Joan Lily Amelia Hughes,

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

(27 April 1918 – 16 August 1993) was a

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 opposing ...

ferry pilot and one of Britain's first female test pilots. She was considered a capable instructor and flew everything except flying boats.

Early life

Hughes was born in

West Ham West Ham is an area in East London, located east of Charing Cross in the west of the modern London Borough of Newham. The area, which lies immediately to the north of the River Thames and east of the River Lea, was originally an ancient ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

in 1918. Her mother was Lily Amelia Lekeup and her father Arthur Edward Hughes manufactured braids. She and her brother started flying training when she was fifteen and their parents paid the East Anglian Aero Club £2/10s an hour. At that time you could fly a plane at any age and so by 17 had she become the youngest qualified female pilot in Britain.

Air Transport Auxiliary

As an experienced aviator, Hughes was one of the first eight female pilots accepted into 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 ...

on 1 January 1940 and Hughes was the youngest female pilot to join the service. Hughes initially flew Tiger Moths from

Hatfield Aerodrome Hatfield Aerodrome was a private airfield and aircraft factory located in the English town of Hatfield in Hertfordshire from 1930 until its closure and redevelopment in the 1990s. Early history Geoffrey de Havilland, pioneering aircraft desi ...

, Hertfordshire and soon Hughes had more than 600 hours' experience ferrying aircraft around the country. Though small in stature, she ferried all types of aircraft including heavy four-engined

bomber A bomber is a military combat aircraft designed to attack ground and naval targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry (such as bombs), launching torpedoes, or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. The first use of bombs dropped from an air ...

s such as the Short Stirling. She became both a senior pilot and the only woman qualified to instruct on all types of military aircraft then in service.

Post war

left, First 8 women pilots in front of their De_Havilland_Tiger_Moths_(right_to_left):_Pauline_Gower_(Commandant),_ De_Havilland_Tiger_Moths_(right_to_left):_Pauline_Gower_(Commandant),_Margaret_Cunnison">Pauline_Gower.html"_;"title="De_Havilland_Tiger_Moths_(right_to_left):_Pauline_Gower">De_Havilland_Tiger_Moths_(right_to_left):_Pauline_Gower_(Commandant),_Margaret_Cunnison_(obscured),_Winifred_Crossley_Fair.html" ;"title="Margaret_Cunnison.html" ;"title="Pauline_Gower.html" ;"title="De Havilland Tiger Moths (right to left): Pauline Gower">De Havilland Tiger Moths (right to left): Pauline Gower (Commandant), Margaret Cunnison">Pauline_Gower.html" ;"title="De Havilland Tiger Moths (right to left): Pauline Gower">De Havilland Tiger Moths (right to left): Pauline Gower (Commandant), Margaret Cunnison (obscured), Winifred Crossley Fair">Winifred Crossley, Hon.Margaret Fairweather, Mona Friedlander, Joan Hughes, Gabrielle Patterson and Rosemary Rees. Hughes continued to fly after the war, using her talents as an instructor. She was featured in "The Eagle Special Investigator Meets Joan Mills in 'Special Investigator Flies Solo'" in the 1953 book ''Eagle Special Investigator''. In the 1960s, Hughes served as a flying instructor with the Airways Aero Association, first at

White Waltham Airfield White Waltham Airfield is an operational general aviation aerodrome located at White Waltham, southwest of Maidenhead, in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England. This large grass airfield is best known for its assoc ...

, and then at Booker Airfield. In early 1964, due to her low weight and considerable experience, Hughes was recruited for testing a near-replica of the 1909 Santos-Dumont ''Demoiselle''

monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing con ...

, ultimately flying it for the shooting of the 1965 film ''

Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines ''Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines; Or, How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours and 11 Minutes'' is a 1965 British period comedy film that satirizes the early years of aviation. Directed and co-written by Ken Annakin, the film ...

''. She also flew replica

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

aircraft for the film ''

The Blue Max ''The Blue Max'' is a 1966 British war film directed by John Guillermin and starring George Peppard, James Mason, Ursula Andress, Karl Michael Vogler, and Jeremy Kemp. The film was made in DeLuxe Color and filmed in CinemaScope. The plot i ...

'' (1966) and a

Tiger Moth The de Havilland DH.82 Tiger Moth is a 1930s British biplane designed by Geoffrey de Havilland and built by the de Havilland Aircraft Company. It was operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and other operators as a primary trainer aircraft. ...

bi-plane for the live-action flying shots in ''

Thunderbird 6 ''Thunderbird 6'' is a 1968 British science fiction puppet film based on '' Thunderbirds'', a Supermarionation television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and filmed by their production company Century 21 Productions. Written by ...

'' (1968). In the latter film she ended up in court as it was alleged that she had flown under a motorway bridge in a dangerous manner. The case was abandoned after they heard that she had flown, rather than taxied under, the bridge because this was the safest choice. During the 20 June 1966 episode of '' To Tell The Truth'' television panel show, Hughes appeared as herself; two of the four panelists correctly picked her as the contestant. In 1984, Hughes was interviewed about her life and flying career as part of the Imperial War Museum's oral history project. She retired at Booker Airfield in 1985, after spending over 10,000 hours instructing other pilots making up 11,800 flight hours in her logbook.

Honours

Hughes was appointed a Member of the

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(MBE) in 1946 for her war work. In 1980 Hughes was awarded the Pike Trophy by the

Honourable Company of Air Pilots The Honourable Company of Air Pilots, formerly the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators (GAPAN), is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. The Company was founded in 1929, and became a Livery Company in 1956. Elizabeth II granted ...

, the prize is given to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to civil flying instruction.

Later life

Hughes died of cancer in

Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England, with a 2011 population of 69,570. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century monastic foundation, Taunton Castle, which later became a priory. The Normans built a castle owned by the ...

on 16 August 1993, aged 75.

Posthumous recognition

A bus company in Hatfield named its eight buses after the "first eight" of the Tiger Moth pilots in the ATA, including Hughes. In 2008, the fifteen surviving women members of the ATA (and 100 surviving male pilots) were given a special award by the Prime Minister

Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Tony B ...

. Hughes' MBE medal was sold by Chilcotts Auctioneers in

Honiton Honiton ( or ) is a market town and civil parish in East Devon, situated close to the River Otter, north east of Exeter in the county of Devon. Honiton has a population estimated at 11,822 (based on mid-year estimates for the two Honiton Ward ...

in December 2020 for £5800, alongside her Pike Trophy medal and a related scrapbook, considerably higher than its expected price.

Notes

References

*''

'' DVD, "Tiger Moth" featurette, 2004. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hughes, Joan 1918 births 1993 deaths Air Transport Auxiliary pilots British women in World War II British stunt performers English aviators English test pilots Women aviators Members of the Order of the British Empire People from West Ham British women aviators