Category:Amy Johnson

Amy Johnson, modelled by Bassett-Lowke Ltd. as a celebrity train passenger [image info]

Amy Johnson (1903–1941) was a celebrated aviator who set a number of aviation records before being lost in a plane crash in the Thames estuary.

A Life in Aircraft

• de Havilland DH.60 Gipsy Moth, G-AAAH, "Jason"

Johnson's first aircraft

1930: flies solo from Croydon to Brisbane.

• de Havilland DH.80 Puss Moth, G-AAZV, "Jason II"

1931: flies from London to Moscow in 21hrs with copilot Jack Humphreys

• de Havilland DH.80 Puss Moth, G-ACAB, "Desert Cloud"

1932: London to Cape Town solo record, breaking the previous record by Jim Mollison. After having just married Mollison that year.

• de Havilland DH.84 Dragon, G-ACCV, "Seafarer"

1933: Flies with Mollison from South Wales to Brooklyn. Gets a ticker-tape parade in New York.

• de Havilland DH.88 Comet, G-ACSP, "Black Magic"

1934: Britain to India speed record, with Mollison.

• Percival Gull Six, G-ADZO '

1936: Regains the record for flying from Britain to South Africa.

• Various

1940: Joined the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA), worked flying planes around the country to where they needed to be.

• Airspeed Oxford

The last plane flown by Johnson. While trying to deliver the aircraft, Johnson went badly off-course in bad weather, ran out of fuel, and her plane went down in the Thames Estuary. Attempts to rescue her from the waters failed, with the Captain of a nearby ship diving into the water and later dying from his attempt at a rescue.