So un-Barbie-like.


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