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 in 1935, aged 17.

Joan Lily Amelia Hughes MBE 

b. 28 April 1918 in Woodford, Essex; educated 'privately'. 5 foot 2, build: slight, eyes: hazel.

Joan Hughes celebrated her 17th birthday by qualifying for her RAeC Certificate, making her, at the time, the youngest female flyer in Great Britain.

She became an instructor with Chigwell Flying Club, then joined the Civil Air Guard at Romford in 1938.

ATA

The youngest of the 'First Eight' women ATA members who joined on the 1st January 1940, she mostly continued as an instructor, eventually at the Advanced Flying Training School at White Waltham. She did, however, ferry many types of aircraft, including Hurricane, Spitfire, Lysander, Typhoon, Mosquito, York, Fortress, Lancaster, Halifax, Liberator and Stirling.

She had a few mishaps (only one deemed to be her fault);  in August 1941, a forced landing in a Hurricane when the undercarriage jammed; a landing accident in June 1942 when she was instructing Jocelyn Hotham in a Hart, which swung and tipped onto a wing, and another forced landing in a Stirling in December 1943. This last one was due to a 'No 12 cylinder induction elbow blowing off' (so you now know as much as I do.)

One of the iconic images of the ATA - Joan, dwarfed by a Stirling (Brief Glory)

Her flying was always highly praised: "First Officer Hughes is an exceptionally good and level-headed pilot. She has worked extremely hard and conscientiously ... a capable pilot on the Stirling; of above average ability, who, in spite of her small stature, handled the aircraft in a most satisfactory manner. She is to be complimented on such an excellent performance."

One small criticism, however: "her technical knowledge is a long way behind her flying ability & she should spend more time in study of this branch."

After WWII Joan moved to the British Airways Flying Club at Booker, and in 1961 she was awarded the Jean Lennox Bird Trophy; she had trained more than 50 pilots during the year.

MUWW

In 1965 she flew a replica of a 1909 Santos-Dumont Demoiselle in the film "Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines", and then a replica in simulated dog-fights for the film "The Blue Max". She later visited the US where she appeared on a television quiz show as a mystery guest.

Miss Hughes was one of the display pilots at the Shuttleworth Trust during the 1960s: "These aircraft are wonderfully removed from scientific aircraft. Everything depends on the pilot's skill, so you feel more personally involved. Apart from that you are open to the weather".

She retired in 1985 with 11,800 hours in her logbook, 10,000 of which were as instructor, and "devoted herself to tennis, music and country walks". She died age 74, on the 16 August 1993 in Somerset.

Oxford DNB: "Hughes, Joan Lily Amelia (1918–1993), airwoman, was born on 28 April 1918 at Eversley, Glengall Road, Woodford, Essex, the only daughter of Arthur Edward Hughes, a braid manufacturer, and his wife, Lily Amelia Lekeup. She had one older brother. Growing up in the golden era of aviation in the 1920s and early 1930s, Joan Hughes was bitten by the flying bug at an early age. So determined was she to become a pilot that at fifteen her parents allowed her, together with her brother, to have flying lessons once a week at the East Anglian Aero Club, at a cost of £2 10s. per hour. She was soon flying solo, but an accident in which a sixteen-year-old boy was killed resulted in a legal limit of seventeen years for solo flying being imposed. This temporarily halted Joan's ambitions but in 1935 she obtained her pilot's licence.

Joan Hughes obtained her first job as a flying instructor at Chigwell Flying Club and, but for the war, a club flying instructor is probably what she would have remained. The formation of the Civil Air Guard (CAG) in October 1938, providing cheap subsidized flying for anyone of either sex between the ages of eighteen and fifty, resulted in hundreds of applications from many who could not otherwise obtain a pilot's licence. This provided more work for flying clubs and their instructors. At the outbreak of war Hughes was instructing in the women's corps of the CAG at Romford, Essex, and had accrued over 500 flying hours. She was one of a small band of women instructors who then applied to join the AirTransportAuxiliary (ATA). Composed of older men and those not considered fit for combat activities with the RAF, it was not deemed a suitable organization for those fit and active young women with hundreds of hours of flying experience. However, as a result of the persistence of Pauline Gower and lobbying from these women, it was eventually agreed that a small pool of women based at Hatfield could be formed to ferry De Havilland Tiger Moths from factories to storage units dispersed around the UK.

In January 1940 Joan Hughes became the youngest of the first eight selected by Pauline Gower for what was at the time considered merely an experiment. For much of her time in the ATA she worked as an instructor, initially on Tiger Moths and Miles Magisters. By the end of hostilities she and ten of her contemporaries were flying four-engined aircraft and Joan herself was instructing both sexes at the Advanced Flying Training School (AFTS) at White Waltham. She was the only woman instructor on all types of aircraft (including Oxfords, Harvards, Hudsons, and Wellingtons), with the exception of seaplanes and four-engined types.

Hughes served in the ATA for six years, until December 1945, never losing an aircraft, though she did have one or two hair-raising experiences. The first occurred when she was ferrying a Hurricane from Silloth to Hatfield in August 1941. After take-off she was unable to move the selector lever in order to raise the undercarriage. Aware that these first Hurricane flights by women were attracting undue attention and fearing that if she returned to complain it might be thought that she lacked the stature and strength to cope, she used her foot to move the lever. The undercarriage retracted but the lever would not return to neutral. Arriving at Finningley to refuel, she could lower neither the undercarriage nor the flaps since both worked off the same lever. After orbiting for some time she had no alternative but to make a flapless belly-landing. Oblivious of her personal safety, she was mainly worried about what the accident committee would say and the effect it would have on women's capabilities to fly Hurricanes. In the event the aircraft slid smoothly over the grass, the only damage a bent propeller. Happily, Hughes was exonerated by the accident committee. Much later, in March 1943, she was on a conversion course on the Stirling four-engined bomber at Stradishall when, on her second take-off, a tyre went flat and the aircraft ran off the runway—confirming the expectations of onlookers who were sure that a slip of a girl would never be able to keep a large aircraft like the Stirling straight. However, she progressed with the course and ferried her first Stirling four days later on 4 April. With the end of hostilities Joan returned to civilian flying as a flying instructor at the West London Flying Club at White Waltham, where her wartime colleague Margot Gore was chief flying instructor. Here she taught many Air Training Corps cadets who became RAF pilots. After Margot left, Joan succeeded her for a brief period as chief instructor but administration was not her style and she moved on to the British Airways Flying Club at Booker in 1961.

It was during her Booker years that Hughes's reputation and ability to fly almost anything made her a natural film stunt pilot. She coached Kenneth More for his role as Douglas Bader in the filmReach for the Sky (1956). When a lightweight was needed to fly the tiny replica 1909 Santos-Dumont Demoiselle, Hughes undertook the flying sequences for Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines in 1965. She also flew replicas of First World War German aircraft in simulated dog-fights for The Blue Max (1966). Her most notable flying episode in films was as a stand-in pilot for Lady Penelope in the 1968 film version of the television series Thunderbirds. The storyline led her to obtain permission to land a Tiger Moth biplane on a motorway near High Wycombe, taxi under the bridge, and take off again. In the event, she flew under the bridge and found herself on seven charges of dangerous flying at Buckinghamshire quarter sessions. In court she pleaded that in her judgement turbulent weather made it safer to fly straight through. After a three-day hearing she was acquitted on all charges.

Joan Hughes retired after fifty years of flying with 11,800 hours in her log book, 10,000 of which were spent instructing. On retirement she moved from Wargrave to Somerset. She returned to White Waltham in 1991 for the unveiling by Prince Michael of Kent of Roderick Lovesay's painting Tribute to Women Aviators, in which she was one of the twelve women pilots depicted. She was appointed MBE in 1945 for her wartime service in the ATA. In 1954 she finally gained her wings from the RAF. She was awarded the British Women Pilots Association's most prestigious trophy, the Jean Lennox Bird jade vase, in 1962. The Royal Aero Club of Great Britain awarded her the bronze medal in 1967 for outstanding service to aviation in every sphere. She died of cancer on 16 August 1993 at Musgrave Park Hospital, Taunton, and was cremated."