Description:

This 1930 poster for Edison Bell Records celebrates the recent achievement of Amy Johnson – the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia.  After Johnson’s historic flight (May 5 – 24, 1930), advertisements abounded celebrating (and capitalizing on) her accomplishment. Edison Bell Records is just one company (among a diverse bunch including portable electric drill and gas companies) that celebrated Johnson’s flight via print advertisements.   

The poster itself has nothing to do with Edison Bell Records and everything to do a distinct phenomena in Britain in 1930: the general cultural fascination with Johnson as “folk heroine…she epitomized courage determination.”  As David Luff, Johnson biographer, explains, “Songs were written about her and people from all walks of life hummed, whistled or sang ‘Amy, Wonderful Amy,’ the catch-tune of the day.  Infant girls were named after her, and then schools, roads and even a rose.  More importantly, the public at large took her to their hearts in a way that has seldom been repeated.  She had the ability and charm to convey the common touch.  Her ‘girl next door’ image and self-deprecating way in which she could hold an audience endeared her to the nation.”

Johnson was intelligent, a leader, and a “natural tomboy.”  Her interest in machinery began in earnest: in 1919 Johnson took her father’s motorcycle out without first asking.  After successfully figuring out how to start and ride it, Johnson couldn’t stop it and rode around laughing in circles – even when her father came out yelling and “gesticulating” directions. As Luff explains, most people falsely attribute Amy’s specific interest in flying to a 5-schilling flight ride she took with sister, Mollie in early November 1926.  She was underwhelmed, however, remarking in correspondence “we both enjoyed it, but I would have liked to have done some stunts.”

It wasn’t until 1928 that Johnson discovered her passion for flight.  Moreover, the year 1928 in general was a turning point for Johnson.  After her on-and-off-again Swiss lover of eight years, Hans Arregger, broke her heart by marrying another woman Johnson was first suicidal before beginning a transformation or “metamorphosis.”  In September 1928 her application was accepted to take flying lessons at the London Aerpolane Club.  Johnson first learned to fly in 30-foot wingspan DH Cirrus II Moth biplane, considered to be the “forerunner of the classic British light aeroplane of the 1930s.”  Her first flying lesson on September 15 lasted only fifteen minutes but “once the flying bug had well and truly bitten, Amy found it hard to maintain the interest she once had in her [other] work.”

In 1929 Johnson formally obtained her pilot’s license, but “was not content to achieve the distinction…and then enjoy the social side of her new interest” and “was driven to do more with it.” As Luff explains, Johnson was inspired to pursue these new adventures by a combination of factors: her recent heartbreak, “natural desire for adventure,” and the feat of Lady Mary Bailey who had historically flown solo to and from the Cape (South Africa).

Exactly how Amy both got interested in and received support to be the first woman to make the UK-Australia flight solo is uncertain.  Even more outrageous, was the fact that she was supposed to make the trip in a new “secret” airplane, designed by James Martin, a British aircraft mechanic.  An experimental prototype, Martin’s new airplane was specifically designed to test the prowess of placing the engine behind the pilot (a radical departure from contemporary aviation design).  In the end, Johnson embarked on the journey in a second-hand DH 60G Gipsy Moth “…fitted with a powerful 100 horsepower Gipsy 1 engine, giving it a top speed of 98 mph and… used extensively in Europe and tropical Africa, clocking up 35,000 miles.”

Even before her historic journey, Johnson became a media sensation.  Johnson embarked on the trek on May 5 at Croydon Airport in the UK and arrived 19 days later in Fannie Bay, Port Darwin, Australia at 3:57 pm on May 24.  It was an all-around eventful journey: surviving a crash landing at Insein (present day Yangoon, Myanmar) on May 13 and breaking the UK-India record for shortest trip with her arrival to Karachi on May 10.  Even before Amy had left Bagdad en route to her next stop, Karachi, India, on May 8, media coverage in Britain about her breaking the record to India was building in all the national press outlets.  Sensation ensued and national pride abounded when she did in fact break the record 2 days later, despite strong headwinds.

British cultural fascination with Johnson only increased after her successful and record-breaking landing in Australia.  When Johnson landed in Australia on May 24 she was greeted by a mass of cheering spectators, like those depicted on the poster’s left-hand side.  Upon her arrival she also received personal telegrams from the King and Queen, the prime mister, Charles Lindbergh, and Louis Bleriot, among others; all in addition to the deluge of public fan mail, which arrived “by the sackload” to her home in Hull at 85 Park Avenue.  The Daily Mail paid her 10,000 GBP for rights to her story – at the time, the largest sum ever paid by a newspaper to a single individual for an achievement in aviation.  For the next decade, until her mysterious death, she remained an international celebrity and national source of pride in Britain.  On the foggy night of Sunday, January 5, 1941, Johnson and her airplane vanished in the Thames Estuary while assisting with war efforts.

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