“FINE FUN”

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19867, 15 June 1927, Page 12

“FINE FUN”

FUTURE WOMEN FLIERS SHOPPING BY PLANE? LONDON, June 1. “I am just doing it for fun. It is line amusement for women,” said Airs J. R. Bell, wife of Flight-Lieut. J. R. Bell, Australian air liaison officer in England, to the special representative of The Sun, on jumping out from a Moth at Stag Lane aerodrome, from which she frequently flies over London. “It is as easy as motoring once you have learned to handle the joystick,” she said. “I do not see why the average woman in normal health should not be a good aviator, especially in Australia, where the weather is favorable. In Britain I learned in the winter time. In Britain it takes months to learn, because you are only able to fly an occasional half-hour when the conditions are good. “I did not experience any thrill except on first rising from the ground, and to this I soon became accustomed.”

Mrs Bell believed that aviation ultimately would be as popular as motoring among women. She anticipated that women on outback stations would soon be flying to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane for a day’s shopping. It was only a matter of time to create the necessary public confidence, and remove the bar against women pilots.