Fabulous Flying with a Twist (AFW Jul/Aug 2024)
by Liz Booker
This article was published in the July/August 2024 issue of Aviation for Women Magazine.
I am endlessly inspired, fascinated, and often shocked by the women of the 1920’s and ‘30’s who took to the skies to push boundaries and set records on shoestring budgets. Among them is Jessie ‘Chubbie’ Miller. Born Jessie Maude Beveridge in Australia in 1901, she married journalist Keith Miller at age eighteen and in 1927 sought to escape the marriage and mourn her brother’s and father’s deaths, sailing to England to visit family. There she met William Lancaster, a married man and former Australian Flying Corps and Royal Air Force pilot who was planning a record-setting solo flight from England to Australia in an Avro Avian aircraft named Red Rose. The meeting launched Miller’s brief but spectacular aviation career and a tragic love affair.
Miller convinced Lancaster to allow her to accompany him on the flight by agreeing to handle administrative duties and raise money for the trip. On the 8,000-mile journey she learned how to fly and service the aircraft. When they arrived at Darwin 159 days later, Miller became the first woman to fly from England to Australia as a passenger. The next year, the couple moved to the U.S. to fly in a Hollywood movie that never materialized. She earned her U.S. private pilot’s license in 1929, placed third in the light aircraft division in the first Women’s Transcontinental Air Race, first in the Cleveland air races closed-circuit pylon speed race, and became a founding member of the Ninety-Nines.
The next few years were full of flying adventures and firsts for ‘Chubbie’, a nickname from her childhood. She flew in the 1929 Ford Reliability Air Tour through 32 cities, was the first woman to earn a commercial pilots license in Canada, was a test pilot for the Viktor Aircraft Company, demonstration pilot for C.T. Stork Corporation, broke the U.S. transcontinental airspeed record in 1930, was the first woman to fly from the U.S. to Cuba, and reportedly flew off track on the return trip and was presumed dead until she was rescued four days later from a small island by an Australian sailor.
Things got complicated in 1932. Miller divorced her Australian husband, but Lancaster was still married. Meanwhile an interloper, Charles Haden Clarke, entered their lives under the premise of helping write her autobiography. While Lancaster was away, Miller and Clarke fell in love and decided to get married. Upon Lancaster’s return, Clarke wound up dead, shot in the head. Lancaster was eventually acquitted of murder charges in a scandalous trial in Miami. One year later, he vanished in the Sahara Desert attempting a solo flight from London to Cape Town. His plane, body, and diary were finally found almost thirty years later in 1962. Miller, meanwhile, struggled to finance any further flying adventures during the depression years, and settled into a new marriage with an Irish pilot, Johnnie Pugh.
Their story is featured in several books, including The Fabulous Flying Mrs. Miller: A story of murder, adventure, romance, and derring-do, by Carol Baxter. Carol is a genealogist, writing teacher, and speaker, retelling true tales of intrigue as the ‘mystery detective’ for cruise ship audiences. Mrs. Miller is one of six books she’s written about scandalous Australian historical characters and crimes and is the Aviatrix Book Club discussion book for July 2024. She has also published several books on researching and writing family histories. As always, you can look for my interview with Carol on the Literary Aviatrix website, YouTube channel, and podcast, and join us in virtual discussions.
Blue Skies, and Happy Reading!
