A British aviatrix retracing the historic 1930 solo journey of pioneering pilot Amy Johnson from Britain to Australia in a vintage bi-plane today reached the IAF base here.
Inspired by her compatriot's "strong determination" and "fathomless bravery", 53-year-old Tracey Curtis-Taylor is emulating Johnson's aerial odyssey in a restored open-cockpit 1942 Boeing Stearman, christened 'Spirit of Artemis'.
Calling herself a 'bird in a bi-plane', Tracey started her journey on October 1 from Farnborough Airport in Hampshire in the UK and is scheduled to reach Sydney sometime early January next year.
"This is my first visit to India and I am thrilled about it, whatever I have seen so far, mostly from up there... Given, the Indo-British connection of several centuries, and our joint aviation history, I consider this an exciting part of entire journey," she told reporters here.
Tracey and her crew reached New Delhi yesterday, where she is currently staying before leaving for her next stop Agra on November 26, a defence official said, adding her first stop in India was Ahmedabad.
"India is the centrepiece of my journey, and also geographically the heart of the space that I would be traversing, so, I have reached half-way through almost," Tracey said.
"After Delhi, I will fly over Agra and then Varanasi and Kolkata would be my last stop in India, before I move toward Burma (Myanmar). I want to see Taj Mahal and the Ganges from my biplane," she said.
Her tribute journey almost replicates the one taken by Johnson from Croydon to Darwin 85 years ago, and her entire route spans 14,000 miles over 23 countries with 50 refuelling stops.
The British aviator, however, said there were many challenges and many more await further down the route.
"There wasn't the red tape and bureaucracy in 1930s that I had to face while traversing through different air spaces. While Johnson, flew through Syria, Iran and Iraq, I couldn't, so I flew over the Mediterranean and Saudi Arabia and face dust storms and other obstructions," she added.
Tracey, who got the vintage Boeing biplane restored in 2012, says, "I got it done for my Africa trip. It's a 30 horsepower, nine-cylinder engine and I have made some modifications to it to suit my requirements."
A couple of years ago, she had reconstructed another epic journey from Cape Town (South Africa) to Goodwood (Britain), the 1928 trip by aviation pioneer Lady Mary Heath, who was the first woman to fly solo on across South Africa.
Acknowledging her feat, the Indian Air Force at the Hindon Air Base, also displayed two yellow-liveried 1940s-vintage Boeing biplanes, one of which, the Tiger Moth, flew alongside 'Spirit of Artemis', drawing cheers from the crowd and IAF's women pilots.
Before meeting reporters at the Base, Tracey also held a
private interactive session with a group of woman pilots of the air force, a defence official said.
Nearly 15 women pilots, from transport and helicopter division, and drawn from various air bases, attended the session and later lined up at the tarmac to cheer Tracey as she took to the skies in her green-liveried Stearman.
Accompanying her in the sky in the Tiger Moth were Group Captain Kulshreshtha, the pilot, and a Squadron Leader Kanwaljeet as the co-pilot.
Squadron Leader Poornima Ranade, who came for Sirsawa Base in Saharanpur, was thrilled to learn of Tracey's journey.
"It's so inspirational. She's 53 and yet she is determined to take this challenging journey. I am in awe of her. And, her herculean attempt will also inspire other women, not just pilots but persons from all fields, to take calculated risks and be a dreamer," Ranade told
