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my god! it's a woman

nancy bird

 Autobiography

My God! It’s a Woman is the extraordinary story of Nancy Bird, one of Australia’s pioneer aviators.

Her training began in 1933 at the age of seventeen, in Sydney, where she was one of Charles Kingsford Smith's, first pupils. Despite many obstacles - including being too small to reach all aeroplane's controls without the aid of cushions - Nancy was determined to fly, and obtained her commercial pilots licence in 1935. It was a time when aviation had captured the imagination of people around the world. Long-distance flights in single-engined aircraft were eagerly followed by journalists and the general public alike aero clubs flourished, and the exploits of figures such as Kingsford Smith, P.C. Taylor and Charles Ulm would become legendary.

In spite of the great enthusiasm generated by these pioneers, Australian aviation was still in its infancy and fraught with many dangers and difficulties Mechanical problems, frail aeroplanes made of fabric and wood, dust storms poor, or no aviation maps and sketchy weather reports would often turn a flight into a test of courage and perseverance

My God! It’s a Woman spans Nancy Bird’s flying experiences in the outback, her travels in Europe and the USA, her association with famous aviators, such as Jean Batten and Amy Johnson, and her flying comeback in the 1950s when she was the first foreign competitor to enter in America’s Powder Puff Derby. In 1966, Nancy was awarded the Order of the British Empire in recognition of her support of charities, and in 1990 her significant contribution to aviation and her courageous work in the Outback was recognised with an Order of Australia.

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