Tracey Curtis-Taylor has created headlines around the world with three epic flights in a 1942 Boeing Stearman biplane. Paying homage to two historic female aviators, she flew from Cape Town to Goodwood in 2013, from London to Australia in 2015 and, two years later, completed a transcontinental flight across the USA, after surviving a plane crash during the expedition.
But her daring exploits came at a huge personal cost.
From the moment the Light Aircraft Association (LAA) awarded her a prestigious trophy for ‘navigation, a feat of aviation, endurance and tenacity', several men with personal grudges made it their mission not just to strip Tracey of her award but to destroy her reputation.
Now, for the first time and with searing honesty, Tracey tells, in breath-taking detail, the remarkable story of how she overcame extreme adversity to complete her three epic journeys. And she charts the bitter campaign waged against her, revealing the rank misogyny and hypocrisy that exists in British aviation.
In Bird, her unique and action-packed memoir, she also tells how:
She cheated death twice – once in a high-speed boating accident and again when her historic Stearman crashed in the Arizona desert.
Her unconventional upbringing sparked her spirit of adventure – but a shocking secret drove her family apart
She fulfilled her dreams only after overcoming a series of near-critical setbacks
Tracey took her first flying lesson at 16 but it was in New Zealand where she properly learned to fly and had her first taste of piloting historic aircraft
Overcoming a series of traumatic events, including a failed marriage, Tracey returned to England and, in 2009, was determined to emulate the heroics of Lady Heath, the first UK woman to hold a pilot's licence and the first person to fly from Cape Town to London in an open-cockpit aircraft.