💡 Interesting Facts
as well as being Australia's first military pilot, Henry Petre (pictured) led the Australian Flying Corps' first unit on active service and earned the DSO, MC and four Mentions in Despatches?in 1910, pioneer aviator Edwin Moon made the first flight from fields which were later to become Southampton International Airport?a pilot of 818 Naval Air Squadron flying from HMS Ark Royal, crippled the German battleship Bismarck so that she could later be sunk?Vernon Burge was the first American enlisted man to be certified as a military aviator?Semaphore, South Australia, the home of Australia's largest carousel, is also the birthplace of renowned aviator Sir Ross Smith?pioneering African American aviator Hubert Julian was an associate producer for the 1940 race film The Notorious Elinor Lee?teenage aviatrix Elinor Smith, the "Flying Flapper of Freeport", had her pilot's license suspended for 15 days for flying under New York City's four East River bridges in 1928?to open the swing door on the General Aircraft Hamilcar glider (pictured) and allow vehicles to emerge, pilots had to climb out of the glider's cockpit and slide down 15 feet (4.6 m) of fuselage?the most common victims of barodontalgia, a dental pain evoked by a change in barometric pressure, are SCUBA divers and military pilots?the first British fighter pilot to die in World War II was killed in a friendly fire incident known as the Battle of Barking Creek?the first Czech aviator, Jan Kašpar, made his first flight with Blériot XI in 1910?Sabine Ehrenfeld, the Overstock.com spokesmodel, is fluent in German, French, English, and Italian and that she is an experienced pilot and equestrian?Len Waters was the first Australian Aboriginal military pilot, flying P-40 "Kittyhawk" fighter planes during World War II?Battle of Britain pilot Paul Egger was later awarded the Knight's Cross as a Tiger tank commander in the Waffen-SS?aviator Ruth Nichols, known at one time as the "Flying Debutante", flew every type of aircraft developed, from dirigible to supersonic jet?aviator Jack De Garis faked his own suicide by drowning before being the subject of an Australia-wide search in 1925?airline pilots in the 1930s and 1940s flew with their ears when visibility was poor?Second World War bomber pilot "Micky" Martin broke the speed record flying from England to Cape Town?Turkish female aviator Nezihe Viranyalı was educated in civil aviation at the University of Tennessee following an invitation by the renowned American pilot Jacqueline Cochran?Ivor McIntyre (pictured) was lead pilot in two pioneering aviation feats, the first circumnavigation of Australia by air, and the first international flight by an RAAF plane and crew?Hilda Hewlett was the first British female aviator to earn a pilot's licence?Cromwell Dixon died in a plane crash in 1911 only two days after becoming the first aviator to cross the Continental Divide of the Americas?Welsh military pilot and journalist, Wing Commander Patrick Gibbs, published two volumes of wartime memoirs 49 years apart: Not Peace, But a Sword (1943) and Torpedo Leader (1992)?Air Marshal John McCauley's (pictured) university degree was an unusual qualification for a pilot in the pre-war RAAF, whose officers generally "valued little beyond flying ability"?