Recent from talks
Hilda Hewlett
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Hilda Hewlett
Hilda Beatrice Hewlett (17 February 1864 – 21 August 1943) was an early aviator and aviation entrepreneur. She was the first British woman to earn a pilot's licence. She founded and ran two related businesses: the first flying school in the United Kingdom (with Gustav Blondeau), and a successful aircraft manufacturing business (Hewlett & Blondeau) which produced more than 800 aeroplanes and employed up to 700 people. She later emigrated to New Zealand.
Hilda Beatrice Hewlett was born in Vauxhall, London on 17 February 1864 to Louisa Herbert née Hopgood and George William Herbert, a Church of England vicar. Hilda was one of nine siblings and was known as "Billy" by the family.
As a young woman she attended the National Art Training School in South Kensington. She specialised in three skills which served her well in her later aviation engineering career: woodwork, metalwork, and needlework. Her art was good enough to be exhibited. When she was 19 she visited Egypt with her parents where ‘I woke up from a narrow, conventional, stultifying childhood and first thought for myself’. At the age of 21 she spent a year training as a nurse at a hospital in Berlin.
She married barrister and writer Maurice Henry Hewlett on 3 January 1888 in St Peter's Church, Vauxhall, where her father was the incumbent. The couple had two children, a daughter, Pia, and a son, Francis, but separated in 1914.
Hilda Hewlett was an early bicycle and motor car enthusiast. The family acquired a car and Hilda learned to drive, and was fined for speeding in May and June 1905 but was considered proficient behind the wheel. She participated in automobile rallies and in 1906 was the passenger/mechanic for Muriel Hind, the only female driver in a motorcar event from Lands End to John O’Groats. Hind was a pioneering motorist, sometimes described as Britain’s first motorcyclist.
Hewlett attended her first aviation meeting at Blackpool in 1909. Later that year, after adopting the pseudonym "Grace Bird", she travelled to the airfield at Mourmelon-le-Grand, France, to study aeronautics. She met aviation engineer Gustav Blondeau and they became business partners. Hewlett returned to England with a Farman III biplane, nicknamed the Blue Bird. In the summer of 1910 she and Blondeau opened the first flying school in the United Kingdom at the Brooklands motor-racing circuit at Weybridge, Surrey. Many people gained their first experience of flying at Hewlett and Blondeau's school, including Thomas Sopwith. Thirteen pupils graduated from the school in the year and a half it operated and, with a remarkable safety record for the time, there were no accidents.
In May 1911 Hilda Hewlett instigated the first pilots’ strike in history. The Brooklands Racing Club announced that the aeroplane pilots would receive 5% of event day takings, to be divided between them. Mrs Hewlett was furious about this, and a letter was drawn up with a demand for 25%. When this was refused she organised a flying strike, pointing out that the flying events drew much larger crowds than the motor racing ever had. Pilots were to fly for only the minimum time to qualify for prizes, and the aeroplanes were locked away to prevent inspection by the public. Soon the management gave way, paying a fairer percentage of takings, and increasing the prize money. The episode attracted great public interest, and turned out to be to everyone’s advantage.
On 29 August 1911, at Brooklands, Hilda Hewlett became the first woman in the UK to earn a pilot's licence when she received certificate No.122 from the Royal Aero Club after completing the test in her biplane. Hewlett also taught her son, Francis, to fly; he earned pilot's certificate no. 156 on 14 November 1911 and went on to have a distinguished military aviation career in both the UK and New Zealand, making him the first military pilot taught to fly by his mother. He earned a Distinguished Service Order in 1915 and rose to the rank of group captain.
Hub AI
Hilda Hewlett AI simulator
(@Hilda Hewlett_simulator)
Hilda Hewlett
Hilda Beatrice Hewlett (17 February 1864 – 21 August 1943) was an early aviator and aviation entrepreneur. She was the first British woman to earn a pilot's licence. She founded and ran two related businesses: the first flying school in the United Kingdom (with Gustav Blondeau), and a successful aircraft manufacturing business (Hewlett & Blondeau) which produced more than 800 aeroplanes and employed up to 700 people. She later emigrated to New Zealand.
Hilda Beatrice Hewlett was born in Vauxhall, London on 17 February 1864 to Louisa Herbert née Hopgood and George William Herbert, a Church of England vicar. Hilda was one of nine siblings and was known as "Billy" by the family.
As a young woman she attended the National Art Training School in South Kensington. She specialised in three skills which served her well in her later aviation engineering career: woodwork, metalwork, and needlework. Her art was good enough to be exhibited. When she was 19 she visited Egypt with her parents where ‘I woke up from a narrow, conventional, stultifying childhood and first thought for myself’. At the age of 21 she spent a year training as a nurse at a hospital in Berlin.
She married barrister and writer Maurice Henry Hewlett on 3 January 1888 in St Peter's Church, Vauxhall, where her father was the incumbent. The couple had two children, a daughter, Pia, and a son, Francis, but separated in 1914.
Hilda Hewlett was an early bicycle and motor car enthusiast. The family acquired a car and Hilda learned to drive, and was fined for speeding in May and June 1905 but was considered proficient behind the wheel. She participated in automobile rallies and in 1906 was the passenger/mechanic for Muriel Hind, the only female driver in a motorcar event from Lands End to John O’Groats. Hind was a pioneering motorist, sometimes described as Britain’s first motorcyclist.
Hewlett attended her first aviation meeting at Blackpool in 1909. Later that year, after adopting the pseudonym "Grace Bird", she travelled to the airfield at Mourmelon-le-Grand, France, to study aeronautics. She met aviation engineer Gustav Blondeau and they became business partners. Hewlett returned to England with a Farman III biplane, nicknamed the Blue Bird. In the summer of 1910 she and Blondeau opened the first flying school in the United Kingdom at the Brooklands motor-racing circuit at Weybridge, Surrey. Many people gained their first experience of flying at Hewlett and Blondeau's school, including Thomas Sopwith. Thirteen pupils graduated from the school in the year and a half it operated and, with a remarkable safety record for the time, there were no accidents.
In May 1911 Hilda Hewlett instigated the first pilots’ strike in history. The Brooklands Racing Club announced that the aeroplane pilots would receive 5% of event day takings, to be divided between them. Mrs Hewlett was furious about this, and a letter was drawn up with a demand for 25%. When this was refused she organised a flying strike, pointing out that the flying events drew much larger crowds than the motor racing ever had. Pilots were to fly for only the minimum time to qualify for prizes, and the aeroplanes were locked away to prevent inspection by the public. Soon the management gave way, paying a fairer percentage of takings, and increasing the prize money. The episode attracted great public interest, and turned out to be to everyone’s advantage.
On 29 August 1911, at Brooklands, Hilda Hewlett became the first woman in the UK to earn a pilot's licence when she received certificate No.122 from the Royal Aero Club after completing the test in her biplane. Hewlett also taught her son, Francis, to fly; he earned pilot's certificate no. 156 on 14 November 1911 and went on to have a distinguished military aviation career in both the UK and New Zealand, making him the first military pilot taught to fly by his mother. He earned a Distinguished Service Order in 1915 and rose to the rank of group captain.
Recent media