Texto de "Thelegraph" sobre a aviadora argentina Maureen Dunlop.
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24/05/2016 Maureen Dunlop de Popp Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/9334827/MaureenDunlopdePopp.html 1/9 Accessibility links Skip to article Skip to navigation Telegraph.co.uk Search enhanced by OpenText Tuesday 24 May 2016 Home Video News World Sport Business Money Comment Culture Travel Life Women Fashion Luxury Tech Film Politics Investigations Obits Education Science Earth Weather Health Royal Celebrity Defence Scotland Culture Politics Military Finance Sport Religion Royalty Science Medicine Celebrity Law Technology Advertisement 1. Home » 2. News » 3. Obituaries Maureen Dunlop de Popp Maureen Dunlop de Popp, who has died aged 91, was one of a pioneering group of women pilots who flew the latest fighter and bomber aircraft with the wartime Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA). She achieved national fame as a cover girl when a Picture Post photographer captured her alighting from a Barracuda aircraft. 6:00PM BST 15 Jun 2012 Maureen Dunlop’s arrival in England from her home in Argentina coincided with a huge increase in aircraft production which led to an urgent need The future of online learning Fast, fun and fully interactive language courses available online. View Bank fees, pretty upsetting Bank fees, pretty upsetting Send money abroad over 8x cheaper with TransferWise. View Privacy and cookies Jobs Dating Offers Shop Puzzles Investor Subscrib Register Log in
Maureen Dunlop de PoppMaureen Dunlop de Popp, who has died aged 91, was one of a pioneering group of womenpilots who flew the latest fighter and bomber aircraft with the wartime Air TransportAuxiliary (ATA). She achieved national fame as a cover girl when a Picture Postphotographer captured her alighting from a Barracuda aircraft.
6:00PM BST 15 Jun 2012
Maureen Dunlop’s arrival in England from her home in Argentina coincided with a huge increase in aircraft production which led to an urgent need
The future of online learning
Fast, fun and fully interactive languagecourses available online.
View
Bank fees, pretty upsetting
Bank fees, pretty upsetting
Send money abroad over 8x cheaper withTransferWise.
View
Privacy and cookies Jobs Dating Offers Shop Puzzles Investor SubscribeRegisterLog in
to expand the almost exclusively male ATA – irreverently dubbed “Ancient and Tired Airmen”. Already a qualified pilot, she joined in April 1942,one of a small pool of women ATA pilots, and rose to be a first officer.
Maureen Dunlop, cover girl, 1944
It was the task of the ATA pilots to deliver aircraft from factories and maintenance units to front line squadrons. Only during earlymorning briefingdid pilots discover what type of aircraft they would be flying and to which airfield they would go. The organisation had its own airborne taxiservice, piloted by fellow ATA pilots, to deliver or collect those detailed to ferry an aircraft.
Initially Maureen Dunlop flew with No 6 Ferry Pool at Ratcliffe near Leicester, but later moved to Hamble near Southampton, which was an allfemale pool. It was there that she delivered many Spitfires to squadrons. On one occasion, just after she had taken off, the cockpit canopy blew off –she made a successful landing. On another, the engine of her Argus aircraft failed and she was forced to land in a field where she discovered that apiston had shattered.
With all ATA pilots flying the same aircraft and facing the same risks, Sir Stafford Cripps arranged that the female pilots should receive equal paywith their male colleagues and this small group of women rightly considered themselves as pioneers of sex equality. Many, including MaureenDunlop, wished that they could have flown in combat, but this was considered a step too far and was forbidden. “I thought it was the only fairthing,” she remarked. “Why should only men be killed?”
She was one of 164 female pilots and, during her three years with the ATA, she flew 38 different types of aircraft, among them the Spitfire,Mustang, Typhoon and the Wellington bomber. However, when asked which her favourite was, she immediately responded: “The Mosquito”.
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The ATA had been founded in September 1939 by Gerard d’Erlanger, an airminded merchant banker and director of British Airways. But, with theend of the war, it was disbanded overnight. Its 600 pilots had delivered 308,567 aircraft and many felt that they were “The Forgotten Pilots”.Maureen Dunlop was one of the few female pilots to secure a flying job when she left the ATA.
The second daughter of an Australian who managed 250,000 hectares of sheep farms in Patagonia, Argentina, Maureen Adel Chase Dunlop wasborn on October 26 1920 in Quilmes, near Buenos Aires. She held dual British and Argentine nationalities and, though she was educated at anEnglish school in Buenos Aires for a short time, she received most of her education from a governess.
Growing up surrounded by animals, she became an expert horsewoman and would often gallop alongside trains and wave to their drivers as theycrossed the vast spaces of Patagonia.
During a holiday in England in 1936 she took flying lessons and then, when she returned to Argentina, backdated her year of birth in order that shecould legally continue her flight training. During the First World War, her father had travelled to England to join the Army, and with the outbreak ofthe Second, Maureen saw no reason why she should not follow his example. She travelled to England with her sister, who would work for the BBC.
After the war, Maureen Dunlop qualified as a flying instructor at RAF Luton before returning to Argentina, where she worked as a commercialpilot. She instructed and flew for the Argentine Air Force, as well as having a partnership in an air taxi company, continuing to fly actively until1969.
Her other great love was horses and she was fascinated by Arab ponies. After the war, she bought her first Arab and later built up a large breedingoperation known as Milla Lauquen Stud.
In 1955 Maureen met and married Serban Popp, a retired Romanian diplomat, and in 1973 they travelled to England where they bought a farm nearNorwich. She soon discovered that her Second World War driving licence had expired. Although her commercial pilot’s licence was still valid, sheneeded to resit her British driving test.
She surprised her children by taking five attempts to persuade the Norwich examiner that she was fit and able to drive on British roads. They weresurprised she passed so soon.
In England the stud grew to more than 50 horses. She worked tirelessly with her animals, carrying out physical work that men much younger thanher found exhausting. She built up an outstanding knowledge of Arabian bloodlines.
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