Jean Batten was the first woman to make the return flight from England to Australia, and to cross the South Atlantic Ocean and the Tasman Sea. Her early career plans had focused on music, but she had experienced flying with Kingsford Smith by the time she was nineteen, and when she moved to England to study music, she took flying lessons and sold her piano to finance them. She was the first New Zealand woman to gain the British Air Ministry’s A licence for private pilots, and set about fulfilling a dream of a solo flight across the world. She made two unsuccessful attempts before succeeding in reaching Darwin in 1934, flying an already outdated Gipsy Moth. In 1936 she achieved the world record of a solo flight from England to Mangere, in a total time of eleven days and forty-five minutes. The gruelling, cramped conditions in a Percival Gull, and minimal food – milk and meat tablets and barley sugars – did not prevent her making her arrival clad in a fresh white flying suit and dabbed with cologne. She emphasised that her motivation was to demonstrate that long-distance flying was feasible, and to promote the development of commercial aviation.

In later life Jean Batten lived quietly, especially after her eyesight failed to meet Air Force standards, but although somewhat reclusive in her final years, she retained her interest in aviation and was an eager supporter of the Concorde. Her pluck and determination broke barriers in a new and exciting industry.