By Thierry Gibbons
She was born in Rotorua on 15 th September, 1909
Jean Batten wanted to be a pilot from when she was 18 years old She failed in her first two attempts to beat the world flying record She crash landed in Pakistan She ran out of fuel in Italy
She flew from England to Australia in May 1934 in the fastest time in a Gypsy Moth plane It took almost 15 days for the flight She beat the record by 4 days
She took her plane back to New Zealand by boat because she wouldn’t have enough fuel to fly across the Tasman Sea She set two more world records Flying from England to Brazil Flying from England to NZ
Jean Batten stopped flying at the time of the second World War and went to live in Spain She died in Majorca in 1982 from a dog bite after refusing treatment