Qantas recognises Bird Walton’s 90th birthday
QF has named its first Airbus A380 aircraft Nancy Bird Walton in recognition of the Australian flying pioneer’s 90th birthday.
Ms Bird Walton was the first female pilot in Australia to carry passengers and was honoured at a 90th birthday party at Sydney Airport’s Qantas Heritage Collection, where she was joined by over 200 guests, including astronaut Andy Thomas and businessman Dick Smith, for dinner.
Ms Bird Walton first flew when she was 13 after a ride in a Gipsy Moth at an air pageant, and at seventeen years of age in 1933 she started flying lessons with no less that the legendary doyen of Australian aviation, Sir Charles Kingsford Smith.
Ms Bird Walton started an air ambulance service in outback NSW with her own Gipsy Moth two years later, before her well publicised world travels promoting women in aviation. She also founded the Australian Women Pilots’ Association in 1950.
Report by John Alwyn-Jones
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