Spotlight On: Amy Johnson, Breaking Records in Aviation
Source: Amy Johnson Arts Trust Amy Johnson was an aviation pioneer who broke a series of flight records throughout the 1930s but is most well known for being the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia in 1930. A Growing Love for Aviation Born in 1903 in Kingston-Upon-Hull, England Amy had no obvious background in flight. Her father ran a fish import and export business and she studied Economics at Sheffield University. She moved to London and worked as a typist for a solicitors firm. In an attempt to rid herself of boredom, one day Amy hopped onto a bus to take a visit to the Stag Lane Aerodrome in North London. Captivated by watching the biplanes take of and land, Amy found herself spending more and more time there. Johnson gained her Pilot's A licence and her Ground Engineer's C licence in 1929, becoming the first woman in the UK to gain the engineer's licence of this type. Johnson traded in her secretarial job for a full time engineering role at the aerodr