大象传媒

Winifred Spooner
The 95 year-old mother of a Making History listener recalled an aeroplane crash near Whitehaven in Cumbria some time in the late 1920s or early 1930s. The pilot was a woman, Winifred Spooner. So who was she?

Making History consulted the journalist and former Chair of the Women Pilot鈥檚 Association, Clare Walker who is writing a history of early women pilots 鈥淲omen with Altitude鈥�; and the author Mary Cadogan.

Winifred Spooner was born in 1900 and didn鈥檛 get a pilot鈥檚 licence until 1927. In 1928 she became the first woman to compete in the King's Cup Air Race and in 1929 the first woman to take part in the first International Challenge de Tourisme air race in which 55 aircraft from six countries competed. She won the following awards:

1928
Winner of the Siddeley Trophy for becoming the first aeroplane club aviator to cross the line in the King's Cup Air Race

1929
Winner of the Harmon Trophy as the world's outstanding aviatrix