Jean Batten's 1934 record flight from England to Australia
The successful record flight, made in a Gipsy Moth, began with a departure from Lympne Aerodrome in England on 8 May, and after refueling stops in 14 countries and having flown 10,500 miles (16,900 km), she landed at Darwin, in the northwest of Australia on the afternoon of 23 May.
Her father refused to support her in her quest to learn to fly so, with her mother, Batten travelled to England in early 1930 for flight training at the London Aeroplane Club (LAC).
[1] Batten soon aspired to fly from England to Australia solo in order claim the women's record for the trip of 10,500 miles (16,900 km) from the Englishwoman Amy Johnson, another member of the LAC.
[2] In July she returned to England aboard the SMS Rotorua, in a voyage funded by her brother John, and resumed her flight training at the LAC.
[3][4] With an eye to facilitating any necessary repairs to the Gipsy Moth during her attempt on Johnson's record, Batten learnt how to maintain aircraft and their engines.
[7] Dorée borrowed £400 from his mother to buy Batten a Gipsy Moth, with which she intended to beat Johnson's record for flying from England to Australia solo.
[8][9] The preparations for the record attempt included having her Gipsy Moth[Note 1] fitted with extra fuel tanks to increase its range to 800 miles (1,300 km).
Visas and landing rights in 14 countries were secured, she made arrangements for refueling, and obtained a plethora of information on landmarks along her route.
The planned flight path included stops in continental Europe, the Middle East, India, and Southeast Asia before landing at Darwin, in the north of Australia.
[13] She was not the only pilot attempting to break the record for the trip to Australia at the time; she took off 24 hours after an Italian, Leonida Robbiano, started his endeavour from Lympne.
On 11 April, she made an early start, at 3:00am, making a nine-hour flight to Aleppo, in Syria, during which she encountered strong turbulence and heavy clouds that required her to fly on instruments alone.
Shutting down the engine, she glided into a landing on a road but the wings of the Gipsy Moth struck a roadside marker and it flipped onto its back.
In her unpublished memoirs, she claimed she paid him back for the Gipsy Moth, although biographer Ian Mackersey states that this was disputed by Dorée's family.
[23][25] Batten still intended to make her record flight[25] and for several months, she sought financial assistance from newspapers and aviation companies but was unsuccessful.
[29] The Gipsy Moth was kept at Brooklands, an aerodrome in Surrey, and Batten and her mother lived nearby while she prepared the aircraft for her record attempt.
[32] Weather conditions were poor but despite this, she continued onto Rome but with only partially full tanks; she had wanted to avoid the Gipsy Moth becoming bogged down during takeoff on the saturated airfield at Marseilles.
Although she believed she had sufficient fuel to make the trip with a small reserve, due to headwinds, her flight time was longer than expected.
She ran out of fuel over Rome and had to glide to a forced landing at San Paolo wireless station, in the city's Ostiense district.
[37] She had decided to make a third attempt rather than continue with her present flight, which would have to include her time spent in Rome waiting for the repairs to her aircraft to be completed.
However, having replenished her supplies she ran into sandstorms and this caused her to divert to Rutbah Wells, an aerodrome 250 miles (400 km) to the west of Baghdad that was used by a number of airlines.
A similar shortage of beds arose the next day when she flew onto Jask; a KLM airliner from the Dutch East Indies had arrived at the same time.
On the following day, she encountered the Intertropical Convergence Zone, which manifested itself in a heavy, storm-ridden cloud front, as she headed for Victoria Point, in the southern part of Burma.
She had insufficient fuel to return to Rangoon so had to carry on through driving rain and turbulence, at times flying by instruments alone due to a lack of visibility.
Deliberately fueled light for the next leg to Alor Star, so as to help the Gipsy Moth take off from the sodden airfield, she encountered more rain but conditions gradually improved as she approached British Malaya.
Having refueled at Alor Star and being briefly delayed due to the Gipsy Moth getting stuck in mud while taxiing for takeoff, she continued on to end day twelve at the RAF aerodrome at Salatar in Singapore.
Her departure the next day was delayed due to fog; a car was driven up and down the runway to help temporarily clear the mist and allow Batten to take off.
[49][51] Day 14 involved a single leg of two hours to Timor; for part of the flight across the Alas Strait, she had to deal with particles of ash and cinder from a volcanic eruption on Flores Island.
She crossed the coast about 20 miles (32 km) to the south of Darwin and shortly afterwards landed at the town's aerodrome at 1:30pm, filmed by a Fox Movietone camera crew.
[1][54] The breaking of Johnson's four-year-old record was front-page news around the world and there was extensive and generally effusive reporting on Batten's feat by mainstream newspapers.
