page_title: Elly Beinhorn
section_title: Long-distance flights
hierarchical_section_title: Elly Beinhorn / Life / Long-distance flights
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Der Hindenburgpokal für die bekannte deutsche Fliegerin Elly Beinhorn! Die bekannte deutsche Fliegerin Elly Beinhorn, erhielt den Hindenburgpokal zur Förderung sportlicher Leistungen mit leichten Motorflugzeugen in Anerkennung ihrer Leistungen.
context_page_description: Elly Beinhorn was a German pilot.
context_section_description: Long distance flying was her real passion and in 1931 she seized the opportunity to fly to Portuguese Guinea (now Guinea-Bissau) West Africa on a scientific expedition. On the return journey, engine failure resulted in a crash-landing in the Sahara. With the help of nomadic Tuareg tribesmen, Elly joined a camel caravan to Timbuktu. She subsequently returned to the crash site to recover parts of the plane. Word of her plight reached the French authorities and they sent a military two-seater plane to collect her.
  In April 1931, fully recovered, she was able to fly herself back to Berlin to a warm reception from the crowds.
  Soon after this, she embarked on another flight, her Klemm monoplane developing mechanical problems near Bushire, Persia. She found Moye Stephens, another pilot, in Bushire, who helped her fix the problem on her Klemm. Stephens and travel-adventure writer Richard Halliburton were flying around the world in a Stearman C-3B biplane that they called the Flying Carpet. She accompanied them on part of their flight, including the trip to Mount Everest.  She flew on to Bali - and eventually Australia. In the process, she became only the second woman to fly solo from Europe to Australia, after Amy Johnson. The foreword of her book,  Flying Girl (1935), was written by Richard Halliburton (whose English publisher, as hers, was Geoffrey Bles); it includes a photo of Moye Stephens repairing her plane.   Barbara H. Schultz' Flying Carpets, Flying Wings - The Biography of Moye Stephens (2011) contains Stephens' own account of their meeting which was first introduced in Halliburton's bestselling The Flying Carpet (1932).
  Having landed in Darwin, Northern Territory of Australia, she headed down to Sydney, arriving in March 1932. Her plane was dismantled and shipped to New Zealand, then Panama where it was reassembled. There Elly resumed her flight, following the western coast of South America. She was presented with a medal in Peru. An ill-advised trip across the Andes followed. The plane was dismantled once more in Brazil and shipped to Germany. Elly arrived in Berlin in June 1932.
  Now famous but in debt to the tune of 15,000 marks or more, she was pleasantly surprised to be awarded the Hindenburg Cup, 10,000 marks and several other monetary awards from the German aeronautical industry which enabled her to continue her career. She also continued to write articles and sell photographs of her travels to raise funds.
  Free of debt, she took off for Africa using a Heinkel He 71, flying down the east coast, then back up the west coast.
  The following year, Elly shipped the plane to Panama, then flew through Mexico and California before crossing the United States to Washington DC and Miami. Elly and the plane returned to Germany by ship, arriving in January 1935. She was now a true German heroine.
caption: Elly Beinhorn 1933
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