Interrupted Flight

From her first taste of the air when she joined Bert Hinkler in the cockpit for a joy ride in 1928, Lores Bonney was hooked. With her aviation licence and the support of her husband, she took to Australian and international skies and braved the challenge of long-distance flying. Taking Flight draws from the National Library of Australia’s rich archives and manuscript collection to present the tale of Lores Bonney, the first woman to circumnavigate the Australian continent by air, the first woman acknowledged to fly from Australia to England, and the first solo pilot to fly from Australia to Cape Town, South Africa. Aviation writer Kristen Alexander intimately illuminates the woman behind the audacious pilot, exploring her highs and lows and struggle to gain and maintain her place as one of Australia’s great aviation pioneers.