Australian Firsts: Jessie Keith Miller, The First Aviatrix To Cross The Equator

Many of her achievements were shadowed by a murder trial involving her co-pilot.

Jessie Keith Miller was thrown into the international spotlight in the late 1920s when, escaping from the boredom of her life in Melbourne, she fled to the UK where she managed to convince British aviator Bill Lancaster to let her be his co-pilot.

Even though she’d never flown before, she became the first to woman fly across the equator — a 22,000km flight from England to Australia.

According to author Chrystopher Spicer who researched Miller’s life for his latest book, she achieved a multitude of ‘firsts’ for Australia. Spicer told The Huffington Post Australia due to unsavoury controversy in her life, Australians soon forgot about Miller (whose tongue-in-cheek nickname was ‘Chubbie.’)

Source: Australian Firsts: Jessie Keith Miller, The First Aviatrix To Cross The Equator