Jean Lennox Bird was a pioneering pilot and the first woman to be awarded RAF wings.
12 Facts About Jean Bird
1.
2.
Jean Lennox Bird was born in Hong Kong on 8 July 1912, the second daughter of Lt Col.
3.
Jean Bird's father retired in 1935, and the family returned home, eventually settling at the Old Farm, in Beech, near Alton, Hampshire England.
4.
Jean Bird started flying at the age of eighteen and took lessons, alongside her father, at the Hampshire Aeroplane Club in Hamble, during a visit home.
5.
Jean Bird was commissioned into the Women's Auxiliary Air Force as Assistant Section Officer in 1940 and remained there for a year until invited to join the ATA.
6.
Jean Bird joined the Air Transport Auxiliary on 1 August 1941 and soon qualified as a First Officer.
7.
Jean Bird served with the ATA until the organisation closed down at the end of the war, on 30 November 1945.
8.
In 1946, Jean Bird piloted a single-engine air taxi from Durban, South Africa to Britain to help a young bride attend her wedding in Croydon.
9.
In September 1949 Jean Bird was commissioned into the Women's RAF Volunteer Reserve, as a Pilot Officer, as were a number of the ATA women pilots.
10.
Jean Bird was awarded her wings, amid some publicity, at Redhill Aerodrome on 20 September 1952.
11.
Pilot Officer Jean Bird's application was apparently successful, but membership was rejected when this officer's gender was discovered.
12.
Jean Bird worked with the Women's Junior Air Corps, training young women to fly, and was a glider pilot.