Hilda Hewlett Hilda Beatrice Hewlett ( 17 February 1864 – 21 August 1943 ) was the first British aviatrix to earn a pilot ' s licence . She was also a successful early aviation entrepreneur . She created and ran the first flying school in the United Kingdom . She also created and managed a successful aircraft manufacturing business which produced more than 800 aeroplanes and employed up to 700 people . She later emigrated to New Zealand . Biography . Early life . Hilda Beatrice Hewlett was born in Vauxhall , London on 17 February 1864 to Louisa Herbert née Hopgood and George William Herbert . Her father was a Church of England vicar . Hilda was one of nine siblings . As a young woman she attended the National Art Training School in South Kensington . She specialised in three skills which served her well in her later aviation engineering career : woodwork , metalwork , and needlework . Her art was good enough to be exhibited . When she was 19 she visited Egypt with her parents . At the age of 21 she spent a year training as a nurse at a hospital in Berlin . She was an early bicycle and motor car enthusiast and participated in automobile rallies . She married Maurice Henry Hewlett on 3 January 1888 in St . Peter ' s Church , Vauxhall , where her father was the incumbent . The couple had two children , a daughter , Pia , and a son , Francis , but separated in 1914 . Maurice Hewlett was unsympathetic to his wife ' s involvement in aviation and claimed , " Women will never be as successful in aviation as men . They have not the right kind of nerve . " Achievements in aviation . Hewlett attended her first aviation meeting at Blackpool in 1909 . Later that year , after adopting the pseudonym " Grace Bird " , she travelled to the airfield at Mourmelon - le - Grand , France , to study aeronautics . She met aviation engineer Gustav Blondeau and they became business partners . Hewlett returned to England with a Farman biplane , nicknamed the " Blue Bird " . In the summer of 1910 she and Blondeau opened the first flying school in the United Kingdom at the Brooklands motor - racing circuit at Weybridge , Surrey . Many people gained their first experience of flying at Hewlett and Blondeau ' s school , including Thomas Sopwith . Thirteen pupils graduated from the school in the year and a half it operated and , with a remarkable safety record for the time , there were no accidents . On 29 August 1911 , at Brooklands , Hilda Hewlett became the first woman in the UK to earn a pilot ' s licence when she received certificate No . 122 from the Royal Aero Club after completing the test in her biplane . Hewlett also taught her son , Francis , to fly ; he earned pilot ' s certificate no . 156 on 14 November 1911 and went on to have a distinguished military aviation career in both the UK and New Zealand , making him the first military pilot taught to fly by his mother . He earned a Distinguished Service Order in 1915 and rose to the rank of Group Captain . Hilda Hewlett participated in airshows and aviation competitions . On 11 September 1911 she flew her Farman biplane in an airshow at Chelson Meadow , Plymouth . In 1912 Hewlett won a quick - start aviation competition . Hewlett and Blondeau started an aircraft manufacturing business , Hewlett & Blondeau Limited , which was managed by Hewlett . They built Farman , Caudron and Hanriot aircraft under licence . The business began at Brooklands , moved to Clapham , London , and finally settled on a site at Leagrave , Bedfordshire , in May 1914 . By August 1914 the company had produced 10 different types of aircraft . During the First World War , Hewlett ' s company manufactured more than 800 military aircraft , a specialised engine which the British government considered vital to the war effort , and employed up to 700 people . After the war the business diversified into making farming equipment , but the factory had closed by the end of October 1920 . The site remained unsold until 1926 . A road in Luton , Hewlett Road , was named after her in recognition of the importance of the company towards the war effort . Emigration to New Zealand . Hewlett had previously spent nine months touring New Zealand , Rarotonga , and the United States , but it was not until the factory site was sold that she emigrated to Tauranga , New Zealand , with her daughter Pia Richards and Pia ' s family . Hilda stated , " The urge to escape from the three Cs , crowds , convention , and civilization , became strong . " She enjoyed the outdoor life , especially camping and fishing . Her family gave her the nickname " Old Bird " . In June 1932 Hewlett was present at the inaugural meeting of the Tauranga Aero and Gliding Club . In July she was elected as the club ' s first president . In January 1939 , at the opening of a new aerodrome in Tauranga , Frederick Jones , New Zealand ' s then Minister of Defence , named a nearby road after Hilda Hewlett and her son Francis , in recognition of their services to aviation . Death and afterwards . Hewlett died on 21 August 1943 in Tauranga , North Island , New Zealand . Following a service on the railway wharf , she was buried at sea . Her grandson ' s wife Gail has carried out exhaustive research into the lives of both Hilda and Maurice Hewlett and recently published the results of this work ; the book was officially launched on 26 April 2010 at St Peter ' s Church in Vauxhall , London .