Those Magnificent Girls in their Flying Machines.

The pioneering years of flight was much dominated by the flying exploits of the fairer sex. Everyone knows the names of Amelia Earhart or Amy Johnson, but how many others do we know of the equally daring female pilots - called aviatrixes - who made their mark during the early days of flying?

In the wild and wooly barnstorming, daredevil days of aviation from its beginnings during the first decade of the twentieth century, through the Great War and beyond, there were few occupations outside the home open to women of means other than teaching, nursing and secretarial work.  That’s when a group of adventurous females—some of them girls still in their teens– took to the skies, risking their lives flying flimsy wooden aircraft in open cockpits.  Often disparaged and mocked by the male pilots of the day, there was both camaraderie and competitiveness among these girls as records for speed, distance and altitude were swiftly set and broken; and there was a constant succession of ‘firsts’ by them.

Here is a selection of photographs of some; many of them wearing the fashionable attire of the day - and some not so fashionable as the need for practicality and comfort began to be acknowledged.