Good morning, it's Friday, April 27, 2018. This is Tom Kavanagh filling in for Carl, who's under the weather today. Ninety-one years ago in the British town that gave us Worcestershire sauce, a child was born who would spice up the aviation world. Sad to say, however, her achievements failed to leave the indelible mark she surely hoped they would. I'll have more in a moment on this woman's story.
Sheila Scott, born Sheila Christine Hopkins, is a name seldom mentioned in discussions of aviation pioneers. To some extent, that's a matter of timing. Scott entered this world the year Charles Lindbergh made his historic transatlantic flight, and was 10 when Amelia Earhart's plane disappeared somewhere in the Pacific. And it took Scott a while to find her true passion, blossoming as an adventurous pilot when the space program was eclipsing aeronautics in the public's imagination.
Before all that, Sheila Hopkins escaped what was said to be a difficult childhood that included more than one expulsion from school. During World War II, she trained to be a nurse and cared for the wounded. Later, she briefly married, and for a time tried her hand at acting and modeling, adopting the stage name Sheila Scott in the process.
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