Nancy Bird Walton OBE AO - RIP

Antipodean Andy · Jan 13, 2009

Wasn't sure how to put the Knights of Malta honour in her title. A true pioneer.

Aussie female air pioneer dies | National Breaking News | News.com.au

AUSTRALIAN aviation pioneer Nancy Bird Walton has died at her Sydney home, aged 93.
Named a Living National Treasure by the National Trust of Australia in 1997, Ms Walton died from natural causes about 2pm (AEDT) on Tuesday at Mosman on Sydney's north shore.

Ms Walton was 17 when she learned to fly in 1933, taught by Charles Kingsford Smith.

Two years later she became the first woman in Australia to obtain her commercial pilot's license.

Ms Walton went on to pioneer an air ambulance service for outback New South Wales.

In October last year, she attended the inaugural Australian landing of Qantas' first super passenger jet the A380, named the Nancy Bird Walton in her honour.

"I was asked if Qantas could name this plane after me at my 90th birthday three years ago and I made it my decision to stay alive," she said at the ceremony in Sydney.

She was also Commandant of the Women's Air Training Corps from 1940-45, the founder and longtime president of the Australian Women's Pilot Association and Emeritus Patron of the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

Awarded an OBE in 1966, Ms Walton became a Dame of the Knights of Malta in 1977 and in 1990 was awarded an AO by the Australian government.

Ms Walton is survived by her daughter, Anne Marie, her son John, her grandchildren, Scott, Anna, Paul and Baron, and by her two great-grand children Lachlan and Zoe.
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Nostalgair · Jan 13, 2009

What an amazing life.

I first met Nancy many years ago and I was last in touch with her only a few weeks before Christmas.

She has been a lady and pioneer in every sense of the word.

A national treasure has passed.

Rest in Peace.

spidge · Jan 13, 2009

A national treasure alright and not said flippantly.

John · Jan 13, 2009

Yes, Australia has lost a very great lady in Nancy Bird Walton. It was very sad news of her death to-day
John

Antipodean Andy · Jan 13, 2009

Tributes fly in for pioneer Nancy Bird-Walton | Herald Sun

WHEN Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith opened his Sydney flying school in 1933, a bright-eyed 17-year-old Nancy Bird was his first pupil.

It was to be the launching point of an extraordinary flying career that won her respect, awards and countless friends around the world.

Ms Bird-Walton, who died at her Sydney home yesterday aged 93, became a true pioneer.

She was named a Living National Treasure by the National Trust in 1997, but was best-known as the first Australian woman to gain her commercial pilot's licence, at just 19 in 1935.

Her love of flying began at a much earlier age. At four, she tried to take off from the backyard fence after hearing about the Great England-Australia Air Race.

Nine years later, she went for a joy flight in a gypsy moth and was hooked.

After the lessons and attaining her licence, relatives bought her her own Gipsy Moth which she flew throughout country New South Wales at a time when planes were a rarity, never mind a female pilot.

Her 2002 autobiography was entitled My God! It's A Woman.

In 1935 she helped establish an air medical service for outback parts of the state. Her own plane was the first air ambulance for the Far West Children's Health Scheme.

At 24, she married Englishman Charles Walton and they had two children, Anne Marie and John.

During the war, she was Commandant of the Women's Air Training Corps from 1940 to 1945.

And in 1950, she formed the Australian Women Pilots' Association which has flourished and today has 800 members.

High-profile aviator Dick Smith flew Ms Bird-Walton to the association's last national conference, in Roma in western Queensland, last March.

AWPA spokesman and friend of more than 30 years, Jenny Houghton, said Ms Bird-Walton was alert and mentally active as recently as three weeks ago.

"She was a vibrant, passionate and special lady," Ms Houghton said.

Her achievements were rewarded with an OBE in 1966 and in 1990 she was honoured with an AO.

As well as her trailblazing career and undoubted skills, Ms Bird-Walton actively encouraged female pilots.

Her speeches, even in her final years, were inspiring, moving and memorable.

In October, Qantas named its first A380 after her.

According to her preference to adopt the hyphenation style used by her husband, she requested the plane be named Nancy-Bird Walton.

At the inaugural Australian landing ceremony of the giant passenger jet, she said: "I was asked if Qantas could name this plane after me at my 90th birthday three years ago, and I made it my decision to stay alive."

She is survived by children Anne Marie and John, four grandchildren and two great-grand children.
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