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Aviator Nancy Bird Walton dies at 93 | The Courier-Mail
AUSTRALIAN aviation pioneer Nancy Bird Walton, named a National Treasure in 1997, has died from natural causes at her Sydney home, aged 93.
Named a Living National Treasure by the National Trust of Australia in 1997, Ms Walton died about 1pm today at Mosman on Sydney's north shore.
Ms Walton was 17 when she learned to fly in 1933, taught by Charles Kingsford Smith.
Two years later she became the first woman in Australia to obtain her commercial pilot's licence.
Ms Walton went on to pioneer an air ambulance service for Outback NSW.
In October last year, she attended the inaugural Australian landing of Qantas's first super passenger jet the A380, named the Nancy Bird Walton in her honour.
"I was asked if Qantas could name this plane after me at my 90th birthday three years ago and I made it my decision to stay alive," she said at the ceremony in Sydney.
She was also Commandant of the Women's Air Training Corps from 1940-45, the founder and longtime president of the Australian Women's Pilot Association and Emeritus Patron of the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
Awarded an OBE in 1966, Ms Walton became a Dame of the Knights of Malta in 1977 and in 1990 was awarded an AO by the Australian government.
Ms Walton is survived by her daughter, Anne Marie, her son John, her grandchildren, Scott, Anna, Paul and Baron, and by her two great-grand children Lachlan and Zoe.
AUSTRALIAN aviation pioneer Nancy Bird Walton, named a National Treasure in 1997, has died from natural causes at her Sydney home, aged 93.
Named a Living National Treasure by the National Trust of Australia in 1997, Ms Walton died about 1pm today at Mosman on Sydney's north shore.
Ms Walton was 17 when she learned to fly in 1933, taught by Charles Kingsford Smith.
Two years later she became the first woman in Australia to obtain her commercial pilot's licence.
Ms Walton went on to pioneer an air ambulance service for Outback NSW.
In October last year, she attended the inaugural Australian landing of Qantas's first super passenger jet the A380, named the Nancy Bird Walton in her honour.
"I was asked if Qantas could name this plane after me at my 90th birthday three years ago and I made it my decision to stay alive," she said at the ceremony in Sydney.
She was also Commandant of the Women's Air Training Corps from 1940-45, the founder and longtime president of the Australian Women's Pilot Association and Emeritus Patron of the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
Awarded an OBE in 1966, Ms Walton became a Dame of the Knights of Malta in 1977 and in 1990 was awarded an AO by the Australian government.
Ms Walton is survived by her daughter, Anne Marie, her son John, her grandchildren, Scott, Anna, Paul and Baron, and by her two great-grand children Lachlan and Zoe.
