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Lilian Bland built a glider of spruce, bamboo and canvas near Belfast and named it Mayfly. After fitting it with an engine, she flew it in 1910, becoming the first woman to fly an aircraft in Ireland. She even advertised copies of her design for sale.

Lilian Bland, letter to Flight (1910), quoted by the Dictionary of Irish Biography

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The story behind the card

Bland, born in Kent in 1878, worked as a sports journalist and press photographer for London papers before settling with her father at Carnmoney, near Belfast. She tested the Mayfly as a glider on Carnmoney Hill, then bought a 20-horsepower engine from the A. V. Roe company. Too impatient to wait for the fuel tank, she rigged up an empty whiskey bottle, with her deaf aunt's ear trumpet as the fuel line. The first real hop came at Randalstown in late August 1910; she steered with a bicycle handlebar, and her longest flight covered about 400 metres. The Mayfly was also the first powered biplane in Ireland. By 1911 Bland was selling Ford cars in Belfast. She then married and farmed in Canada, returned to England in 1935 and died in 1971, aged 92.

Türkçe oku
Lilian Bland, Belfast yakınlarında ladin, bambu ve kanvastan bir planör yaptı ve adını Mayfly koydu. Planöre bir motor taktı ve 1910'da onunla havalanarak İrlanda'da uçak uçuran ilk kadın oldu. Tasarımının kopyalarını satmak için ilan bile verdi.

1878'de İngiltere'nin Kent bölgesinde doğan Bland, Londra gazetelerine spor yazıları ve fotoğraflar hazırlıyordu; sonra babasıyla birlikte Belfast yakınlarındaki Carnmoney'ye yerleşti. Mayfly'ı önce planör olarak Carnmoney Tepesi'nde denedi, ardından A. V. Roe şirketinden 20 beygir gücünde bir motor aldı. Yakıt deposunu beklemeye sabrı yetmeyince boş bir viski şişesini depo, sağır teyzesinin kulak borusunu da yakıt hortumu yaptı. Asıl kalkış Ağustos 1910'un sonunda Randalstown'da gerçekleşti. Uçağı bir bisiklet gidonuyla yönetti; en uzun uçuşu yaklaşık 400 metre sürdü. Mayfly, İrlanda'da uçan ilk motorlu çift kanatlı uçaktı. Bland 1911'de Belfast'ta Ford otomobilleri satıyordu. Ardından evlenip Kanada'ya göç etti ve çiftçilik yaptı; 1935'te İngiltere'ye döndü, 1971'de 92 yaşında öldü.

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