Amy Johnson Transcript

In 1903 the Wright Brothers finally achieved man’s long held dream of flight, when in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, they were able to keep a machine in the sky, which was heavier than air. It was for only 12 seconds, but for the first time in history, a human had flown.

This flying machine would change the world and soon ushered in the Age of Aviation, a time when glamorous daredevil pilots risked life and limb in order to “conquer the skies”.

The same year a little girl, Amy Johnson, was born in Hull in the North East of England and this invention, the aeroplane would determine the course of her life.

Amy was the eldest of four daughters born to Will and “Ciss” Johnson. Her father was a fish merchant, who had inherited and ran the family business. Brought up close to the docks, Amy would remember forever the smell of fish that pervaded her early years.

Shortly before Amy’s 11th birthday, the Great War broke out. As a thriving port city on the vulnerable East Coast, Hull was a target for the Zeppelin raids, when German airships were used to drop bombs on factories and military bases. In spite of the terror, Amy was also fascinated by these huge air balloons, which brought death and destruction to her city.

At school Amy shone academically, but she was a somewhat introverted and gauche teenager. She was known to be a rebel and loved to challenge authority.

With the war over, the twenties followed; it was the age of Jazz, the Charleston and the “Flapper”. Interested in fashion from an early age, Amy cut off her hair in attempt to create the latest “bob” hairdo, thus horrifying her conservative parents.

At Sheffield University she studied economics. University life was dominated heavily by men at the time, but it was here that she forged a lifelong friendship with a spirited fellow student, Winifred Irving.

Amy was still a reserved young woman and it is interesting to note, that when in later years her professor was asked if he remembered Amy, he replied that “Yes he did, she was Winifred Irving’s shadow”. Several years later the roles would be reversed and Winifred would always take great pride in Amy’s achievements.

Despite loving the social side of university life and a tendency to neglect her studies, she obtained a BA in Economics in 1925. With considerable debt to pay back, she entered the world of work in Hull as a shorthand/typist, in a firm of accountants.

The office environment did not suit Amy and she struggled to fit in. In fact she suffered such anxiety that after a collapse, she was sent by her mother to convalesce down in Bournemouth.

1 On her return, she worked as a secretary for an advertising company and it was at this time that Amy had her first experience of flying, when she took a joyride with her sister Molly in a 5 seater Avro bi-plane. Amy was fairly unimpressed and was most concerned afterwards that the wind had messed up her hair!

By now London was beckoning. She was excited by this buzzing, partying city, but on arrival she struggled to find work. Having finally secured a job at the Department Store, Peter Jones in Sloane Square, she was utterly miserable. Life improved when she was taken on as a personal secretary in a law firm.

For the past 7 years she had had a relationship, which she later described as an infatuation, with the Swiss, Hans Arregger. It had made her unhappy and caused considerable conflict with her family.

The news that the relationship was finally over and he was about to marry someone else devastated Amy, but marked a new chapter in her life. Amy was about to spread her wings.

Major strides had been made in aviation, since those first humble steps in 1903. Within a decade Louis Bleriot had flown across the English Channel and in the next decade Alcock and Brown had succeeded in a daring flight across the Atlantic.

All around the globe, people were entranced by awe-inspiring flights made by brave pilots willing to risk their lives to push boundaries and achieve personal glory.

It was an elitist occupation, only open to those who could afford it and almost, though not entirely, male dominated. Amy, a fish merchant’s daughter from Hull, was certainly not a typical candidate.

Having said that, in June 1928, Amy must have read with great interest about the pioneering American, Amelia Earhart, who had become famous as the first woman to fly across the Atlantic.

Amy was fascinated by flying and one afternoon she found herself at the Stag Lane Aerodrome in North London. The cost of flying lessons was astronomical and they had a 6 month waiting list, but Amy was determined.

However, her first lesson was rather an anticlimax; she had problems hearing the instructions in the noisy cockpit and her instructor was not impressed.

She would become frustrated by long gaps between her lessons as she tried to save up more money, but by now she was obsessed and nothing was going to hold her back. She was determined to become a fully licensed commercial pilot.

2 But she was thwarted in this by adverse weather conditions and flying hours were still sporadic. She found it hard to land a plane and this would never come naturally to her. She was further hampered by a difficult relationship with her instructor.

It took several months before she was ready to fly solo, but shortly before her 26th birthday she took to the air. She was on her way.

The thrill of flying was like a drug to Amy, but she also loved the social side of flying. She was a member of the London Flying Club and enjoyed the banter of the clubhouse, where she felt she could be totally herself.

She was determined to be the best pilot possible. Having secured her ‘A’ licence, she was now determined to obtain her commercial ‘B’ licence and then her ‘C’ licence, which would qualify her as a Ground Engineer.

In this male dominated world she became “one of the boys”, known as Johnnie, never happier than when she was in her overalls, spanner in hand and kicking a football around with the others after work

She had achieved so much in only 14 months. Her detractors had been proved wrong, but as a female in a man’s world, she felt she needed to do more to prove herself.

Sadly, it was around this time that Amy’s sister Irene was found dead, apparently having committed suicide and her family were in shock. Forced to face the fragility of life, Amy vowed to give up her work at the legal firm and devote herself entirely to her flying career.

She would work day in and day out in the aircraft hangars, straddled over the fuselage, head over the engine, whilst her evenings were spent revising.

In December 1929 she gained her Ground Engineer’s Licence. She was the only woman in the world at the time to hold one.

From now on one thought consumed her. In order to gain the respect of the aviation industry, she needed to prove herself. She decided she was going to fly solo to Australia, in an attempt to break the record.

But she needed support and set about a frenzy of letter writing. It was 1930, the Depression had hit hard and it was tough to raise funds. She was also on a tight time-frame knowing that she needed to leave in early May to avoid the Monsoon season.

But her supporters admired her sheer grit and bloody-minded determination. Funding was finally secured and she made ready to leave.

She first needed a plane and decided upon a second hand moth, which she named ‘Jason’ after her father’s business address and as a tribute to him. The plane was painted green with ‘Jason’

3 painted flamboyantly on the fuselage. Preparations made, Amy was ready for the adventure of her life.

Croydon Airport which was to become known as the airport of Empire and it was from here she would begin her journey, the first of many trips for Amy.

Interestingly, although she tried to sell her story, the flight attracted little press attention. A single photographer turned up to captured her in her flying suit, hat and goggles. Unable to sleep the night before, she was tired and nervous.

After a delay due to a petrol leak and fog over the English Channel and armed with little more than a thermos flask, some sandwiches and a basic map, she finally took off.

At dusk, after nearly 10 hours flying, she reached first stop Vienna. Engineers there were dismissive of her and insisted on overhauling Jason themselves, as she anxiously hovered over them, making sure they were doing it right.

The following morning she took off bound for Constantinople, present day Istanbul. On her arrival, before sunset, she experienced frustrating delays with officials and after a 3 hour overhaul of Jason, she was exhausted and able to get little sleep.

Next stop was Aleppo in Syria. Flying over the hostile and barren Taurus Mountains apparently test a pilot’s mettle even today. Bear in mind, Amy was in a single-engine biplane, open to the elements and with no radio. Unsurprisingly her nerves were frayed.

At one point she was forced up above dense cloud, but Jason’s engine reacted badly to the altitude. Forced down again, she narrowly avoided heading straight into a sheer wall of rock, which left her badly shaken. In Aleppo Amy felt her adventure had truly begun - she felt utterly alone, forced to rely on her wits and nerves of steel.

The following day she aimed for Baghdad following the winding Euphrates River, managing to escape the ever present danger of violent sandstorms. At one point Jason lurched forward with a shuddering jolt and suddenly dropped thousands of feet.

The propeller stopped and she lost altitude again. Amy and Jason were alone like a small boat tossed in a ferocious and stormy sea. She fought to keep the plane steady and finally touched down in a blizzard of flying sand, to quickly cover Jason with a tarpaulin. She straddled the engine and with revolver in hand, in case of unwelcome visitors, waited for the storm to pass. She must have felt completely alone.

Damage to the plane meant a lengthy delay in Baghdad, but she soon ploughed on to Bandar Abbas, where more repairs were needed and she was able to briefly rest.

4 In Karachi, having set a new - England to India - record, people were starting to take notice and she was invited to stay at the Governor’s House. Back home a fierce bidding war ensued in Fleet Street, each press baron willing to pay handsomely for Amy’s story. A media storm was gathering momentum.

A series of misfortunes followed on her trip, with Amy landing short of Allahabad and running out of fuel. On crash landing, the plane was damaged. Though quickly repaired, but she was losing time.

The tricky weather she encountered from Calcutta to Rangoon required a huge amount of concentration and mental stamina. It was the most challenging leg yet and another hairy crash landing in Burma meant yet more delays. This was perhaps her lowest point, but she carried on determined to reach Australia.

Tricky conditions, loneliness and sleep deprivation found Amy losing concentration, but she kept on. She flew from Bangkok to Singapore, but the fates conspired against her and she lost more time.

She realised that beating the record to Australia would be impossible now, but giving up was not an option. She would reach her destination and become the first woman to achieve it on a solo flight.

She didn’t realise, but she was now a star across the globe and it was her very ordinariness that appealed, a normal Yorkshire girl, doing it for women everywhere.

On Day 18 Amy suddenly went missing. She had not been seen for many hours and anxiety levels were high. The Johnson family were praying for a miracle. When she was finally spotted the whole nation breathed a sigh of relief.

Her final stretch, when she was at her most exhausted was across the Timor Sea, over shark infested waters. But soon Amy caught her first sight of land and as the plane touched down in Darwin she was overcome with emotion. After 19 days she had made it.

Amy must have been completely unprepared for the reception she received in Australia. She had left England a nobody and was now what we would call today an A List celebrity. The downside was that she was seen as public property and her life was not her own anymore.

A tour of Australia was accompanied with receptions, lunches and dinners, at which she was expected to make speeches, and a never ending round of publicity, for which she was totally unprepared.

She had undertaken her journey to attain respect in her industry, but as the first woman to fly solo to Australia, fame was the price she paid and she found the thousands of fans and well-wishers overwhelming.

5 On one occasion on touching down in Brisbane she misjudged her descent and crashed, turning her airplane over on its head and miraculously escaping serious injury.

Back in England she was awarded a CBE in the Kings Birthday Honours List and the “The Lone Girl Flyer” as she was known, eventually arrived back home a national heroine. The typist from Hull who had conquered the skies. In a bleak time of austerity, she was a badly needed feel good story.

Other challenges followed and in 1931, she and co-pilot Jack Humphreys became the first pilots to fly from London to Moscow in one day. They then carried on to Tokyo, setting a record time for Britain to Japan.

On their return, Amy married Scottish airman Jim Mollison at St George’s Church in Hanover Square, London. The two would become known as the “flying sweethearts”.

Later that year Amy set a solo record from London to Cape Town and in 1933 she and Jim became the first husband and wife team to fly the Atlantic. Despite crashing in Connecticut they established another world record and were greeted with jubilation in America.

The following year they couple entered the Britain to Australia MacRobertson Air Race, but although they achieved a record time to India, they were forced to retire due to engine trouble.

They may have been “flying sweethearts” to the public, but Jim was a heavy drinker and never faithful to his wife and before long they had split up.

After this Amy turned her attention to business ventures, journalism, fashion and modelling, but she needed a purpose in life and when WW2 broke out, she joined the Air Transport Auxiliary, set up to ferry planes around the country for the Royal Air Force.

On Sunday 5 January 1941 Amy was given orders to fly from Blackpool in an Airspeed Oxford, which she had intended to deliver to RAF Kidlington. The weather was awful and visibility was poor, but despite being advised to delay the journey, it was a routine trip and Amy was not overly concerned.

At about 3.30pm sailors on board a convoy of ships in the Thames Estuary looked up and spotted an aeroplane above. As they watched a parachute floated down through the snow. They thought they saw two bodies in the water.

One of whom of them was calling out. “Hurry, please hurry” a woman’s voice cried out. The sailors threw a line to her, but with the swell of the water, she was unable to reach it and she was pulled away from her rescuers. As the swell rose again, the stern of the ship lifted and fell on to her. Dragged under the propeller blades, there was no hope.

6 Believing that there to be a second passenger with Amy, Lieutenant Commander Walter Fletcher dived into the icy water to try to save them. By the time he realised the mistake, it was too late. He lost consciousness and died later that day.

Amy’s body was never recovered and neither was the so called “second body”. Parts of her plane were recovered however and some of Amy’s possessions, including a travelling bag, a cheque book and her logbook, were later washed up nearby.

There has been much speculation about what happened that afternoon and why she was so far off course. Given the conditions, there is a strong possibility that she simply got lost and ran out of fuel. The belief that there was 2 bodies, led to rumours of a secret mission and there was a theory she may have been shot down by friendly fire.

Exactly what happened will probably never be known and will forever remain a mystery.

What cannot be denied however, is that Amy Johnson was a trailblazer. A role model of her day, she inspired a generation and though her life was short, through passion, grit and determination, she dared to defy convention and to live her dream.

Jason, the plane in which she made that historic flight to Australia, and for which she had so much affection, may be seen today in the Science Museum in London. He hangs there small, fragile and alone, testament to Amy’s great achievement. The ordinary girl from Hull, who conquered the skies.

Sources and Further Reading:

Queen of the Air: Midge Gillies

Unto the Skies: K. A. Lalani http://amyjohnsonartstrust.co.uk/

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