British Airways’ Sikorsky S-61N Mark II, G-BEON, at Newquay Cornwall Airport, 21 July 1982. (Carl Ford)
16 July 1983: At 11:10 a.m., a British Airways Sikorsky S-61N-69 Sea King helicopter, c/n 61-770, registration G-BEON, departed Penzance Heliport (PZE) enroute across the Celtic Sea to St. Mary’s Airport, Isles of Scilly. On board were a crew of 3 and 23 passengers. Visibility was poor due to fog. Flying under visual flight rules, the helicopter was at 250 feet (76 meters) while the pilots tried to maintain visual contact with the surface of the calm sea.
Great Circle route from Penzance Heliport, Cornwall, to St. Mary’s Airport, Iles of Scilly, 33 nautical miles (37 statute miles/60 kilometers) away. (Great Circle Mapper)
Because of the limited visual cues, the crew did not recognize that they were in a slight descent. At approximately 11:35 a.m., the Sikorsky slammed into the ocean at cruise speed. It sank almost immediately. Only six persons survived, including the pilots, Dominic Lawlor and Neil Charleton. The helicopter sank to the sea bed 200 feet (61 meters) below. It was later recovered by the salvage vessel RMAS Seaforth Clansman, along with the bodies of 17 victims.
The wreck of British Airways S-61N Sea King G-BEON on board RMAS Seaforth Clansman. Isles of Scilly, 1983. (Andrew Besley/cornishmemory.com)
The official investigation determined that the cause of the accident was pilot error by their failure to recognize and correct the unintentional descent while attempting to fly in conditions not suitable for visual flight. This was the worst helicopter accident in terms of fatalities up to that time.
The Sikorsky S-61N is a civil variant of the United States Navy HSS-2 Sea King. The first S-61N, s/n 61143, first flew 7 August 1962. It is a large twin-engine helicopter with a single main rotor/tail rotor configuration. The S-61N fuselage is 4 feet, 2 inches (1.270 meters) longer than that of the HSS-2. The S-61N is 72 feet, 7 inches (22.123 meters) long and 16 feet, 10 inches (5.131 meters) high, with rotors turning.
The main rotor has five blades and a diameter of 62 feet (18.898 meters). Each blade has a chord of 1 foot, 6.25 inches (0.464 meters). The tail rotor also has five blades and a diameter of 10 feet, 4 inches (3.149 meters). They each have a chord of 7–11/32 inches (0.187 meters). At 100% r.p.m., the main rotor turns 203 r.p.m. and the tail rotor, 1,244 r.p.m. The main rotor turns counter-clockwise, as seen from above. (The advancing blade is on the helicopter’s right side.) The tail rotor turns clockwise, as seen from the left side. (The advancing blade is below.)
G-BEON was powered by two General Electric CT58-140-1 turboshaft engines, each of which had maximum power rating of 1,400 shaft horsepower for takeoff and 1,500 SHP for 2½ minutes. The main transmission was rated for 2,300 horsepower, maximum.
The S-61 has a cruise speed of 166 miles per hour (267 kilometers per hour). The service ceiling is 12,500 feet (3,810 meters). The maximum takeoff weight is 20,500 pounds (9,298.6 kilograms).
Between 1958 and 1980, Sikorsky built 794 S-61 series helicopters. 123 were S-61Ns.
Howard Robard Hughes, Jr., ca. 1937 (New York Public Library)
10–14 July 1938: Howard Robard Hughes, Jr., along with a crew of four, departed Floyd Bennett Field, Brooklyn, New York, on a flight to circle the Northern Hemisphere. His airplane was a Lockheed Super Electra Special, Model 14-N2, registered NX18973. Aboard were Harry P. McLean Connor, co-pilot and navigator; 1st Lieutenant Thomas Lawson Thurlow, United States Army Air Corps, navigator; Richard R. Stoddart, a field engineer for the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), radio operator; Edward Lund, flight engineer. Lieutenant Thurlow was the Air Corps’ expert on aerial navigation. Stoddart was an expert in radio engineering. Thurlow, Stoddart and Lund were also rated pilots.
This photograph by aviation photographer Rudy Arnold shows the “nose art” of the Lockheed Model 14-N2 Super Electra, “New York World’s Fair 1939.” Lieutenant Thurlow is “sighting in” the airplane’s navigation instruments prior to the around-the-world flight.(Rudy Arnold Collection, National Air and Space Museum XRA-4763)
Before they took off from Floyd Bennett Field, the Lockheed was christened New York World’s Fair 1939, in keeping with an agreement that Hughes had made with Grover Whalen and the fair’s organizers.
Howard Hughes’ Lockheed Model 14-N2 Super Electra starting its right engine at Floyd Bennett Field, 10 July 1938. (Unattributed)
Howard Hughes and his crew departed Floyd Bennett Field at 7:19:10 p.m. on 10 July. The route of the flight was from Floyd Bennett Field to Le Bourget Aerodrome, Paris, France, a distance of 3,641 miles (5,860 kilometers), flown in an elapsed time of 16 hours, 38 minutes; Moscow, Russia, USSR, 1,640 miles (2,639 kilometers), 7:51; Omsk, Siberia, 1,400 miles (2,253 kilometers), 7:27; Yakutsk, Yakut ASSR, 2,158 miles (3,473 kilometers), 10:31; Fairbanks, Alaska, 2,457 miles (3,954 kilometers), 12:17; Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2,441 miles (3,928 kilometers), 12:02; and back to Floyd Bennett Field, 1,054 miles (1,696 kilometers) 4:26.
They arrived at Floyd Bennett Field at 2:34 p.m., 14 July. The distance flown was approximately 14,800 miles (23,818 kilometers) (sources differ). The total duration was 91 hours, 14 minutes, 10 seconds. The actual flight time was 71 hours, 11 minutes, 10 seconds. Average speed for the flight was 206.1 miles per hour (331.7 kilometers per hour).
The flight crew of Howard Hughes’ around-the-world flight, left to right: Howard Robard Hughes, Jr., wearing a fedora and a white shirt; 1st Lieutenant Thomas L. Thurlow, U.S. Army Air Corps; Harry P. McLean Connor; Richard R. Stoddart; and Edward Lund. Standing at the far left of the photograph is Grover Whalen, president of the New York World’s Fair 1939 Committee, who christened the airplane. (Tamara Thurlow Field via Air & Space Smithsonian)
The international organization for flight records, the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, requires that a circumnavigation cross all meridians in one direction and be at least the length of the Tropic of Cancer, 22,858.729 miles (36,787.559 kilometers). Howard Hughes’ “around the world flight” circled the Northern Hemisphere and was at least 8,058 miles (12,968 kilometers) short of the required distance, so no official record was set. (The same is true of Wiley H. Post’s two earlier “around the world” flights which used a similar route.)
The Robert J. Collier Trophy. (NASM)
The National Aeronautic Association awarded the Aero Club Trophy (after 1944, known as the Robert J. Collier Trophy, or simply, The Collier Trophy) to Howard Hughes and his associates, “For their epoch making round the world flight in 91 hours and 14 minutes.” The Collier is an annual award, “. . . for the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America, with respect to improving the performance, efficiency, and safety of air or space vehicles, the value of which has been thoroughly demonstrated by actual use during the preceding year.”
The Lockheed Super Electra 14-N2, serial number 1419, was offered to Hughes by the Lockheed Aircraft Company, Burbank, California, at no cost.
Company officials believed that publicity generated by an around-the-world flight would justify the expense. The airplane underwent modification for two months at the Burbank factory. The Curtiss-Wright Corporation provided new engines. Fuel capacity was increased to 1,844 gallons (6,980.3 liters). Three radio systems were installed.
The Lockheed Model 14 Super Electra was an all-metal, twin-engine, low-wing monoplane with retractable landing gear, designed as a medium-sized airliner. It was flown by two pilots and could carry up to 12 passengers. Based on aerodynamic studies carried out by Clarence L. “Kelly” Johnson on the earlier Model 10 Electra, the airplane was configured with an “H-tail”, with vertical fins and rudders placed at the ends of the horizontal stabilizer. This was a characteristic design feature for Lockheed aircraft through the 1950s.
Cutaway drawing of Howard Hughes’ Lockheed Model 14-N2 Super Electra, NX18973. (New York Public Library)
The Model 14 was 44 feet, 4 inches (13.513 meters) long with a wingspan of 65 feet, 6 inches (19.964 meters) and overall height of 11 feet, 5 inches (3.480 meters). Hughes’ Model 14-N2 Special differed, but a Model 14-WF-62 airliner version had an empty weight of 10,750 pounds (4,876 kilograms), gross weight of 15,650 pounds (7,098 kilograms) and maximum takeoff weight of 17,500 pounds (7,938 kilograms). The airliner had maximum speed of 250 miles per hour (402 kilometers per hour) and a service ceiling of 24,500 feet (7,468 meters).
NX18973 was powered by two air-cooled, supercharged, 1,823.129-cubic-inch-displacement (29.875 liter) Wright Aeronautical Division Cyclone GR-1820-G102 nine-cylinder radial engines with a normal power rating of 900 horsepower at 2,200 r.p.m., and 1,100 horsepower at 2,200 r.p.m for take-off. The engines had a compression ratio of 6.7:1 and required 91-octane gasoline. They turned three-bladed Hamilton Standard constant-speed propellers through a 0.6875:1 gear reduction. The GR-1820-102 was 4 feet, 0.12 inches (1.222 meters) long, 4 feet, 7.10 inches (1.400 meters) in diameter, and weighed 1,275 pounds (578 kilograms).
Lockheed Model 14-N2 Super Electra NX18973, “New York World’s Fair 1939,” arrives at Floyd Bennett Field, Long Island, New York, 2:34 p.m., 14 July 1938. (Associated Press)
Representative performance figures are maximum speed of 250 miles per hour (402 kilometers per hour) and a service ceiling of 24,500 feet (7,468 meters). NX19783 had an estimated maximum range of 4,500 miles (7,242 kilometers).
Following Hughes’ flight, NX18973 was returned to Lockheed. The manufacturer then sold the Super Electra to the Royal Canadian Air Force. It was assigned fuselage identification AX688. (A militarized version of the Super Electra was produced as the Hudson light bomber.)
On 10 November 1940, the Super Electra took off from Nairobi, Kenya, on a transcontinental ferry flight to from South Africa to Egypt. There were high winds and it was raining. After climbing to 500 feet (152 meters) AGL, the Lockheed banked to the left. It stalled, entered a spin and crashed. The wreck caught fire. All persons on board were killed.
Lockheed Model 14-N2 Super Electra Special, c/n 1419, NC18973. (San Diego Air and Space Museum Archive)Lockheed Model 14-N2 Super Electra NC18973 at Alameda, California, 1940. (Bill Larkins/Wikipedia)
McDonnell F-4B-23-MC Bu. No. 152276, the 1,000th McDonnell F-4 Phantom II. (McDonnell Aircraft Corporation)
7 July 1965: The McDonnell Aircraft Corporation delivered the 1,000th production F-4 Phantom II, an F-4B, to the United States Navy. Phantom II MSN 1034 was an F-4B-23-MC Phantom II, assigned Bureau of Aeronautics serial number (“Bu. No.”) 152276.
The fighter was assigned to Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 314 (VFMA-314), the “Black Knights,” at Da Nang Air Base, Republic of South Vietnam. On the morning of 24 January 1966, Bu. No. 152276 was flown by Captain Doyle Robert Sprick, USMC, with Radar Intercept Officer 2nd Lieutenant Delmar George Booze, USMC, as one of a flight of four F-4s assigned to drop napalm on a target 7 miles (11 kilometers) southwest of Hue-Phu Bai.
At 10:05 a.m., Captain Albert Pitt, USMC, flying F-4B-22-MC Bu. No. 152265, with RIO 2nd Lieutenant Lawrence Neal Helber, USMC, radioed that he, in company with Captain Sprick, was off the target and returning to Da Nang.
Neither airplane arrived. A search was started at 11:00 a.m. The two-day search was unsuccessful. It is presumed that the two Phantoms collided. All four aviators were listed as missing, presumed killed in action.
Hughes XF-11 44-70155 at Culver City, California, 7 July 1946. The prototype Lockheed XC-69 Constellation, 43-10309, now registered NX67900, is in the background. Note the XF-11’s counter-rotating propellers. (University of Nevada, Las Vegas Libraries)
7 July 1946: At the Hughes Aircraft Company’s private airport in Culver City, California, the first of two prototype XF-11 photographic reconnaissance airplanes took of on its first flight. In the cockpit was Howard Robard Hughes, Jr.
Howard Hughes in the cockpit of the first prototype XF-11, 44-70155, with all propellers turning, at Culver City, California. (University of Nevada, Las Vegas Libraries)
The Hughes XF-11 was designed to be flown by a pilot and a navigator/photographer. Its configuration was similar to the Lockheed P-38 Lightning and Northrop P-61 Black Widow, as well as the earlier Hughes D-2. The prototype was 65 feet, 5 inches (19.939 meters) long with a wingspan of 101 feet, 4 inches (30.886 meters) and height of 23 feet, 2 inches (7.061 meters). The empty weight was 37,100 pounds (16,828.3 kilograms) and maximum takeoff weight was 58,300 pounds (26,444.4 kilograms).
Howard Hughes in teh cockpit of the XF-11 prototype. (Houston Chronicle)
The XF-11 was powered by two air-cooled, supercharged 4,362.49-cubic-inch-displacement (71.49 liter) air-cooled, supercharged Pratt & Whitney R-4360-31 (Wasp Major TSB1-GD) four row, 28-cylinder radial engines. This engine had a compression ratio of 7:1. It had a normal power rating of 2,550 horsepower at 2,550 r.p.m. at 5,000 feet (1,524 meters), and 3,000 horsepower at 2,700 r.p.m. for takeoff. The R-4360-31 was 4 feet, 4.50 inches (1.334 meters) in diameter, 9 feet, 6.25 inches (2.902 meters) long and weighed 3,506 pounds (1,590 kilograms). The engines drove a pair of contra-rotating four-bladed propellers through a 0.381:1 gear reduction.
The planned maximum speed was 450 miles per hour (724 kilometers per hour), service ceiling 44,000 feet (13,411 meters) and planned range was 5,000 miles (8,047 kilometers).
The first prototype Hughes XF-11, 44-70155, taking off from the Hughes Aircraft Company’s private airport, Culver City, California. 7 July 1946. (University of Nevada, Las Vegas Libraries)
After about an hour of flight, a hydraulic fluid leak caused the rear propeller of the right engine to go into reverse pitch. Rather than shutting the engine down and feathering the propellers to reduce aerodynamic drag, Hughes maintained full power on the right engine but reduced power on the left, attempting to limit adverse yaw to the right side.
Unable to make it back to the Culver City airport, Hughes planned to land at the Los Angeles Country Club. At 7:20 p.m., the airplane crashed into three houses on North Whittier Drive, Beverly Hills, California. The fire destroyed the prototype and one of the houses and heavily damaged the others. Howard Hughes was seriously injured in the crash.
Burning wreckage of Hughes’ prototype XF-11 in the yard at 808 N. Whittier Drive, Beverly Hills, California. (Los Angeles Times)Howard Hughes in an ambulance following the crash of the XF-11. (Los Angles Times)
The investigating board criticized Hughes for not following the flight test plan, staying airborne too long, and deviating from a number of standard test flight protocols. The cause of the actual crash was determined to be pilot error.
The second Hughes XF-11 landing at Culver City. (Los Angeles Times)
A second XF-11 was completed and flew in April 1947, again with Hughes in the cockpit. The project was cancelled however, in favor of the Northrop F-15 Reporter and Boeing RB-50 Superfortress, which were reconnaissance aircraft based on existing combat models already in production.
The second prototype Hughes XF-11, 44-70156, on a test flight near Anacapa Island, off the coast of Southern California, 1947. This airplane does not have counter-rotating propellers. (U.S. Air Force)
Maryse Bastié, circa 1938. (Fédération Aéronautique Internationale)
6 July 1952: Capitaine Maryse Bastié, l’Armée de l’air, was killed 6 July 1952 when the airplane she was aboard as a passenger, the second prototype Nord 2501 Noratlas, F-WFUN, was demonstrating single engine operation at an air show at the Lyon-Bron Airport (LYN). Approximately 100,000 spectators were present.
Nord 2501 Noratlas 01, F-WFUN.
The aircraft, the second prototype of the Noratlas, was taking part to the National Airshow at Lyon-Bron Airport (LYN), carrying six crew members and one passenger, the famous French aviator Maryse Bastié. After takeoff, the pilot-in-command completed a circuit around the airport and started the approach at low height, demonstrating flight with one engine one engine inoperative. The Noratlas passed over Runway 34 and the pilot attempted to perform a chandelle. The airplane climbed to a height of 200 meters (about 660 feet), then stalled and crashed in flames. All seven occupants were killed. The crew consisted of Georges Penninckx, pilot; Étienne Griès, radio navigator; Albert Tisseur, mechanic; Alcide Le Quien, technician; Pierre Landeau, technician; Jean-Louis Frignac, technician. Capitaine Bastié was a passenger.
Burning wreckage of Nord 2501 Noratlas F-WFUN. (Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives)
Woman Ace Dies In Crash With 7 Others
By Reuters News Agency
LYONS, France—Eight persons were killed when a plane crashed yesterday during a Regatta at Bron Airfield.
The plane, a twin-engined Nord 2501, was demonstrating when the pilot cut one engine and went into a single-engine vertical climb. The plane flicked over, went into a spin, crashed and caught fire.
One of the persons killed was Maryse Bastie,woman aerobatic champion and France’s best known pre-war woman pilot.
The plane crashed into a wheat field. Both engines exploded and almost at once the machine burst into flames. When firemen arrived on the spot five minutes later the whole field was blazing.
The accident was seen by 100,000 spectators who had gathered to watch the display of stunt flying, jet fighter demonstrations and parachute drops.
Nord 2501 Noratlas F-WFUN. (Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives)
WOMAN PILOT AN PATRIOT
Death in Air Crash
From our own Correspondent
PARIS, JULY 7.
France lost one of her most remarkable women pilots, Maryse Bastié, in the air crash which took place in the presence of 50,000 spectators near Bron aerodrome outside Lyons last night.
A new type of military freight aircraft for carrying supplies or parachutists, the Nord 2,501 was being shown as a last-minute supplement to the programme of exhibition flights. Mme Bastié, who was to exhibit this aircraft in Brazil in a few weeks’ time, was on board.
After shutting off one of the two engines the pilot took the aircraft up in a steep climb and then lost control of it. It crashed into the ground several hundred miles an hour and the engines were buried nearly ten feet deep.
Maryse Bastié originally worked in a shoe factory. She married a demobilised air pilot and they ran a shoe shop together in the provinces for some time, but grew tired of this. M. Bastié found a job as an air instructor and Madame Bastié gained her pilot’s certificate in 1925. Her first distinction was to win the endurance championship for the longest flight in the air by a woman pilot She succeeded in remaining airborne for 27 hours. When another woman pilot pushed the record up to 36 hours, Madame Bastié carried it further to 37 hours. Not content with this she also won the record for a woman pilot for a long-distance flight. Setting out from Northern France she covered 3,000 kilometres and landed on the banks of the Volga. Later she crossed the South Atlantic in twelve hours during a solo flight.
In recent years Madame Bastié seems to have devoted herself to the use of aircraft for the Red Cross, and especially for the care of wounded in battle. She recently went to Indo-China to form the first unit of airborne Vietnamian nurses. She took part in the Resistance movement during the occuption and was for some time arrested by the Germans, She held the military rank of captain and that of commander in the Legion of Honour for military services, an honour held by no other woman.
—The Manchester Guardian, No. 32,982, Tuesday, 8 July 1952, Page 7, Column 4
Woman Ace Dies In Crash With 7 Others
By Reuters News Agency
LYONS, France—Eight persons were killed when a plane crashed yesterday during a Regatta at Bron Airfield.
The plane, a twin-engined Nord 2501, was demonstrating when the pilot cut one engine and went into a single-engine vertical climb. The plane flicked over, went into a spin, crashed and caught fire.
One of the persons killed was Maryse Bastie,woman aerobatic champion and France’s best known pre-war woman pilot.
The plane crashed into a wheat field. Both engines exploded and almost at once the machine burst into flames. When firemen arrived on the spot five minutes later the whole field was blazing.
The accident was seen by 100,000 spectators who had gathered to watch the display of stunt flying, jet fighter demonstrations and parachute drops.
Marie-Louise Bombec was born at Limoges, Haute-Vienne, France, 27 February 1898. She was the daughter of Joseph Bombec and Celine Filhoulaud. She married Babtiste Gourinchas at Limoges, 11 February 1915. Their son, Germain Gourinchas, was born 22 September 1915.
In 1918, Mme Gourinches was employed as a secretary-typist at the Limoges electric company.
Marie-Louise and her husband separated 29 May 1920, and divorced 24 December 1920. Germain died of typhoid fever, 6 June 1935, in Ferryville (now known as Manzil Būrgībah), Bizerte, Tunisia.
On 22 May 1922, Mme Gourinches married a pilot, M. Louis Bastié, at Limoges. With her husband, she ran a shoe store in Cognac.
After taking instruction from Guy Bart, she first soloed 8 September, 1925, at Bordeaux, Gironde, Aquitaine, France. Mme Bastié earned Brevet de Pilot N° 1036, 29 September 1925.
On 15 October 1926, she received a telegram informing her that her husband, Louis, had been killed.
In 1928, she officially changed her name from Marie-Louise to Maryse.
On 13 July 1928, she flew her Caudron C.109, F-AHFE, from Le Bourget Aerodrome, Paris, France, to Trzebiatów, Pomeranina, a distance of 1,058 kilometers (657 statute miles).
On 11 October 1928, she became to first woman in France to obtain a public transport license, N° 1136. She was only the second woman in France to earn a professional pilot’s license.
On 28 July 1929 Maryse Bastié, flying a Caudron C.109 parasol-winged, strut-braced monoplane, F-AHFE, to set a Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) world record for duration of 26 hours, 47 minutes, 30 seconds, at Le Bourget. (FAI Record File Number 10446)
Maryse Bastié’s Caudron C.109, F-AHFE. (FAI)
On 10 June 1930, she set another FAI world record for duration, 22 hours, 24 minutes, flying a Klemm L 25 I monoplane powered by an air-cooled 2.979 liter (181.77 cubic inch displacement) Salmson AD.9 nine-cylinder radial direct-drive engine, which was rated at 50 horsepower at 2,000 r.p.m. (FAI Record File Number 12337)
Maryse Bastié with her Klemm L 25 I monoplane. (Conservatoire Aéronautique du Limousin)
On 18 August 1930, she set another FAI world record for duration, 25 hours, 55 minutes, again flying the Klemm. (FAI Record File Number 12338)
At Le Bourget, 4 September 1930, she set two FAI world records for duration, 37 hours, 55 minutes, flying the Klemm monoplane. (FAI Record File Numbers 12339, 12341)
On 29 June 1931, Mme Bastié flew the Klemm from the Le Bourget airport, Paris, France, to Urino, Russia, U.S.S.R., to set three FAI world records for distance: 2,976,31 kilometers (1,849.39 statute miles). The duration of the flight was 30 hours, 30 minutes. (FAI Record File Numbers 12345, 12346, 14886). For this flight, she was awarded the Order of the Red Star by the Presidium of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
She was awarded the Harmon Aviatrix Trophy for 1931. On 20 March 1932, Bastié was appointed Femme Chevalier de la légion d’honneur.
On 30 December 1936, Maryse Bastié flew a Caudron C.635 Simoun, F-ANXO, from Dakar, French West Africa, across the South Atlantic Ocean to Natal, Brazil, solo, in 12 hours, 5 minutes.
Maryse Bastié flew this Caudron C.635 Simoun, F-ANXO, across the South Atlantic Ocean, solo, in 12 hours, 5 minutes, 30 December 1936. (Association des Amis di Musée de l’Air)
On 22 February 1937, France promoted her to Officier Ordre national de la Légion d’honneur.
During the German occupation of France, Mme Bastié was suspected of being a member of La Résistance française (the French Resistance). She was detained by the Gestapo at the Fresnes Prison, south of Paris, but was released after 15 days.
On 3 May 1944, she volunteered for l’Armee de l’air, the French air force, and was assigned as a pilot-journalist in the Minister’s office. On 24 November 1944, she was appointed a lieutenant of l’Armee de l’air. On 2 November 1945, she was assigned command of pilot schools.
On 17 April 1947, Mme Bastié was promoted to Commandeur Ordre national de la Légion d’honneur. The following month, 15 May 1947, she was promoted to Capitaine, l’Armee de l’air, with her rank retroactive to 25 May 1946.
Capitaine Maryse Bastie receiving the Legion of Honour. (Tallandier)
