Washington, May 12 (IANS/EFE) Pilot Evelyn Bryan Johnson, known as “Mama Bird”, died in Morristown, Tennessee, a media report said Friday. She was 102.
Johnson, who started flying in 1944, held the Guinness record for most flight-hours by a female pilot, with 57,000 – equivalent to seven years in the air, reported The Knoxville Sentinel.
The nickname “Mama Bird” referred to Johnson’s enduring interest in the more than 3,000 student pilots she trained.
One of the first women to fly a helicopter, she was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 2007. Johnson certified more than 9,000 pilots for the Federal Aviation Administration.
Though she experienced plenty of mechanical problems and tough situations in her 55 years of flying, Johnson never crashed a plane.
–IANS/EFE
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