Flygirl

I wanted to follow yesterday's post with another extraordinary woman with a different kind of vision. Lilian Bland was ahead of her time (born 1878) in many ways,she was a marks-woman,martial artist,sports journalist,photographer,wearer of dungarees and a smoker. Her most notable achievement was the first woman in Ireland to and fly an aircraft,and probably the first woman to build an aircraft. She built her first glider out of mainly spruce,bamboo and canvas and dubbed it the Mayfly. She was not satisfied with just gliding so she then added a 20 hp engine to the Mayfly and earned a place in aviation history,but her father insisted she quit flying before she met her end so she went into building biplanes and gliders for other people. She died in 1971 at age 92. I wonder why most people think of Amelia Earhart as the first woman of note in aviation? Amelia was around 13 years old when Lilian took her first flight.