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Jean Gardner Batten CBE OSC
(15 September 1909 – 22 November 1982) was a New Zealand
aviatrix. Born in Rotorua, she became the best-known New Zealander
of the 1930s, internationally, by making a number of record-breaking
solo flights across the world. She made the first-ever solo flight
from England to New Zealand in 1936. In 1929, she and her mother
moved to England, to join the London Aeroplane Club. She took
her first solo flight in 1930 and gained private and commercial
licences by 1932, borrowing £500 from Fred Truman, a New
Zealand pilot serving in the Royal Air Force who wanted to marry
her, to fund the 100 hours flying time required. After completing
her "B" license in December 1932, she left Truman and
turned to Victor Dorée, who borrowed £400 from his
mother to buy Batten a Gipsy Moth biplane. According to NZ History
Online, "Raising money by taking advantage of her relationships
with men was a theme that continued throughout her flying career."
Batten made two unsuccessful
attempts to beat Amy Johnson's time to Australia. In April 1933
she hit two sandstorms before the engine failed, and wrecked
the aircraft. She crash-landed near Karachi. Returning to London
she could not persuade Dorée to buy her another aircraft,
so she turned to the Castrol oil company, which bought her a
second-hand Gipsy Moth for £240. She made another attempt
in April 1934, but ran out of fuel at night on the outskirts
of Rome. Crashing into a maze of radio masts, she nearly severed
her lip. The plane was repaired and she flew it back to London,
where she borrowed the lower wings from the aircraft of her fiancé,
stockbroker Edward Walter, for a third attempt. In May 1934,
Batten successfully flew solo from England to Australia in the
Gipsy Moth. Her trip of 14 days and 22 hours beat the existing
England-to-Australia record of English aviatrix Amy Johnson by
over four days. For this achievement and for subsequent record-breaking
flights, she was awarded the Harmon Trophy three times (1935,
1936, 1937). She also received an endorsement contract with Castrol
oil. Batten's book about her trip, Solo Flight, was published
by Jackson and O'Sullivan Ltd in 1934. Batten took a boat to
New Zealand with the Gipsy Moth (which could not have flown across
the Tasman Sea) and made a six-week aerial tour there before
returning to England.
After her first Australia flight
Batten bought a Percival Gull Six monoplane, G-ADPR, which was
named Jean. In 1935 she set a world record flying from England
to Brazil in the Percival Gull, for which she was presented the
Order of the Southern Cross, the first person other than Royalty
to be so honoured. In 1936 she set another world record with
a solo flight from England to New Zealand. At her birthplace
of Rotorua she was honored by local Maori, as she had been after
the 1934 journey. She was given a chief’s feather cloak
and given the title Hine-o-te-Rangi – "Daughter of
the Skies". |
