Carolyn Grace - Duxford Spring Airshow 2011 (5751897967)

Carolyn Grace ( – 2 December 2022) was an Australian-British pilot and aircraft restorer, and the only qualified female pilot of the

Supermarine Spitfire The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. Many variants of the Spitfire were built, from the Mk 1 to the Rolls-Royce Grif ...

since

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Early life

Grace grew up on a farm in

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, where air travel was an essential part of everyday travel to cover long distances in rural Australia. In 1979, her husband Nick found two Spitfires for sale, and decided to buy them. They continued the restoration work in the 1980s, while Grace learned to fly a

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

Pilot career

Following Nick's death after a car crash in 1988, Grace learned to fly the Spitfire. In 1990, she made her first solo Spitfire flight and qualified as a pilot for the aircraft. While female test pilots had flown the Spitfire during World War II as part of the

Air Transport Auxiliary The Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) was a British civilian organisation set up at the start of the Second World War with headquarters at White Waltham Airfield in Berkshire. The ATA ferried new, repaired and damaged military aircraft between factori ...

, Grace was the first qualified female pilot ever to take part in display flying, leading the way for others to follow. Though she was pressured not to take up solo flying as a widow with two children, Grace felt she needed to in order to commemorate her late husband. She subsequently accumulated 900 flying hours, performing at various air shows and memorial events. The Spitfire ML407, which she and her husband had restored to working order, became known as the "Grace Spitfire". The aircraft was kept at

RAF Bentwaters Royal Air Force Bentwaters or more simply RAF Bentwaters, now known as Bentwaters Parks, is a former Royal Air Force station about northeast of London and east-northeast of Ipswich, near Woodbridge, Suffolk in England. Its name was taken fro ...

Woodbridge, Suffolk Woodbridge is a port and market town in the East Suffolk District, East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England. It is up the River Deben from the sea. It lies north-east of Ipswich and forms part of the wider Ipswich built-up area. The town is c ...

, and the expensive insurance costs were met by

Aon Aon or AON may refer to: * Aon (mythology), son of Poseidon in Greek mythology * ''Aon'' (moth), a genus of moths in the family Erebidae * Aon (trigraph), a Latin trigraph * "Aon", a composition by jazz pianist Harold Mabern, 1968 Business an ...

, who sponsored her events. In 2004, Grace flew this Spitfire over

Chartwell Chartwell is a country house near Westerham, Kent, in South East England. For over forty years it was the home of Winston Churchill. He bought the property in September 1922 and lived there until shortly before his death in January 1965. In th ...

, former residence of

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...

, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...

. In 2011, she flew the plane as part of the 75th anniversary of the Spitfire's first flight in 1936. Grace died after a car accident at

Goulburn Goulburn ( ) is a regional city in the Southern Tablelands of the Australian state of New South Wales, approximately south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Canberra. It was proclaimed as Australia's first inland city through letters pate ...

, New South Wales, on 2 December 2022, at the age of 70.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grace, Carolyn 1950s births Year of birth missing 2022 deaths Supermarine Spitfire People from New South Wales Australian women aviators Road incident deaths in New South Wales