West with the Night - Books on Google Play West with the Night ( 65) Description The classic memoir of Africa, aviation, and adventure—the inspiration for Paula McLain’s Circling the Sun and “a bloody wonderful book” (Ernest Hemingway). Beryl Markham’s life story is a true epic. Not only did she set records and break barriers as a pilot, she shattered societal expectations, threw herself into torrid love affairs, survived desperate crash landings—and chronicled everything. A contemporary of Karen Blixen (better known as Isak Dinesen, the author of Out of Africa), Markham left an enduring memoir that soars with astounding candor and shimmering insights. A rebel from a young age, the British-born Markham was raised in Kenya’s unforgiving farmlands. She trained as a bush pilot at a time when most Africans had never seen a plane. In 1936, she accepted the ultimate challenge: to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean from east to west, a feat that fellow female aviator Amelia Earhart had completed in reverse just a few years before.

Markham’s successes and her failures—and her deep, lifelong love of the “soul of Africa”—are all told here with wrenching honesty and agile wit. Hailed as “one of the greatest adventure books of all time” by Newsweek and “the sort of book that makes you think human beings can do anything” by the New York Times, West with the Night remains a powerful testament to one of the iconic lives of the twentieth century. About the author Born in 1902 in Ashwell, England, and raised in Kenya, Beryl Markham was a celebrated aviator and horse trainer whose memoir, West with the Night, remains a classic of the genre. When she was four, her family settled in Njoro, Kenya. Her mother soon returned to England, but Markham stayed, living in Kenya for the rest of her life. A noted maverick, she was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to west and the first person to fly nonstop from England to North America. Her memoir earned early critical praise and, upon its reprinting in 1982, became a surprise bestseller. Markham died in 1986. My review West with the night Great classic book.

Leo R Buis West With The Night I first read this book in the eighties, her writing style flows like water, it stayed with me every sense. Anita Cracraft Great autobiography of such an incredible woman. Makes me want to go to Africa. Blanche Wolfard Great read! Refreshing, interesting and fun. Sorry I missed the torrid love affair. xuesheng LibraryThing Review What a joy of a book! In "West with the Night," Beryl Markham tells the stories of her youth, culminating with her flight, referred to in the title, from England to North America. Her stories are scofer LibraryThing Review Fantastic! I don't care if Beryl Markham wrote this or not (it is rumored that her third husband, a Hollywood ghostwriter, wrote the book). Beryl Markham's story is fascinating: from growing up in User reviews Marlen Duval September 21, 2016 West with the night Great classic book. Full Review Leo R Buis September 14, 2016 West With The Night I first read this book in the eighties, her writing style flows like water, it stayed with me every sense.

Anita Cracraft September 20, 2015 Great autobiography of such an incredible woman. Makes me want to go to Africa. Blanche Wolfard May 30, 2015 Great read! Refreshing, interesting and fun. Sorry I missed the torrid love affair. xuesheng LibraryThing LibraryThing Review What a joy of a book! In "West with the Night," Beryl Markham tells the stories of her youth, culminating with her flight, referred to in the title, from England to North America. Her stories are scofer LibraryThing LibraryThing Review Fantastic! I don't care if Beryl Markham wrote this or not (it is rumored that her third husband, a Hollywood ghostwriter, wrote the book). Beryl Markham's story is fascinating: from growing up in ShanLizLuv LibraryThing LibraryThing Review Beryl Markham was an extraordinary woman.

Raised by her widower father in Africa, she moved easily through the world of the white Europeans into which she was born, but was the most comfortable with msf59 LibraryThing LibraryThing Review Markham landed in the record books (and a bog in Novia Scotia) for being the first person to fly non-stop from England to North America, but in her self-effacing style, it only warrants a chapter or KAzevedo LibraryThing LibraryThing Review East Africa of the early 1900s comes alive in the writing of this memoir of the early life of an unconventional woman, Beryl Markham. The writing beautifuly evokes the wildness of colonial Africa that tututhefirst LibraryThing LibraryThing Review An amazing memoir written by a pioneering aviatrix about her early life in British East Africa (now Kenya) as a farmer's daughter, race horse trainer, and eventually, bush pilot delivering mail chrispyn Overstock.com MY FAVORITE BOOK OF ALL TIME HAVE YOU READ WEST WITH THE NIGHT BY BERYL MARKHAM IT IS MY FAVORITE BOOK OF ALL TIME. I JUST FINISHED IT FOR THE 10 TH TIME. I WILL READ IT AGAIN SOON.

SHE WAS THE FIRST PERSON MAN OR WOMAN laytonwoman3rd LibraryThing LibraryThing Review Raised in British East Africa, almost as free as the native children she grew up with, or the lions they hunted with spears, Beryl Markham lived a long and eventful life. She was a pioneering aviatrix Liciasings LibraryThing LibraryThing Review The author is an excellent writer. Her descriptions and use of language are truly beautiful. But the book was very hard work for me to get through. I often found it hard to relate to the authors world Kasthu LibraryThing LibraryThing Review Beryl Markham led a fascinating life. . Born in Britain in 1902, she spent much of her life in Kenya, working as the only female airplane pilot in Africa. She was also a racehorse trainer, and her bfertig LibraryThing LibraryThing Review She really led an amazing life, and her prose writing was fantastic. Even when writing about something that could be otherwise really dull - monotonous flying in the middle of the night where there Sandydog1 LibraryThing LibraryThing Review Hemmingway loved her writing style and I did too.

Delightful mix of flowery Edwardian prose and homespun, lyrical Swahili storytelling. Markham's beautiful memoir covers her African girlhood (let's BookConcierge LibraryThing LibraryThing Review Wonderful! Vivid imagery. Ernest Hemingway praised her writing. She was an independent woman who lived life to the fullest, and on her own terms. Highly recommend it! juniperSun LibraryThing LibraryThing Review The African focus of the book was interesting, as was the childhood freedom Beryl enjoyed. She brings to life the Africans she grew up with. While I'm not a fan of flying, I enjoyed reading how she LisaMaria_C LibraryThing LibraryThing Review The book is a memoir by Beryl Markham, a pioneering record-breaking aviator and horse-trainer. Born in 1902, she came to Kenya when she was around four-years-old and grew up there, and the book covers lauralkeet LibraryThing LibraryThing Review Beryl Markham was born in England, but grew up with her father in Kenya in the early part of the 20th century.

Her childhood afforded her considerable independence; on her father's farm she mingled empress8411 LibraryThing LibraryThing Review We probably have Hemingway to thank for this book. Markham wrote it, but it soon lapsed into obscurity until some researcher found a letter from Hemingway to Maxwell Perkins, remarking on how her work nittnut LibraryThing LibraryThing Review I really like stories about intrepid pioneering women. This was an especially good one. Beryl Markham grew up in British East Africa. She learned to hunt with the local tribe and survived being satyridae LibraryThing LibraryThing Review The language was lush and hypnotic, and the stories were compelling. There was more left out, one felt, than told- and a bit of research confirmed this. The anecdotes, while powerful, seemed crucena LibraryThing LibraryThing Review No matter how many times I read this book, I still find new things with it every time. One of those "If you want to shake yourself at the end and say "Wait a minute--aren't I in Africa?" type books. Not a real admirable person, but boy can she write!

thatotter LibraryThing LibraryThing Review A fantastic and unforgettable memoir by a woman who grew up in British East Africa and who became an aviator, racehorse trainer, and all-around boss lady there. What a life! It's not just anyone who sleahey LibraryThing LibraryThing Review Memoir with stunning writing about the life in the old Africa, detailing some of Markham's childhood, her relationship to horses, dogs, and wild animals, and her love of flying. Unusual for not telling about her 3 marriages or her son, this is an eloquent book about losses and cultures. RebaRelishesReading LibraryThing LibraryThing Review Beryl Markham was born in England in 1902. When she was 4 her family moved to Kenya but her mother soon returned to England with Beryl's older brother leaving her to be raised by her father. She had a briandrewz LibraryThing LibraryThing Review Hemingway once said that he felt ashamed of himself as a writer after reading this book. While I wouldn't go that far, I would say that it was a wonderful memoir. The language it is written in is pamdierickx LibraryThing LibraryThing Review One of the best books I have read.

The language was amazing. Her descriptions put current authors to shame. What an accomplished woman. "Life had a different shape;it had new branches and some of the Marssie LibraryThing LibraryThing Review So well written. Spare and honest. I recommend it to everyone who likes to feel that they are living another life at another time. She takes you there. lamour LibraryThing LibraryThing Review Markham was the first person to fly the Atlantic from England to North America alone. That amazing accomplishment takes up one chapter in this remarkable book. Born in England but raised in East christinejoseph LibraryThing LibraryThing Review excellent novel Africa, horses, dogs, elephants - flying 1st woman solo England to Africa West with the Night is the story of Beryl Markham--aviator, racehorse trainer, beauty--and her life in the Kenya of the 1920s and '30s. brenzi LibraryThing LibraryThing Review I finished Beryl Markham’s remarkable memoir and immediately had to know more about her.

Who was this woman who was described by Ernest Hemingway in this way: “she has written so well, and marvelously fourbears LibraryThing LibraryThing Review Like the man who “rediscovered” this memoir and was instrumental in having it republished in 1983, I was impressed with the quotation by Hemingway on the cover to the effect that she “can write rings svetlanagrobman LibraryThing LibraryThing Review This is a memoir of British-born Kenyan bush pilot Beryl Markham “West with the Night” (first printed in 1942; North Point Press, 2013, 2nd edition). The book describes Markham’s African childhood and TizzzieLish LibraryThing LibraryThing Review “Based in Kenya, she flew all over Africa, was mauled by a lion, she was the first woman pilot given permission to fly from Africa to Europe. She writes in a delightful poetic style. An easy and Famous Firsts in Aviation Famous Firsts in Aviation Virgin Atlantic's Globalflyer 1783 First balloon flight. Jacques and Joseph Montgolfier of Annonay, France, sent up a small smoke-filled balloon about mid-November.

First hydrogen-filled balloon flight. Jacques A. C. Charles, Paris physicist, supervised construction by A. J. and M. N. Robert of a 13-foot-diameter balloon that was filled with hydrogen. It got up to about 3,000 ft and traveled about 16 mi in a 45-minute flight (Aug. 27). First human balloon flights. A Frenchman, Jean Pilâtre de Rozier, made the first captive-balloon ascension (Oct. 15). With the Marquis d'Arlandes, Pilâtre de Rozier made the first free flight, reaching a peak altitude of about 500 ft, and traveling about 51/2 mi in 20 min. (Nov. 21). 1784 First powered balloon. Gen. Jean Baptiste Marie Meusnier developed the first propeller-driven and elliptically shaped balloon—the crew cranking three propellers on a common shaft to give the craft a speed of about 3 mph. First balloon flight by a woman. Mme. Thible, a French opera singer (June 4). 1793 First balloon flight in America.

Jean Pierre Blanchard, a French pilot, made it from Philadelphia to near Woodbury, N.J., in just over 45 min. (Jan. 9). 1794 First military use of the balloon. Jean Marie Coutelle, using a balloon built for the French Army, made two 4-hour observation ascents. The military purpose of the ascents seems to have been to damage the enemy's morale. 1797 First parachute jump. André-Jacques Garnerin dropped from about 6,500 ft over Monceau Park in Paris in a 23-foot-diameter parachute made of white canvas with a basket attached (Oct. 22). 1843 First air transport company. In London, William S. Henson and John Stringfellow filed articles of incorporation for the Aerial Transit Company (March 24). It failed. 1852 First dirigible. Henri Giffard, a French engineer, flew in a controllable (more or less) steam-engine-powered balloon, 144 ft long and 39 ft in diameter, inflated with 88,000 cu ft of coal gas.

It reached 6.7 mph on a flight from Paris to Trappe (Sept. 24). 1860 First aerial photographers. Samuel Archer King and William Black made two photos of Boston, which are still in existence. 1872 First gas-engine-powered dirigible. Paul Haenlein, a German engineer, flew in a semi-rigid-frame dirigible, powered by a 4-cylinder internal-combustion engine running on coal gas drawn from the supporting bag. 1873 First transatlantic attempt. The New York Daily Graphic sponsored the attempt with a 400,000-cubic-foot balloon carrying a lifeboat. A rip in the bag during inflation brought the collapse of the balloon and the project. 1897 First successful metal dirigible. An all-metal dirigible, designed by David Schwarz, a Hungarian, took off from Berlin's Tempelhof Field and, powered by a 16-horsepower Daimler engine, got several miles before leaking gas caused it to crash (Nov. 13). 1900 First zeppelin flight. Germany's Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin flew the first of his long series of rigid-frame airships.

It attained a speed of 18 mph and got 31/2 mi before its steering gear failed (July 2). 1903 First successful heavier-than-air machine flight. Aviation was really born on the sand dunes at Kitty Hawk, N.C., when Orville Wright crawled to his prone position between the wings of the biplane he and his brother Wilbur had built, opened the throttle of their homemade 12-horsepower engine, and took to the air. He covered 120 ft in 12 sec. Later that day, in one of four flights, Wilbur stayed up 59 sec. and covered 852 ft (Dec. 17). 1904 First airplane maneuvers. Orville Wright made the first turn with an airplane (Sept. 15); five days later his brother Wilbur made the first complete circle. 1905 First airplane flight over half an hour. Orville Wright kept his craft up 33 min., 17 sec. (Oct. 4). 1906 First European airplane flight. Alberto Santos-Dumont , a Brazilian, flew a heavier-than-air machine at Bagatelle Field, Paris (Sept. 13).

1908 First airplane fatality. Lt. Thomas E. Selfridge, U.S. Army Signal Corps, was in a group evaluating the Wright plane at Fort Myer, Va. He was up 75 ft with Orville Wright when the propeller hit a bracing wire and was broken, throwing the plane out of control, killing Selfridge and seriously injuring Wright (Sept. 17). 1909 First cross-Channel flight. Louis Blériot flew in a 25-horsepower Blériot VI monoplane from Les Baraques near Calais, France, to Dover Castle, England, in a 26.61-mi (38-kilometer) 37-min. flight across the English Channel (July 25). First International Aviation Competition Meeting. American Glenn Curtiss narrowly beat France's Louis Blériot in the main event and won the Gordon Bennett Cup. Meet held at Rheims, France (Aug. 22–28). 1910 First licensed woman pilot. Baroness Raymonde de la Roche of France, who learned to fly in 1909, received ticket No. 36 on March 8.

First flight from shipboard. Lt. Eugene Ely, USN, took a Curtiss plane off from the deck of the cruiser Birmingham at Hampton Roads, Va., and flew to Norfolk (Nov. 14). The following January he reversed the process, flying from Camp Selfridge to the deck of the armored cruiser Pennsylvania in San Francisco Bay (Jan. 18). First aircraft to take off from water. Henri Fabre in a Gnome-powered floatplane, at Martigues, France (March 28). 1911 First U.S. woman pilot. Harriet Quimby , a magazine writer, got ticket No. 37, making her the first licensed American female pilot. 1912 First woman's cross-Channel flight. Harriet Quimby flew from Dover, England, across the English Channel and landed at Hardelot, France, in a Blériot monoplane loaned to her by Louis Blériot (April 16). She was later killed in a flying accident over Dorchester Bay during a Harvard-Boston aviation meet on July 1, 1912. First parachute jump from a powered airplane.

Albert Berry jumped in a test over Jefferson Barracks military post, St. Louis (March 1). Some sources credit Grant Morton as making first jump in 1911. 1913 First multi-engined aircraft. Built and flown by Igor Ivan Sikorsky while still in his native Russia. 1914 First aerial combat. In Aug., Allied and German pilots and observers started shooting at each other with pistols and rifles—with negligible results. 1915 First air raids on England. German zeppelins dropped bombs on four English communities (Jan. 19). 1917 World's first black combat pilot. Georgia-born Eugene Jacques Bullard , denied entry into the U.S. Army Air Corps because of his race, served throughout World War I in the French Flying Corps. He received the Legion of Honor, France's highest honor, among many other decorations. 1918 First U.S. air squadron. The U.S. Army Air Corps made its first independent raids over enemy lines, in DH-4 planes (British-designed) powered with 400-hp American-designed Liberty engines (April 8). First regular airmail service.

Operated for the Post Office Department by the Army, the first regular service was inaugurated with one round trip a day (except Sunday) between Washington, DC, and New York City (May 15). 1919 First transatlantic flight. The NC-4, one of four Curtiss flying boats commanded by Lt. Comdr. Albert C. Read, reached Lisbon, Portugal (May 27), after hops from Trepassy Bay, Newfoundland, to Horta, Azores (May 16–17), to Ponta Delgada (May 20). The Liberty-powered craft was piloted by Walter Hinton. First nonstop transatlantic flight. Capt. John Alcock and Lt. Arthur Whitten Brown, British World War I flyers, made the 1,900-mile trip from St. John's, Newfoundland, to Clifden, Ireland, in 16 hr., 12 min. in a Vickers-Vimy bomber with two 350-horsepower Rolls-Royce engines (June 15–16). First lighter-than-air transatlantic flight. The British dirigible R-34, commanded by Maj. George H.

Scott, left Firth of Forth, Scotland (July 2), and touched down at Mineola, L.I., 108 hr. later. The eastbound trip was made in 75 hr. (completed July 13). First scheduled London–Paris passenger service (using airplanes). Aircraft Travel and Transport inaugurated London–Paris service (Aug. 25). Later the company started the first trans-Channel mail service on the same route (Nov. 10). First free-fall parachute jump. Leslie Irvin jumped over McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio, to prove that one wouldn't lose consciousness during a delayed free-fall using a manually operated parachute (April 28). 1921 First U.S. black female pilot. Bessie Coleman received license June 15. She was killed April 30, 1926, in a flying accident. First naval vessel sunk by aircraft. Two battleships being scrapped by treaty were sunk by bombs dropped from Army planes in demonstration put on by Brig. Gen. William S. Mitchell (July 21). First helium balloon.

The C-7, nonrigid Navy dirigible was first to use noninflammable helium as lifting gas, making a flight from Hampton Roads, Va., to Washington, D.C. (Dec. 1). 1922 First member of Caterpillar Club. Lt. (later Maj. Gen.) Harold Harris bailed out of a crippled plane he was testing at McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio (Oct. 20), and became the first man to join the Caterpillar Club—those whose lives have been saved by parachutes. 1923 First nonstop transcontinental flight. Lts. John A. Macready and Oakley Kelly flew a single-engine Fokker T-2 nonstop from New York to San Diego, a distance of just over 2,500 mi in 26 hr., 50 min. (May 2–3). First autogyro flight. Juan de la Cierva, a brilliant Spanish mathematician, made the first successful flight in a rotary wing aircraft in Madrid (June 9). 1924 First round-the-world flight. Four Douglas Cruiser biplanes of the U.S. Army Air Corps took off from Seattle under command of Maj.

Frederick Martin (April 6). 175 days later, two of the planes (Lt. Lowell Smith's and Lt. Erik Nelson's) landed in Seattle after a circuitous route—one source saying 26,345 mi, another saying 27,553 mi. 1926 First polar flight. Then–Lt. Cmdr. Richard E. Byrd , acting as navigator, and Floyd Bennett as pilot, flew a Trimotor Fokker from Kings Bay, Spitsbergen, over the North Pole and back in 151/2 hr. (May 8–9). 1927 First solo nonstop transatlantic flight. Charles Augustus Lindbergh lifted his Wright-powered Ryan monoplane, Spirit of St. Louis, from Roosevelt Field, N.Y., to stay aloft 33 hr. 39 min. and travel 3,600 mi to Le Bourget Field outside Paris (May 20–21). Although 91 persons in 13 separate flights crossed the Atlantic before him, he flew directly between two great world cities and did it alone. First transatlantic passenger. Charles A.

Levine was piloted by Clarence D. Chamberlin from Roosevelt Field, N.Y., to Eisleben, Germany, in a Wright-powered Bellanca (June 4–5). 1928 First east–west transatlantic crossing. Baron Guenther von Huenefeld, piloted by German Capt. Hermann Koehl and Irish Capt. James Fitzmaurice, left Dublin for New York City (April 12) in a single-engine all-metal Junkersmonoplane. Some 37 hr. later, they crashed on Greely Island, Labrador and were rescued. First transarctic flight. Sir Hubert Wilkins, an Australian explorer, and Carl Ben Eielson, who served as pilot, flew from Point Barrow, Alaska, to Spitsbergen (mid-April). First U.S.–Australia flight. Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith and Capt. Charles T. P. Ulm, Australians, and two American navigators, Harry W. Lyon and James Warner, crossed the Pacific from Oakland to Brisbane. They went via Hawaii and the Fiji Islands in a trimotor Fokker (May 31–June 8).

1929 First of the endurance records. With Air Corps Maj. Carl Spaatz in command and Capt. Ira Eaker as chief pilot, an Army Fokker, aided by refueling in the air, remained aloft 150 hr. 40 min. at Los Angeles (Jan. 1–7). First round-the-world airship flight. The LZ-127, known as the Graf Zeppelin, flew 21,300 mi in 20 days and 4 hr. Also set distance record (Aug.). First blind flight. James H. Doolittle proved the feasibility of instrument-guided flying when he took off and landed entirely on instruments (Sept. 24). First rocket-engine flight. Fritz von Opel, a German auto maker, stayed aloft in his small rocket-powered craft for 75 sec., covering nearly 2 mi (Sept. 30). First South Pole flight. Comdr. Richard E. Byrd, with Bernt Balchen as pilot, Harold I. June, radio operator, and Capt. A. C.

McKinley, photographer, flew a trimotor Fokker from the Bay of Whales, Little America, over the South Pole and back (Nov. 28–29). 1930 First Paris–New York nonstop flight. Dieudonné Costes and Maurice Bellonte, French pilots, flew a Hispano-powered Breguet biplane from Le Bourget Field to Valley Stream, L.I., in 37 hr., 18 min. (Sept. 2–3). 1931 First flight into the stratosphere. Auguste Piccard , a Swiss physicist, and Charles Knipfer ascended in a balloon from Augsburg, Germany, and reached a height of 51,793 ft in a 17-hr. flight that terminated on a glacier near Innsbruck, Austria (May 27). First nonstop transpacific flight. Hugh Herndon and Clyde Pangborn took off from Sabishiro Beach, Japan, dropped their landing gear, and flew 4,860 mi to near Wenatchee, Wash., in 41 hr. 13 min. (Oct. 4–5).

1932 First woman's transatlantic solo. Amelia Earhart , flying a Pratt & Whitney Wasp-powered Lockheed Vega, flew alone from Harbor Grace, Newfoundland, to Ireland in approximately 15 hr. (May 20–21). First westbound transatlantic solo. James A. Mollison, a British pilot, took a de Havilland Puss Moth from Portmarnock, Ireland, to Pennfield, New Brunswick (Aug. 18). First woman airline pilot. Ruth Rowland Nichols, first woman to hold three international records at the same time—speed, distance, and altitude—was employed by N.Y.–New England Airways. 1933 First round-the-world solo. Wiley Post took a Lockheed Vega, Winnie Mae, 15,596 mi around the world in 7 days, 18 hr., 491/2 min. (July 15–22). 1936 First west-east transatlantic solo flight.. Beryl Markham flew a single-engine Vega Gull from London to Nova Scotia in 21 hrs, 25 min. (Sept. 4–5).

1937 First successful helicopter flight. Hanna Reitsch, a German pilot, flew Dr. Heinrich Focke's FW-61 in free, fully controlled flight at Bremen (July 4). Ms. Reitsch was also the first woman civil and military aviation test pilot. First woman known to fly combat. Sabiha Gokcen, Turkish female army pilot, bombed and strafed Kurdish tribesmen during a rebellion. 1939 First turbojet flight. Just before their invasion of Poland, the Germans flew a Heinkel He-178 plane powered by a Heinkel S3B turbojet (Aug. 27). 1940 First wartime use of military gliders. German commandos made a successful glider assault on Belgium's Fort Eben-Emael during WWII (May 10). 1941 The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) creates the Canadian Women's Auxillary Air Force. The RCAF is the first branch of the Canadian military to accept women. 1941–1945 Most combat missions flown by a pilot in any war.

Captain Hans-Ulrich Rudel of Germany flew 2,530 combat missions during WWII while flying a JU-87 Stuka dive bomber. He survived the war. 1942–1945 Top-scoring fighter pilot of any war. German Luftwaffe ace Maj. Erich Hartmann scored 352 victories all while flying a Messerschmitt BF 109 during WWII. He was involved in 800 dogfights, and flew 1,425 missions. Maj. Hartmann survived the war. 1942 First enemy bombing of U.S. mainland. During WWII, a floatplane launched from a Japanese submarine off Cape Blanco, Ore., dropped incendiary bombs on the Oregon forest in two attempts to start forest fires and terrorize American civilians, but the bombs did little damage (Sept. 9 and 29). First woman fighter pilot to shoot down an enemy aircraft. Soviet Lieutenant Lilya Litvyak, flying a Yak-1 fighter of the women's 586th Fighter Aviation Regiment, shot down two German planes over Stalingrad (Sept. 13). First American jet plane flight.

Robert Stanley, chief pilot for Bell Aircraft Corp., flew the Bell XP-59 Airacomet at Muroc Army Base, Calif. (Oct. 1). 1944 First production stage rocket-engine fighter plane. The German Messerschmitt Me 163B Komet (test flown 1941) became operational in June 1944. Some 350 of these delta-wing fighters were built before WWII in Europe ended. 1947 First piloted supersonic flight in an airplane. Capt. Charles E. Yeager , U.S. Air Force, flew the X-1 rocket-powered research plane built by Bell Aircraft Corp., faster than the speed of sound at Muroc Air Force Base, Calif. (Oct. 14). 1949 First round-the-world nonstop flight. Capt. James Gallagher and USAF crew of 13 flew a Boeing B-50A Superfortress around the world nonstop from Ft. Worth, returning to same point: 23,452 mi in 94 hr., 1 min., with four aerial refuelings en route (Feb. 27–March 2).

1950 First nonstop transatlantic jet flight. Col. David C. Schilling (USAF) flew 3,300 mi from England to Limestone, Maine, in 10 hr., 1 min. (Sept. 22). 1951 First solo across North Pole. Charles F. Blair, Jr., flew a converted P-51 (May 29). 1952 First jetliner service. The De Havilland Comet flight was inaugurated by BOAC between London and Johannesburg, South Africa. Flight, including stops, took 23 hr., 38 min. (May 2). First transatlantic helicopter flight. Capt. Vincent H. McGovern and 1st Lt. Harold W. Moore piloted two Sikorsky H-19s from Westover, Mass., to Prestwick, Scotland (3,410 mi). Trip was made in five stops, with a flying time of 42 hr., 25 min. (July 15–31). First transatlantic round trip in same day.

A British Canberra twin-jet bomber flew from Aldergrove, Northern Ireland, to Gander, Newfoundland, and back in 7 hr., 59 min. flying time (Aug. 26). 1955 First transcontinental round trip in same day. Lt. John M. Conroy piloted an F-86 Sabrejet across U.S. (Los Angeles–New York) and back—5,085 mi—in 11 hr., 33 min., 27 sec. (May 21). 1957 First round-the-world nonstop jet plane flight. Maj. Gen. Archie J. Old, Jr., USAF, led a flight of three Boeing B-52 bombers, powered with eight 10,000-pound-thrust Pratt & Whitney Aircraft J57 engines around the world in 45 hr., 19 min; distance 24,325 mi; average speed 525 mph (completed Jan. 18). 1958 First transatlantic jet passenger service. BOAC, New York to London (Oct. 4). Pan American started daily service, New York to Paris (Oct. 26).

First domestic jet passenger service. National Airlines inaugurated service between New York and Miami (Dec. 10). 1963 First female pilot to fly faster than sound. British pilot, Diana Barnato Walker, flew at a speed of 1,262 mph, flying a two-seat R.A.F. Lightning fighter. 1968 Prototype of world's first supersonic airliner. The Soviet-designed Tupolev Tu-144 made its first flight, Dec. 31. It first achieved supersonic speed on June 5, 1969. 1973 First female pilot of a major U.S. scheduled airline. Emily H. Warner became employed by Frontier Airlines on Jan. 29 as second officer on a Boeing 737. 1976 First regularly scheduled commercial supersonic transport (SST) flights begin. Air France and British Airways inaugurated service (Jan. 21). Air France flew the Paris–Rio de Janeiro route; B.A., the London–Bahrain. Both airlines began SST service to Washington, D.C. (May 24). 1977 First successful human-powered aircraft.

Paul MacCready, an aeronautical engineer from Pasadena, Calif., was awarded the Kremer Prize for creating the world's first successful human-powered aircraft. The Gossamer Condor was flown by Bryan Allen over the required 3-mile course on Aug. 23. 1978 First successful transatlantic balloon flight. Three Albuquerque, N.M., men, Ben Abruzzo, Larry Newman, and Maxie Anderson, completed the crossing (Aug. 16.; landed, Aug. 17) in their helium-filled balloon, Double Eagle II. 1979 First man-powered aircraft to fly across the English Channel. The Kremer Prize for the Channel crossing was won by Bryan Allen, who flew the Gossamer Albatross from Folkestone, England, to Cap Gris-Nez, France, in 2 hr., 55 min. (June 12). 1980 First successful balloon flight over the North Pole. Sidney Conn and his wife, Eleanor, in hot-air balloon Joy of Sound (April 11). First nonstop transcontinental balloon flight, and also record for longest overland voyage in a balloon.

Maxie Anderson and his son completed four-day flight from Fort Baker, Calif., to Matane, Quebec, in their helium-filled balloon, Kitty Hawk (May 12). First long-distance solar-powered flight. Janice Brown, a 98-lb former teacher, flew a tiny experimental solar-powered aircraft, Solar Challenger, 6 mi in 22 min. near Marana, Ariz. (Dec. 3). The craft was powered by a 2.75-horsepower engine. 1981 First solar-powered aircraft to fly across the English Channel. Stephen R. Ptacek flew the 210-pound Solar Challenger at an average speed of 30 mph from Cormeilles-en-Vexin near Paris to the Royal Manston Air Force Base in southeast England in 5 hr., 30 min. (July 7). 1984 First solo transatlantic balloon flight. Joe W. Kittinger landed Sept. 18 near Savona, Italy, in his helium-filled balloon, Rosie O'Grady's Balloon of Peace, after a flight of 3,535 mi from Caribou, Maine.

1986 First nonstop flight around the world without refueling. From Edwards AFB, Calif., Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager flew in Voyager around the world (24,986.727 mi), returning to Edwards in 216 hr., 3 min., 44 sec. (Dec. 14–23). 1987 First transatlantic hot-air balloon flight. Richard Branson and Per Lindstrand flew 2,789.6 mi from Sugarloaf Mt., Maine, to Ireland in the hot-air balloon Virgin Atlantic Flyer (July 2–4). 1991 First transpacific hot-air balloon flight. Richard Branson and Per Lindstrand flew about 6,700 mi from Miyakonyo, Japan, to 150 mi west of Yellowknife, Canada (Jan. 15–17). 1993 First woman to copilot a commercial supersonic plane. Barbara Harmer, British Airways, flew as first officer on the Concorde from London to New York City (March 25). 1995 First solo transpacific balloon flight.

Steve Fossett made a flight of more than 5,430 mi from Seoul, South Korea, to Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada, in a helium-filled balloon. Also set record for distance (Feb. 18–21, 1995). 1998 First U.S. female combat pilot to bomb an enemy target. On Dec. 16, Lt. Kendra Williams, USN, bombed enemy targets over Iraq during Operation Desert Fox. 1999 First nonstop round-the-world balloon flight. Bertrand Piccard (Switzerland) and Brian Jones (UK) flew 28,431 mi (45,755 km) from Chateaux d'Oex, Switzerland, to Dakhla, Egypt, in 19 days, 21 hr., and 55 min. (March 1–21). 2001 First solar-powered flight to shatter altitude records.

NASA's solar-powered propeller-driven plane Helios reached an altitude of 96,500 ft during a flight over Hawaii, breaking not only the 80,200-foot record for propeller-driven aircraft, but the 85,068-foot mark for all nonrocket aircraft as well (Aug. 13–14). 2002 First solo nonstop round-the-world balloon flight. Steve Fossett (U.S.) flew from Northam, West Australia, to Lake Yamma Yamma, Queensland, Australia, landing after 14 days, 19 hrs. He broke three balloon records along the way: fastest time around the world, measured by crossing 117° East longitude (13 days, 3 min.), longest distance flown solo (20,483.25 mi; 32,963.35 km), and longest time flown solo (355 hrs, 50 min.) (June 19–July 3). 2004 First non-stop 10,000-mile-plus passenger airline flight.

Singapore Airlines launched a non-stop 181/2 hour, 10,335-mile flight on the long-range Airbus 340-500 between Singapore to Newark, New Jersey (June 28–29). (To date, the world's longest nonstop commercial flight took place on Nov. 10, 2005. A Boeing 777-200LR Worldliner flew from London to Hong Kong [13,422 miles] in 22 hrs, 43 min.) 2005 First nonstop solo flight around the world without refueling. From Salina, Kansas, Steve Fossett flew the Virgin Atlantic Globalflyer 22,878 mi around the world, arriving back in Kansas 67 hrs later (Feb. 28–March 3). 2007 Youngest and first black pilot to fly solo around the world. From Miami Gardens, Florida, Barrington Irving flew a Columbia 400 plane named Inspiration around the world in 96 days, 150 hours (March 23-June 27).

Beryl Markham - WikiHorseWorld Horse Articles Beryl Markham Jump to: navigation , search Beryl Markham Beryl Markham (26 October 1902 - 3 August 1986) was a British-born Kenyan aviatrix, adventurer, and racehorse trainer. During the pioneer days of aviation, she became the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to west. She is now primarily remembered as the author of the memoir West with the Night. Contents 7 External links Biography Beryl Markham was born Beryl Clutterbuck on October 26, 1902, in the village of Ashwell, in the county of Rutland, England, the daughter of Charles and Clara Clutterbuck. [1] When she was four years old, her father moved the family to Kenya, which was then British East Africa, purchasing a farm in Njoro near the Great Rift Valley. Although her mother disliked the isolation and promptly returned to England, Beryl stayed in Kenya with her father, where she spent an adventurous childhood learning, playing and hunting with the natives. On her family's farm, she developed a knowledge of, and love for horses.

As a young adult, she became the first licensed female horse trainer in Kenya. Impetuous, single-minded and beautiful, Markham was a noted non-conformist, even in a colony known for its colourful eccentrics. She married three times, but accounts of her life indicate that she was not a faithful spouse. Her unconcealed 1929 affair with the Duke of Gloucester, the son of George V, led her husband's brother, Sir Charles Markham, to threaten the British Royal Family with naming the prince in an embarrassing divorce suit. The Windsors promptly cut the romance short; Beryl was bought off with a capital trust of £15,000 from the Duke's own funds, from which she drew a modest annuity for the rest of her life. [2] She befriended the Danish writer Karen Blixen during the years that Blixen was managing her family's coffee farm in the Ngong hills outside Nairobi.

(In the film rendering of Blixen's memoir, Out of Africa, Markham is represented by an outspoken, horse-riding tomboy named Felicity.) When Blixen's romantic connection with the hunter and pilot Denys Finch Hatton was winding down, Markham started an affair with him herself. He invited her to tour game lands on what turned out to be his fatal flight, but Markham declined because of a premonition from her flight instructor, Tom Campbell Black. [3] Sara Wheeler, in her biography of Finch Hatton, notes that she believes stories that Markham was pregnant by him at the time of his crash. Largely inspired by the British pilot Tom Campbell Black, with whom she had a long-term affair, she took up flying. She worked for some time as a bush pilot, spotting game animals from the air and signaling their locations to safaris on the ground. She also mingled with the notorious Happy Valley set, but was never a full-fledged "member" of the decadent crowd.

Record Flight Markham is often described as "the first person" to fly the Atlantic east to west in a solo non-stop flight, but that record belongs to Scottish pilot Jim Mollison, who attempted to fly from Dublin, Ireland to New York City in 1932. Low visibility forced Mollison down in New Brunswick, Canada, but he was still able to claim the Atlantic east-to-west record (a westbound flight requires more endurance, fuel and time than the eastward journey because the craft must travel against the prevailing Atlantic winds). [4] When Markham decided to take on the Atlantic crossing, no pilot had yet flown non-stop from Europe to New York, and no woman had made the westward flight solo, though several had died trying. Markham hoped to claim both records. On September 4, 1936, she took off from Abingdon, England. After a 20-hour flight, her Vega Gull, The Messenger, suffered fuel starvation due to icing of the fuel tank vents, and she crash-landed at Baleine Cove on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia (her flight was, in all likelihood, almost identical in length to Mollison's).

In spite of falling short of her goal, Markham had become the first woman to cross the Atlantic east-to-west solo, and the first person to make it from England to North America non-stop. She was celebrated as an aviation pioneer. [5] Markham chronicled her many adventures in her memoir, West with the Night, published in 1942. Despite strong reviews in the press, the book sold modestly, and then quickly went out of print. [6] After living for many years in the United States, Markham moved back to Kenya in 1952, becoming for a time the most successful horse trainer in the country. Rediscovery Markham's memoir lingered in obscurity until 1982, when California restaurateur George Gutekunst read a collection of Ernest Hemingway's letters, including one in which Hemingway lavishly praised Markham's writing (and attacked her character): “ "Did you read Beryl Markham's book, West With The Night? ...She has written so well, and marvellously well, that I was completely ashamed of myself as a writer.

I felt that I was simply a carpenter with words, picking up whatever was furnished on the job and nailing them together and sometimes making an okay pig pen. But this girl, who is to my knowledge very unpleasant and we might even say a high-grade bitch, can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves as writers ... it really is a bloody wonderful book." ” Intrigued, Gutekunst read West with the Night and became so enamored of Markham's prose that he helped persuade a California publisher, North Point Press, to re-issue the book in 1983. [7] . The re-release of the book launched a remarkable final chapter in the life of the eighty-year-old Markham, who was lauded for her three final years as a great author as well as flyer. When found in Kenya, Markham was living in poverty, and had been badly beaten in a burglary at her house near the Nairobi racetrack, where she still trained thoroughbreds. The re-publishing of West with the Night provided enough income so that she was able to finish her life in relative comfort.

The book became a surprising bestseller, spurred by the 1986 broadcast of a public television documentary about Markham's life, World Without Walls: Beryl Markham's African Memoir produced by Joan Saffa, Stephen Talbot and Judy Flannery at KQED-TV in San Francisco. Gutekunst had approached the station asking them to make the documentary. British actress Diana Quick was the voice of Markham in the well-reviewed, award-winning PBS program. Beryl Markham died in Nairobi in 1986. Markham's short stories were posthumously collected in The Splendid Outcast, with an introduction by Mary S. Lovell. A tale from West With The Night was excerpted and illustrated by Don Brown as a children's book, The Good Lion. In 1988, CBS aired the biographical miniseries Beryl Markham: A Shadow on the Sun, with Stefanie Powers in the title role. Authorship controversy Questions were raised over time as to whether Markham was the real, or sole, author of West with the Night, not least because Markham never repeated her accomplishment with a second book of similar length, scope or beauty.

Her publishing accomplishments for the rest of her life were limited to a handful of short stories. According to the 1993 biography, The Lives of Beryl Markham, by Errol Trzebinski, the book's real author was her third husband, the ghost writer and journalist Raoul Schumacher. Trzebinski also claimed that Beryl Markham had an advance from Houghton Mifflin to do a book on the famous international jockey Tod Sloan , that Raoul Schumacher was supposed to write. Apparently Schumacher never did, and she was forced to go it alone, resulting in a manuscript submission that the publisher rejected as worthless, and not from the same person who had written West with the Night. [8] But in her biography of Markham, Straight On Till Morning, author Mary S. Lovell, who visited Markham in Nairobi and interviewed her extensively shortly before Markham's death, disputes the claim that Schumacher made substantive contributions to West with the Night.

From her research, Lovell concluded that Markham was the sole author, although Schumacher did edit the manuscript; instead, Lovell credits Antoine de Saint Exupéry, another of Markham's lovers, with being the inspiration behind Markham's clear, elegant language and storytelling style. [9] The International Astronomical Union has named the impact crater Markham on the planet Venus after her. Notes ↑ Lovell, Mary S., Straight On Till Morning, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1987, p. 3 ↑ Lovell, Mary S., Straight On Till Morning, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1987, p. 88-90 ↑ Markham, Beryl, West with the Night, North Point Press, 1983, p. 194 ↑ Lovell, Mary S., Straight On Till Morning, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1987, pp. 162-163 ↑ Lovell, Mary S., Straight On Till Morning, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1987, p.

175 ↑ Lovell, Mary S., Straight On Till Morning, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1987, p. 236 ↑ Lovell, Mary S., Straight On Till Morning, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1987, p. 326-328 ↑ Trzebinski, Errol.The Lives of Beryl Markham. New York: W.W. Norton. 1993, pp. 258-9. This claim about the Sloan biography and Houghton Mifflin's response was made by Scott O'Dell, Schumacher's close friend, in an interview with Trzebinski in 1987. ↑ Lovell, Mary S., Straight On Till Morning, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1987, p. 218-220 References Markham, Beryl. West with the Night. San Francisco: North Point Press, 1983 [1942]. ISBN 0-86547-118-5 . Lovell, Mary S.

Straight on Till Morning: The Biography of Beryl Markham New York: St Martins Press, 1987. ISBN 0-312-01096-6 Trzebinski, Errol.The Lives of Beryl Markham. New York: W.W. Norton. 1993. ISBN 0-393-03556-5 . Wheeler, Sara. Too Close to the Sun: The Audacious Life and Times of Denys Finch Hatton. New York: Random House. 2006. ISBN 978-1-4000-6069-6 . External links Retrieved from " " The above article was imported from Wikipedia.org on 08/24/2010 and may be a modified version of the Original Wikipedia article . See this article's history page for a list of revisions which may have occurred after import. This article is displayed here courtesy of the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikipedia, and its authors/contributors in compliance with the Wikimedia Terms of Use Agreement.

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Question: Which British-born aviatrix is credited with being the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to west ?
Answer: BERYL MARKHAM