OBITUARIES - Jan. 19, 2009

Nancy Bird Walton, 93, an aviation pioneer who became the first woman in Australia to operate a commercial aircraft, died of natural causes Tuesday at her Sydney home, her family said.

Born Oct. 16, 1915, Walton was named a Living National Treasure by the National Trust of Australia in 1997.

Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith, the first man to fly across the mid-Pacific, taught Walton how to fly in 1933, when she was 17 years old. Two years later, she obtained a commercial pilot’s license and began taking customers for joy rides.

She later ran an air ambulance service for remote outback areas of New South Wales state, becoming known as the “Angel of the Outback.” In 1950, she founded the Australian Women Pilots’ Assn., which mentors female pilots.

She wrote her autobiography in 1990, calling it “My God! It’s a Woman.”

Last year, she attended the inaugural Australian landing of Qantas Airways’ first A380 super jumbo aircraft, which was named in her honor.