Amy Johnson - Sky Roads of the World

In 1939, when this Vintage Words of Wisdom title was first published, only 36 years had elapsed since the Wright brothers had made the first flight in a powered aeroplane. Yet in these few years, as Amy Johnson explains, the world had become a smaller place, shrunk by the achievements of pioneer aviators who established air routes connecting cities and peoples across the globe.

Amy Johnson was one of these pioneers, achieving remarkable fame for her many record-breaking flights during her short life she died aged just 37 piloting an aircraft on behalf of the Air Transport Auxiliary in 1941. In May 1930 she became the first woman to fly from Great Britain to Australia and even today her name is recognised although, for many, her achievements are perhaps less familiar.

Sky Roads of the World is her autobiography. It provides details of Amys own flights but is also a rich source of information about the various men, and women, who throughout the 1920s and 30s risked their lives to extend the possibilities of aviation and achieve fame and glory setting records for speed and distance by air. She captures the thrill and anxiety faced by these pilots as they flew, often alone, with few instruments and no ground support. The tales are enhanced by her personal experience and she provides much background colour with her insights into the places and people encountered around the world.

The First World War provided a massive impetus to the development of aviation so that aircraft were soon achieving speeds, altitudes and distances unthinkable only a few years before. When the Royal Flying Corps flew to France in August 1914 crossing the Channel was still regarded as a major challenge and for most of those military pilots it was their first sea crossing. The flight from Dover to Amiens took around two hours. By contrast, within 20 years, Scott and Campbell-Black had flown from England to Australia in 71 hours, while participating in the 1934 England-Australia Race in which Amy Johnson and her husband Jim Mollison were competitors.

Amy Johnson made numerous long-distance flights but it was her 1930 journey to Australia that captured the publics imagination and brought her instant fame. The route led from London across Europe via Vienna to Istanbul. Then on to Iran, skirting the Persian Gulf, India, Rangoon, Malaysia and Indonesia. She arrived in Darwin, Australia, 19 days after leaving Croydon quite an achievement for a comparatively inexperienced 27 year-old flier.

In 1933 she flew across the Atlantic east to west and in 1936 she regained her record time for the England-South Africa route she had first established in 1932. On this flight she travelled from Cape Town, up the east side of Africa and across Europe to London. She explored the two main routes to South Africa east and west but was definitely in favour of the former that took in the sights of the Nile, the Pyramids and the great plains of Kenya and Tanzania.

As well as the solo journeys she describes in this book, she had a job, briefly, as an airline pilot flying passengers daily between London and Paris for Hillman Airways, and a one-off role as co-pilot for TWA in the USA flying across the North American continent.

Amy and her fellow women pilots also challenged the expectation of the time that aeroplanes and flying were a mans world. For example, in this book Amy Johnson writes of finding a refreshing attitude in the USA where, I was in the land of opportunities, a country where a woman is given a job according to her qualifications and not her sex. She also highlights the prejudice she often encountered throughout her career despite her success and achievements.

For anyone interested in the growth of civilian aviation between the two World Wars this book provides much detail on emerging routes, airlines, aircraft and the numerous individuals responsible for their development. Amy Johnson flew to and across many countries and writes of aviation in all continents in a manner that evokes much period charm. However, the reader should realise that some of her comments and observations reflect commonly accepted modes of speech and attitudes of the time so we have left these in the text even though they may conflict with modern sensibilities.

Amy Johnson is worthy of her place among British heroes and this delightful book will introduce her to new readers who will gain a better understanding of Amy, the woman and pilot, and also of an early twentieth-century world experiencing considerable social and technological change.