Women of Aviation Week – Pancho (Florence) Barnes in profile
This week marks the 6 th annual Women of Aviation Worldwide Week which aims to foster gender balance in the air and space industry. Here at the IET Aerospace Network we are celebrating by taking a look at some of the inspiring women of the aerospace industry. Today we are celebrating Pancho Barnes (1901 – 1975). She established a career as an aviator and movie stunt pilot who was one of the first American women to build a career in aerospace. Barnes came from a wealthy family who married a clergyman at 18 years old. She was unsuited to the life of a wife and mother and so she left her family for a while. It is at this time she began wearing men’s clothes and travelled through Mexico. In 1928 she bought her first airplane and hired an instructor. She made her first flight after only 6 hours…