Amy Johnson was born in Hull on the 1st January 1903 and became the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia in 1930 winning £10,000 from the Daily Mail Newspaper.

Her aeroplane was a second hand De Havilland Gipsy Moth biplane nicknamed ‘Jason’ and the famous flight departed from Croydon Airport on the 5th May 1930.

At 18,000 kilometres (equivalent to 11,000 miles), the flight time was 19 days. She landed in Darwin, Australia on 24th May 1930, receiving a hero’s welcome and becoming a key figure in aviation history. She became the youngest president of the Women’s Engineering Society in 1934.

Amy joined the Air Transport Auxiliary as a pilot in World War 2 and died on 5th January 1941 when her plane was lost over the Thames estuary.