Amy Johnson: Related Stories and Resources
The Related Stories and Resources page is where you can find additional material related to the essay Amy Johnson by Terence C. Gannon. You can also listen to the original essay on your favourite podcasting platform where it appeared as part of the Not There Yet podcast narrated by the author. Items below appear in reverse chronological order based on the date of original publication.
Solo2Darwin September 1, 2019. We watched with great interest as Amanda J. Harrison departed the UK in her de Havilland Tiger Moth in May of this year with the goal of faithfully recreating Amy Johnson’s flight from England to Australia. While Amanda fell short of her ultimate destination this time around, we feel it’s only a matter of time before she well relaunch the effort and ultimately be successful.
The Amy Johnson Project August 30, 2019. “The search for the wreckage of Amy Johnson’s aircraft has kept divers, researchers, and historians busy for many decades — and always without success. Now a team of amateur enthusiasts from Canterbury Divers (a branch of the British Sub-Aqua Club) have taken up the challenge.”
Amy Johnson Arts Trust August 25, 2019. “The Amy Johnson Arts Trust has now been set up as a charity which will continue to champion Amy and ensure that future generations of young people know about her remarkable story. We will do this by providing information and educational resources about Amy.”
de Havilland DH60G Gipsy Moth G-AAAH Jason (key photo at top) Wikimedia, June 16 2015 by Alan Wilson. Because so much of Amy Johnson’s photographic legacy is in black and white, it’s easy to forget that her life — of course — was lived in full colour. Amy Johnson’s plane Jason was donated to the Science Museum in 1931 and has been lovingly preserved in the nearly nine decades since her flight. This beautiful photograph from the museum’s Flight Hall is like a time machine which captures what it must have been like to see the aircraft in the air somewhere between England and Australia back in May of 1930.
90 Hours in Air — Then Australia: On September 15, 1928, Miss Amy Johnson Took Her First Flight and Decided to Become a Pilot The Ottawa Journal, May 31st, 1930 by Captain F.R. Matthews. This lengthy feature article was written by Amy Johnson flight instructor. In his words: “I well remember her visit — this simple, unassuming girl, who came to the London Aeroplane Club, and quietly asked if she could learn how to fly. She impressed me as a girl who once she had set her mind upon a purpose would carry it through to the end.” How right Captain Matthews turned out to be. Transport yourself back in time by reading the whole article on Newspapers.com.
Amy Johnson Crashes: Unhurt, But Plane Badly Damaged The Age, May 30th, 1930. “Miss Amy Johnson crashed when approaching the aerodrome at Eagle Farm this afternoon…[t]he machine side slipped and nose dived to earth. The wings were badly damaged…the appearance of Miss Johnson, a little shaken and pale, but smiling, was a great relief.” By this time, one does wonder if Amy Johnson might have felt that her good fortune was close to being exhausted. Read the entire story on Newspapers.com.
Amy Johnson’s Exciting Day: Loses Way and Lands in Dark The Age, May 29th, 1930. “Amy Johnson had an exciting time to-day. After leaving Longreach en route to Charleville she lost sight of tho escorting plane, and, getting oft the proper course, landed at Quilpie, about 130 miles west of Charleville. After refuelling she set off for Charleville, which she did not reach until 5.55 p.m. She landed after dark, the head lights of twenty motor cars lined up, helping her to see the way. The town was almost delirious with joy on her safe landing.” Read all the stories occupying two full columns on Newspapers.com.
Miss Johnson’s Message to the People of Australia: It’s Glorious to be Among My Own People Again The Sydney Morning Herald, May 28th, 1930. Nearly two full columns were devoted to Amy Johnson as she slowly toured through Australia enroute to Brisbane. The number of stops and speaking engagements detailed provide a clear indication of how suddenly and dramatically her life had changed. Read the entire account on Newspapers.com.
“Played, ‘Johnnie’!” (advertisement) The Vancouver Sun, May 27th, 1930. There are those who might believe celebrity commercial endorsements are a relatively new phenomenon. Far from it. As Amy Johnson made her way across Australia, the publicity machine was cranked up into high gear. Although somewhat disguised (‘By Royal Appointment to His Majesty the King’?) this sizable ad for Castrol motor oil was running in many newspapers. See it in context on Newspapers.com.
Miss Johnson Flying Across Australia: Escort of ’Planes The Guardian, May 26th, 1930. “When I sighted Melville Island I stood up and cheered myself. I threw overboard my pneumatic pillow, which I carried in case I crashed into the sea. I also carried a sheath knife for protection against sharks. I cried and laughed alternately until I picked up the Point Charles Lighthouse and turned towards Port Darwin.” Read the entire clipping of Amy Johnson’s momentous arrival in Australia on Newspapers.com.
Amy Johnson Completes Hazardous 10,000-Mile Solo Flight to Australia The Vancouver Province, May 25th, 1930. The story of Amy Johnson’s remarkable flight was finally front page news around the world, as this example from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada demonstrates. Her story was worthy of more than two full columns of that day’s edition. Almost as interesting as the story itself is the wildy inappropriate subheading “Many Races Mingle in Wild Demonstration of Welcome”. What did that have to do with anything? Read the entire story in Newspapers.com.
British Girl Flyer Lands in Australia: Miss Amy Johnson, 23, Completes Flight From England in 19 Days The Boston Globe, May 24th, 1930. Seemingly against impossible odds, Amy Johnson lands in Port Darwin, Australia. “Miss Johnson saw the sun rise 20 times on her flight, and within an hour or so might have seen it set the 20th time, which would have completed the 20th flying day. This time difference lay in the fact that traveling eastward, she advanced eight hours around the clock beyond British Summer time.” Read the entire the clip on Newspapers.com.
Miss Johnson Found The Guardian, May 23rd, 1930. In the Stop Press section of the same edition which reported Amy Johnson missing for over 24 hours, there was a subsequent report that she had been found in ‘Haliloelih’ (Halilulik), a small village near her intended destination for that day of Atambua. See the small clipping in context on Newspapers.com. It is interesting to see how breaking news was handled in the era before the 24 hours news cycle.
Anxiety for Girl Flyer: No News of Miss Johnson for Twenty Four Hours The Guardian, May 23rd, 1930. More so than at any point in Amy Johnson’s trip to this point, there was palpable dread that her luck had finally run out. In the restrained tone of the times: “[s]ome uneasiness is now being felt about Miss Amy Johnson, as nothing has been heard of her since she passed Bima at 11 30 this morning.” Read the extensive clipping on Newspapers.com.
Amy Johnson: May Fly To-day, Worn Magneto Rod The Sidney Morning Herald, May 22nd, 1930. With Amy not flying on this particular day, the article focuses on the repair of a defective magneto, aided by a Mr. De Bruyn, a local who owned the same deHavilland Moth airplane. The same article also contains the subheading ‘Sex Prejudice in Flying’ where Amy is quoted by an unidentified ‘man friend’ as saying “What about me? Have you thought of the sex prejudice I am up against? I know I am a better ‘man’ than you, but suppose we both get a licence and apply for a job, who will get it? You will.” Read the entire clipping on Newspapers.com.
Miss Johnson: Held Up To-day by Magneto Trouble The Guardian, May 21st, 1930. It turns out the forced landing in Tjomal was not as uneventful as first reported: “examination of her ‘plane revealed five holes in the wings. She had to land on Monday in a fruit field at Tjomal because petrol was running short. Bamboo sticks, about four feet long, had been stuck upright in the ground to support young fruit trees. On landing the aeroplane apparently struck these sticks. Holes about a foot wide were torn in the wings.” And yet she was able to repair these and carry on! You can read the entire account of her harrowing trip on Newspapers.com.
Miss Johnson’s Big Flight: 200 Miles from Her Day’s Goal The Guardian, May 20th, 1930. Although she departed from Singapore with the goal of reaching Surabaya on the island of Java, fuel curtailed her flight and Amy Johnson made an unscheduled at a sugar plantation in Tjomal: “With the calm skill which she has shown throughout her long flight she managed, completely unruffled, to come down in an extremely small field which had been cleared for the house of the manager of the sugar estate.” Read the entire account of the day’s events on Newspapers.com.
Miss Johnson at Singapore: The Last Stage to Australia The Guardian, May 19th, 1930. It’s only by reading the day-to-day accounts of Amy Johnson’s flight does one begin to appreciate how many opportunities there were to have her vanish without a trace. “She had resumed her flight to Singapore at eight o’clock this morning, and had been forced to fly below 1,000 ft. all the way. The weather got hotter and hotter, and the jungle below worried her because of the possibility of a forced landing.” Read the whole clipping on Newspapers.com.
Attempts Perilous Flight The Beatrice Daily Sun, May 18th, 1930. This was an era without a 24 hours news cycle or any manner of tracking Amy Johnson’s flight in real time. So on days where there was no current news of her flight papers ran what content they had. This article which ran in Beatrice, Nebraska featured an undated Associated Press photo.
Miss Johnson at Bangkok: Seven-Hour Stuggle in Blinding Rain Over Mountains The Guardian, May 17th, 1930. The article describes in detail Amy Johnson’s two attempts to cross over the mountains between Burma (Myanmar) and Siam (Thailand) at the pass near Moulmein (Mawlamyine). In the first attempt she “rose to 9,000 feet and tried to cross the mountains blindly” only to have to eventually turn back. She then probed for openings north and south only to finally return to Moulmein for another attempt. “This time, however, she came out on the Siam side of the moutains.” Read the entire remarkable clipping on Newspapers.com.
Hops for Siam: Aviatrix Leaves Burma on Flight to Australia The Evening Courier, May 16th, 1930.The photogenic Amy Johnson made it on to the front page of the Final Edition of the Courier of Camden, New Jersey. It was a further sign of the growing attention both she and her flight were attracting. Of course, contemporary readers of the newspaper would be unfamiliar with either her point of departure or her destination. Neither Burma nor Siam are known by those names today. Newspapers.com
Amy Johnson’s Flight: Mishap Near Rangoon, Lands Perfectly But Meets Ditch, Machine Slightly Damaged The Age, May 15th, 1930. Excitement was building in Australia for the imminent arrival of Amy Johnson. In addition to recounting the flight events of the previous day — including Amy hitting a ditch after her landing near Rangoon (Yangon) — the article also reported “Flying Officer Owen…will make his services available to Miss Johnson on behalf of the Shell Company should the engine need adjustment or an overhaul after its long flight.” The oil company managed to get no less than two mentions in the article. Clearly, the notion of ‘earned media’ wasn’t recently invented, as some might think. In addition, and almost as fascinating as the coverage of Amy’s flight itself, are the adjacent stories on the page and those found in the rest of the issue. See the article and the entire newspaper in which it was found with Newspapers.com.
Girl’s Flight To Australia: Aeroplane Slightly Damaged in Descent Near Rangoon The Guardian, May 14th, 1930. Amy Johnson’s solo flight to Australia now warranted two full columns on Page 11 of the Manchester Guardian. It reported on her accident in Rangoon, Burma (present day Yangon, Myanmar). There was some catch up reporting on the earlier landing in the desert between Aleppo and Baghdad. In that, Amy is described as “the brave airgirl [who] stood beside her ’plane with her revolver ready, while her luggage, jammed against the wheels of the aeroplane, prevented it from being blown away.” Read the entire clipping on Newspapers.com.
Girl’s Flight to Australia: Miss Johnson at Calcutta The Guardian, May 13th, 1930. An entire column was dedicated to an update on Amy Johnson’s flight on this day, including news of official congratulations being received from government ministers back in the United Kingdom. There are also comments from Squadron Leader Bert Hinkler, whose record from England-to-Australia Amy was attempting to break. You can find the entire column of related articles on Newspapers.com.
Yorkshire Girl Flyer in India: 4,000 Miles in Five Days The Guardian, May 12th, 1930. Five days into her flight, Amy Johnson had covered 4,000 miles and found herself in Karachi in what was then Imperial India. An indication of the growing respect for what she had accomplished, Amy received a Royal Air Force escort over parts of the route. Can you spot the typo in the original newspaper clipping which was found on Newspapers.com.
Aviatrix One Day Ahead: Amy Johnson Betters Hinkler’s Time on England-India Hop Philadelphia Inquirer, May 11th, 1930. It’s hard to imagine in this age of instantaneous communications but it’s evident that the Inquirer, via the Associated Press, provided news of what happened the previous day on Amy Johnson’s England-to-Australia flight. Read the clip on Newspapers.com.
Golden Haired Aviatrix Forced Down in Desert: Flying from England to Australia Hopes to Make Women’s Record The Edmonton Journal, May 10th, 1930. While somewhat purple prose, there’s no doubt the staff writer brings the material alive: “The romancers who concoct tales of what happens to pretty British girls who get lost in the desert are all wrong, according to Amy Johnson. 23-year-old aviatrix with golden hair who is attempting to make a record flight from Croydon, England to Australia.” The article goes on to describe the story of Amy “having been forced down in the desert near an Arab encampment, where she waited tremulously with revolver in hand for what might happen, but heard only the barking of dogs.” Wow. Read the entire clipping and put it in context with Newspapers.com.
Lone Airwoman in Sandstorm: Flight to Australia The Guardian, May 9th, 1930. From the original essay: “Somewhere between Aleppo and Baghdad she encountered a vicious sandstorm which forced her down in the middle of the desert. She somehow managed to secure the aircraft using her luggage as improvised wheel chocks and waited out the worst of the storm on the ground. After a successful restart — anything but that virtually guaranteed she would never be heard from again”. See the clipping in the context of other news of that day on Newspapers.com.
Niece of BC Man: Aviatrix on Australian Flight “Slim Little Girl” Says Uncle in Vancouver, The Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, May 8th, 1930. In an age long before the 24 hour news cycle, the press sometimes had to improvise coverage between actual news reports being received along Amy Johnson’s route. The Star-Phoenix found an interesting angle: an uncle of Amy Johnson who lived in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, Canada recalls his last meeting with Amy, a year previously. Read the rest of the story in the context of the other news of that place and time on Newspapers.com.
Woman Flying Alone to Australia: Arrival at Constantinople, The Guardian, May 7th, 1930. While is still only made the bottom right hand corner of page 11, the Guardian was still faithfully reporting Amy Johnson’s progess as she made her way to Constantinople (modern day Istanbul) enroute to Australia. “The young airwoman showed no signs of fatigue, and received the welcome of the Turkish commander of the aerodrome with a radiant smile.” Read the entire clipping in context on Newspapers.com.
Girl’s Australian Flight: Attempt to Beat Hinkler’s Record, The Guardian, May 5, 1930. “[t]he engine was started, and, with a wave of her hand, Miss Johnson took off and was soon lost to view on the first stage of her… flight.” It was almost like they didn’t expect to see her again. You can read the entire clipping on Newspaper.com. Can you spot the typo in the story?
G-AAAH Registration Certificate UK Civil Aviation Authority, April 30, 1930. Although we assumed that the online records for British general aviation registrations would not stretch back to the 1930s. You can imagine our surprise and delight when we searched on G-AAAH and up popped Jason’s original registration. It is remarkable that the date on the registration is only five days before Amy departed on her England-to-Australia odyssey.
We reproduce it here in part, but check out the UK Civil Aviation Authority’s G-INFO site if you would like to download your own PDF of the original document. If only all government agencies were this good!
