Google remembers Egypt's first woman pilot

Google is celebrating the 107th birth anniversary of an Egyptian woman pilot who dared to fly and became the first woman in the country to man an aircraft.

El Nadi did this at the age of 26, much against her father’s wish. She took up a job as secretary to the director of the Institute for Aviation, so that she could enter the field of aviation.

According to reports El Nadi once secretly got into two-seater plane just to gain the experience of flying on a plane. She took flying lessons twice a week.

An air race was held in December 1933 from Cairo to Alexandria and the plane that first crossed the line was piloted by the 26 year old El Nadi.

She also became the second woman in the world to fly a plane solo.

“My father's omnipotence was suffocating. I learned to fly because I love to be free," El Nadi is believed to have said.

Born in 1907, she lived in Egypt during her early years and then migrated to Switzerland, and later lived for a while in Canada.

A short documentary film ‘Take Off From the Sand’ about her was shot in 1996. El Nadi died at the age of 95.

 

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