Barbara Harmer

Barbara Harmer ( born 14 September 1953 in Loughton, Essex, † February 20, 2011 in Chichester ) was the first female Concorde pilot who carried out as a captain in the regular service trans-Atlantic flights supersonic Mach 2.

Life

Barbara Harmer was born in 1953 as the youngest of four sisters in the seaside resort Loughton in the district of West Sussex in England. She attended a convent school, she left at the age of 15 years and learned the barber trade.

Five years later, when she worked in a barber operating at London's Gatwick airport, she applied to a call by the Authority for training as an air traffic controller. She began to take flying lessons. After obtaining their private pilot license (PPL ) at the Goodwood Flying School began the commercial pilot training they in May 1982 with the approval as a commercial pilot (CPL ) finished. She initially worked for smaller airlines and got in March 1984 appointment as a captain in the British Caledonian Airways. There she flew for three years BAC One-Eleven and then long distance to McDonnell Douglas DC- 10th

1987 British Caledonian Airways merged with British Airways. The airline operational by that time the Concorde in the UK. Barbara Harmer was at British Airways in 1992 selected as the first woman pilot to complete a six-month training and retraining on the Concorde. As of March 25, 1993 Barbara Harmer was the first qualified female Concorde pilot and flew end of their first Concorde flight as First Officer to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City.

In 2001, the Air France pilot - Vialle Béatrice received as the second of only two women the type rating for the Concorde. The two Pilotinen completed approximately 35 flights between Paris, London and New York, before the service of the Concorde was discontinued in 2003. Harmer flew thereafter until the end of their commercial pilot activity until 2009 on the Boeing 777 in scheduled service.

Barbara Hamer's second passion was the sport of sailing. Often you participated in their free time in international sailing events. She lived in a house with Mediterranean garden in Felpham, West Sussex, overlooking the English Channel. In 2010 she wanted to take part in a transatlantic sailing event with their yacht Archambault A35. Due to a sudden onset incurable disease but they had to give up this plan. She died in 2011 in St. Wilfrid 's Hospice, Chichester.