[1] In 1928, she attended a lecture by famed aviator Hermann Köhl, who had recently completed a historic east–west Atlantic crossing.

[2][3] At just 21 years old, with funds from a small inheritance (against the wishes of her parents) she moved to Spandau in Berlin where she took flying lessons, at Berlin-Staaken airport, under the tutelage of instructor Otto Thomsen.

[12] The foreword of her book, Flying Girl (1935), was written by Richard Halliburton (whose English publisher, as hers, was Geoffrey Bles); it includes a photo of Moye Stephens repairing her plane.

[16] The following year, Beinhorn shipped the plane to Panama, then flew through Mexico and California before crossing the United States to Washington DC and Miami.

[17] On 29 September 1935 Elly attended the Czechoslovakian Grand Prix, in Brno, Czechoslovakia, at the invitation of Auto Union (she was in the country on a lecture tour).

A celebrity couple – an adventurous aviator and the fearless racing driver – they were the toast of Nazi Germany.

Ten weeks after his birth his father was killed while attempting a speed record in his Auto Union Streamliner.

Elly received condolences from prominent Nazis, including Adolf Hitler, but requested a simple, non-political funeral ceremony.

Some accounts suggest that Elly walked off in protest at the Nazis claiming Bernd as their own and taking over what was a personal occasion.

[21] After World War II she briefly took up gliding due to the ban on powered flight in Germany.