Diana Barnato Walker Diana Barnato Walker MBE FRAeS ( 15 January 1918 – 28 April 2008 ) was an English aviatrix and horse rider , the first British woman to break the sound barrier . Biography . Her father was the famous car racing driver Woolf Barnato who was Chairman of Bentley Motors and also a leading member of their racing team . Her mother was Dorothy Maitland Falk of White Plains , New York . Diana Barnato was a 1936 debutante at the age of 18 and was presented to King Edward VIII at Buckingham Palace . From an early age , she became interested in aircraft and at age 20 she decided to become a pilot . Her initial training was in Tiger Moth s at the Brooklands Flying Club , the aerodrome being located within the famous motor racing circuit in Surrey . She showed a natural aptitude for flying and made her first solo flight after only six hours of dual instruction . Soon after the outbreak of World War II Diana volunteered to become a Red Cross nurse . In 1940 she was serving as a nurse in France before the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk and later drove ambulances in London during the Blitz . In early 1941 she applied to become one of the first women pilots of the Air Transport Auxiliary ( ATA ) and successfully took her initial assessment flying test at their headquarters at White Waltham , Berkshire , on 9 March 1941 with the ATA ' s Chief Flying Instructor , A . R . O . Macmillan , in the Tiger Moth ' s rear seat . Diana was admitted to the ATA ' s Elementary Flying Training School at White Waltham on 2 November 1941 . After a lengthy period of intensive flight instruction and tests in primary training aircraft , she joined her first ATA Ferry Pool ( FP ) , No . 15 FP at RAF Hamble , Hants , on 9 May 1942 . She soon began to deliver low - powered single engine aircraft from factory or repair base to storage units and RAF and Naval flying units . Further advanced training permitted her to deliver several hundred Spitfire s , Hurricane s , Mustang s , Tempest s and other high performance fighter aircraft . After yet further training , Diana became eligible to deliver twin - engined aircraft and delivered Whitleys , Blenheims , Mosquito s , Mitchell s and Wellington s , normally flying solo when doing so . She continued intensive flying with the ATA until the organisation was disbanded in late 1945 . By that time she had flown 80 types of aircraft and had delivered 260 Spitfires . She became engaged to Squadron Leader Humphrey Trench Gilbert DFC of 65 Sqn but he was killed in a flying accident 2 May 42 when Spitfire BL372 / YT - Z crashed at Loves Farm , Cutlers Green , Thaxted , Essex . With him in the Spitfire was Flt Lt David Gordon Ross . They took off from Great Sampford , the Debden satellite , having consumed 6 - 8 bottles each of Benskins Colne Springs beer , according to the licensee of the pub . This info was not revealed until after the Court of Enquiry . The CO tried to borrow a Magister but his flight sergeant , realising that he was in no fit state to fly , told him it was u / s . The CO then took a Spitfire . Two years later , she married Wing Commander Derek Ronald Walker RAF on 6 May 1944 , the ceremony being attended by numerous RAF and ATA friends of the bride and groom . Derek Walker continued active flying operations until he was killed on 14 November 1945 in bad weather while flying a North American Mustang fighter between two UK airfields . She vowed never to marry again , and became the lover of married English - based American pilot Whitney Straight , who like her father had been a pre - war champion racing driver — the couple had a son Barney Barnato Walker in 1947 , and having never asked Straight to leave his wife , her only comment was : " I was perfectly content . I had my own identity . " After the war ' s end , Diana continued to fly and gained her commercial flying licence . For many years she was a volunteer pilot with the Women ' s Junior Air Corps ( WJAC ) , later the Girls ' Venture Corps , giving flights to air - minded teenage girls to encourage them to enter the aviation industry . In July 1948 , an aircraft that she was flying burst into flames near White Waltham . Rather than bail out and lose the WJAC ' s aircraft , she switched off the fuel and glided the aircraft back . On 26 August 1963 she flew an English Electric Lightning T4 to Mach 1 . 6 ( 1 , 262 mph ) after convincing the Air Minister to let her fly it with Squadron Leader Ken Goodwin as her check pilot , and so became the first British woman to break the sound barrier . She also established by this flight a world air speed record for women . Shortly after her record - breaking flight , she was found to have cancer , and she had three operations . Diana Barnato Walker was awarded the MBE in 1965 for services to aviation , and was a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society . She died on 28 April 2008 , aged 90 .