Naomi Heron-Maxwell
Toronto Daily Star, April 27 1935
Naomi Heron-Maxwell (1913-1983) started taking flying lessons in 1934, when she was 20. In 1935, she joined Alan Cobham's Flying Circus as a parachutist, as pictured above; she performed about a hundred parachute jumps before narrowly escaping death when she opened her parachute just in time after initially not finding its ripcord handle. Her boyfriend at the time asked her to stop parachute jumping, as he considered it too dangerous; sadly, just after that, he died in a car crash.
In 1936, Ms. Heron-Maxwell took up gliding, becoming the first British woman to earn the Silver-C Badge, given to gliders who had successfully reached an altitude of at least 1000 metres, flown for five hours, and flown cross-country for at least 50 kilometres (not necessarily all on the same flight). She later taught gliding, and she flew for the Air Transport Auxiliary during the Second World War. Later in life, she moved to California.
Created April 27, 2026.