FIRST FLYING ENGLISHWOMAN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 74, 6 July 1910, Page 6

FIRST FLYING ENGLISHWOMAN.

Miss Viola Spencer-Kavanagh, a native of Ipswich, Suffolk, is the first English lady aviator to make an actual flight entirely by herself. The first woman in the world to fly by herself was Mme. de la Roche. Miss Spencer-Kavanagh was the second. Describing her living career, she savs:

The first time I went up by myself | was on January 4. You see, I did not lose much time. I did a thousand yards round the aerodome at a height of 20ft. I should have made my first trial much earlier but for the fact that as I am not very tall the machine had to be altered so that I could use it. After this I made as many flights as I possibly could. That meant whenever I could get the machine. Accidents? 1 never had any serious accidents. The ouly mishap was once when I was just skimming the earth—a few inches above the ground—another machine ran into me and broke one of the wings of my machine. My longest flight was about three and a-half miles. I used a« Anzani 25-ih.p. motor. What do 1 wear when flying? Oh, just a linen overall like engineers do, but I have a short skirt and tight-fitting cap which covers my Irad and ears, and 1 also wear a pair of top boots. You want warm thing* .m when flying. 1 am looking forward to the opportunity of flying at the 1) jnca<ster meeting next month, but why does not the Daily Mail offer a prize for a woman's cross-coun-try flight? i should like to go in for it.' Then I might afterwards try for the big prize f; r the London-Edinburgh flight. I don't see that there is much to be frightened about in flying. Certainly one is not the mercy of the elements as when in a balloon.

In appearance Miss Spencer Ravanagh is small, with dark hair and eyes. Slie is little more than a girl. She took lessons at Pau at the end of last year, and determined to take lessons at the Bleriot school of aviation. There she stayed until the end of April. For some time after my arrival at Pau I studied the construction and mechanism of the Bleriot aeroplane, and aiade myself familiar with the engines used for driving power. The worst of it was that there was only o*e monoplane to try with, and there were 'several enthusiastic learners all j waiting their turn to go up.