FLYING HIGH
“Remarkable” is a word that doesn’t do justice to Yvonne Pope Sintes. Her extraordinary achievements include a roll call of notable firsts: she was Britain’s first woman jet airline captain; the country’s first female Air Traffic Controller and the first chairman of BALPA, the British Airline Pilots Association.
What makes Yvonne’s story so inspiring is that she reached the top of her career as a single mother. To get there meant toughing out the prejudice of colleagues who saw aviation as a world for men only. She endured sexist remarks about a woman’s place in the home and even a question, from a male journalist, about how she managed her periods while she was flying!
It’s hard to know how Yvonne’s life might have turned out had she not seen a plane soaring over her house in the summer of 1939, yet that childhood memory would be the spur to an award-winning career.
Yvonne’s story of bull dog determination will appeal to aviation enthusiasts and anyone who wants to know how this modest, likeable woman successfully smashed her way through an enormous glass ceiling.
Reviewed by Juliette Foster
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