Jean Batten: New Zealand’s record breaking aviator

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 29 October 2024

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

New Zealander Jean Batten was nicknamed the ‘Queen of the Skies’ for her record breaking flights of the 1930s.

After abandoning a career in music, Jean learnt to fly at the age of 21. She soon joined other female pilots, such as the American, Amelia Earhart, in making international headlines.

They were flying across the world, in planes made of wood and canvas, during the so-called golden age of aviation.

Jean’s achievements included being the first woman to fly solo from Australia to England; and the first female pilot to make a solo flight from England to Argentina.

Jane Wilkinson has been looking through the BBC archives to find out more about her life.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.

Recent episodes explore everything from football in Brazil, the history of the ‘Indian Titanic’ and the invention of air fryers, to Public Enemy’s Fight The Power, subway art and the political crisis in Georgia. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: visionary architect Antoni Gaudi and the design of the Sagrada Familia; Michael Jordan and his bespoke Nike trainers; Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal; and Görel Hanser, manager of legendary Swedish pop band Abba on the influence they’ve had on the music industry. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the time an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the President of the United States in protest of America’s occupation of Iraq; the creation of the Hollywood commercial that changed advertising forever; and the ascent of the first Aboriginal MP.

(Photo: Jean Batten and her De Havilland Gipsy Moth, 1935. Credit: Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	You are about to listen to a BBC podcast and I'd like to tell you a bit about what goes into making one.
0:06.0	I'm Siddhartha Cesset, an assistant commissioner of Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:11.0	I pull a lot of levers to support a diverse range of podcasts on all sorts of subjects,
0:16.6	identity, comedy, even one that mixes poetry, music and inner city life.
0:22.1	So one day I'll be helping host develop their ideas, the next
0:26.0	fact checking, a feature and the next looking at how a podcast connects with its
0:31.5	audience and maybe that's you. So if you like this
0:34.6	podcast check out some others on BBC Sounds.
0:39.4	Hello welcome to the Witness History podcast from the BBC World Service with me
0:47.8	Jane Wilkinson. I'm taking you back through the archives to meet a pilot who became known as the Queen of the
0:55.2	skies for her record-breaking flights of the 1930s.
0:59.2	A tiny plane coming out of the blue, that was the arrival in Sydney, Australia, of Jean Batten.
1:05.0	No wonder there was such a welcome for this wonderful girl.
1:10.0	I do want to say how very pleased I am to have arrived safely and I do also want to thank you for waiting here
1:17.4	and I'm only sorry that I could not have arrived sooner but after all it is a woman's privilege to be a little late.
1:25.0	New Zealander, Jean Batten, in 1936, during the so-called Golden Age of Aviation,
1:32.0	when small planes made of wood and canvas raced across the skies.
1:37.0	Jean's lover flying had begun at the age of 19 in 1928 when she persuaded Australian pilot Charles Kingford Smith to
1:46.8	take her up in his plane. I knew immediately we took off and flew over the Blue Mountains.
1:52.4	I felt I was in my element and I decided to become a pilot.
1:57.0	But not all of Jean's family were supportive, as she explained in a BBC interview in 1979.
2:04.0	My father wanted me to become a concert pianist
	...

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