Who was Jean Batten?
Jean Batten, (1909 — 1982), was a New Zealand aviatrix whose daring and adventurous flights made her a global heroine and broke barriers of time, distance and gender. Jean competed in a male bastion of dashing bravery and proved to the world that a woman could equal and even exceed their exploits. Jean’s love of flying was matched by her desire to prove herself equal to any man. These driving forces combined to create ‘the Garbo of the skies’, a glamorous daring adventurer who courted world wide attention to further her ambitions and then shunned it in later life. We love the fact that Jean was able to literally rise above the confines and expectations of her time, both as a woman and a pilot. She dreamed of doing something that had never been done before; a solo flight from England to Australia in under 20 days. She persevered, keeping her dream in focus, and eventually did fly to Australia, breaking the record by five days. For good measure she established another record by becoming
