Yahoo News Who is Maude Bonney? Today's Google Doodle honours pioneering aviator who flew solo from Australia to England
In 1933, the trailblazing Maude Rose 'Lores' Bonney became the first woman to fly solo from Australia to England.
The aviation pioneer completed the gruelling 12,427 mile journey from Brisbane to Croydon in a journey which took 157 hours.
Google is paying tribute to her remarkable achievement with a special commemorative Doodle on what would have been her 122nd birthday.
Here's all you need to know about the inspirational 'Lores' Bonney.
Who was Maude 'Lores' Bonney?
Born on November 20, 1897 in Pretoria, South Africa as Maude Rose Rubens, she adopted the name 'Lores' later in her life.
Lores and her family soon left South Africa, moving first to England then to Australia where she grew up in Melbourne, before going to a finishing school in Germany and soon met her husband Harry Barrington Bonney.
But it was Harry's cousin, a man named Bert Hinkler, who would later spark her interest in flying. Bert was himself a pioneering Australian aviator - in 1928, he became the first person to fly solo from England to Australia.
And it took just one flight with Bert in his Avro Avian biplane to inspire her desire to become a pilot. When her husband found out she had been taking flying lessons in secret, he bought her a de Havilland "Gypsy Moth" called My Little Ship.
By 1931 Lores was fully committed to becoming a pilot and took her first solo flight - a record-breaking journey of nearly 1,000 miles from Brisbane, Queensland to Wangaratta, Victoria to meet her father for dinner.
She continued to push the boundaries for aviation and female pilots and the next year she became the first woman to circumnavigate Australia by air - a journey of nearly 8,000 miles.
It was in 1933 when she really made her name in flying, becoming the first woman to complete the solo journey from her adopted homeland to the UK.
It took 157 hours, but Lores' groundbreaking journey was fraught with peril throughout. She survived heavy storms, two crashes and an encounter with a herd of water buffalo before touching down in London.
Flight mechanics were not what they are now, and Lores not only had to contend with delays caused by weather and bureaucracy but also had to carry out any repairs on the plane herself and fly without any access to radio.
For her trailblazing achievement, she was made an MBE by King George in 1934.
Not content with this, four years later she became the first person to fly solo from Australia to her birthplace of South Africa.
Unfortunately the outbreak of the Second World War curtailed her plans to fly on a round-the-world trip via Japan, Alaska and the US.
She was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 1991 and received an honorary doctorate from Griffith University, while also having a Queensland electoral district named after her. The Bonney Trophy is still awarded each year to an outstanding female British pilot.
Lores died in 1994 aged 97, having inspired generations of pilots both male and female.
