March 2016 AH 15LEFT: AKG-IMAGES/TT NEWS AGENCY; RIGHT: THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES
original Lady Lindy, after
Earhart crossed the Atlantic
as a passenger in June 1928.
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the Avro Avian, and Earhart
promptly bought the biplane
and took it back to the U.S.
with her.
Lady Heath recognized
that America had the fastest-
growing commercial airline
industry of the day. In July
1929, that view led her to
write an article for ;KQMV\QÅK
American titled “Is Flying
Safe?” She believed that well-
trained pilots and stringent
construction standards were
the most important factorsTo do so she had to buck a
resolution passed in April
1924 by the International
Commission for Aviation that
“women shall be excluded
from any employment in the
operating crew of an aircraft
engaged in public transport.”
Her test included proving to
a panel of men that she could
control an aircraft...regard-
less of the time of month.
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an unhappy one, and she
and Major William Elliott-
Lynn were divorced in 1925.
Sophie sought a new hus-
band, reportedly making a
list of the wealthiest British
bachelors in search of some-
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industrialist Sir James Heath,
who was 45 years her senior,
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Lady Heath.
By that time she had
already set a number of alti-
tude records for small aircraft
and seaplanes. In addition to
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a spectacular landing in the
middle of a football match,
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the UK to parachute from
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open race.
Traveling to South Africa
on her honeymoon, Lady
Heath brought along the
crated Avro Avian biplane
that her new husband had
bought for her. She planned
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a small, open-cockpit plane
solo from South Africa to
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Cape Town in January 1928,
but her journey lasted much
longer than anticipated
and was fraught with peril,
including a crash landing
outside Southern Rhodesia
(Zimbabwe) after she suf-
fered heatstroke. She landed
at Croydon Aerodrome on
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Despite having pilotedand maintained the Avian
throughout that 9,000-mile
trek, she stepped out of the
cockpit to greet the crowds
looking fabulous, in heels,
a pleated skirt, fur coat and
cloche hat.
Lady Heath was deter-
mined to earn her way as a
pilot, giving joyrides to fans
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back to Ireland, where thou-
sands would gather to see her
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visits are still remembered
there today by the lads in
Ballybunion, County Kerry,
where she went to visit her
Aunt Cis. They recall that
Lady Heath “was good at the
sales talk,” and there would
always be more customers
waiting to go up with her
once the last lot had shaki ly
climbed out of her plane.
She soon turned to lobby-
ing for a job as a commercial
pilot, eventually succeeding
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Seeking to escape negative
publicity she faced in Britain
and Europe, Lady Heath
accepted an invitation to
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States, where she was known
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She had already met theIٺMK\QVOIQZTQVM[INM\a
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arti cle appeared, on August
29, Lady Heath crashed
through a factory roof after
clipping a chimney while
practicing for the National
Air Races in Cleveland. She
sustained a fractured skull,
broken nose and internal
injuries, and observers at
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Newspapers reported that
her recovery seemed unlikely,
but after weeks in a coma
she proved them wrong.
Her second marriage ended
soon after, when Lord Heath
divorced her.
After remarrying in
1931, this time to former
Trinidadian jockey G.A.R.
“Jack” Williams, Sophie
moved back to Dublin, where
she founded her own private
aviation company. The
match was by all accounts
her happiest, but it led to
her being ostracized in
social circles due to the fact
that Williams was black. In
Dublin she also established
the Irish Junior Aero Club,
which taught young pilot
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problems with alcohol and
isolation from society led
to her gradual decline and
estrangement from Williams.
She died at age 42 of a head
injury following a fall on a
tramcar in 1939.
In late 2013, seeking to
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Tracy Curtis-Taylor retraced
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Africa to Britain in a Boeing
Stearman open-cockpit
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her achievements, and put
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consciousness,” commented
Curtis-Taylor. on august 29,
1929, lady
heath crashed
through
a factory
roof after
clipping a
chimney while
practicing for
the national
air races in
cleveland.avian aviatrix Lady
Heath smiles from the cockpit
of her Avro Avian in 1927.