Carolyn was kind enough to do so and when I received a letter from Jackie, I was over the moon!!!
Jackie, not only invited me to visit her in Taunton, but also enclosed a poem she had written, ‘To her aircraft designer’.She said that, ‘I only fly them. You design and build them’!

I visited Jackie in 2003 and she had a leg in plaster!!! I said,’ You flew at high speed and altitude and damage your leg on the ground’!!!!!!! I made tea for the two of us, which we drank while Jackie told me some fascinating stories and showed me her A.T.A..uniform. She even offered to give me a signed copy of her book,’ Woman Pilot’ and like an idiot, I said that I had a photo copy of italready!!! AUGH!!!

One story Jackie told me , was about when she had to ferry a bomber. She was asked to take a passenger, an Air Vice Marshal. When she climbed aboard, he was already in the ‘jump seat’.
Jackie climbed into the pilot’s seat and started to read the pilot’s notes for that aircraft. There was a comment from the A.V.M. about children piloting aircraft! (Jackie looked very young!). There was another comment.about ‘Having time to read, before taking off’, to which Jackie replied, ‘UNLESS I READ THIS, I WILL NOT BE ABLE T OFLY THIS AIRCRAFT’!

Another story was about when she first went to live in the sheltered accomodation, after the death of her husband. She was in the lounge and said to one of the male residents,’ I was thinking of giving a talk to the residents about my experiences’. To which the reply came,’ What on earth has someone like you got tio talk about, which might interest us’? ‘Well’, said Jackie. ‘ I flew most types of aircraft while in the A.T.A.’!!!!

Jackie also told me that she wanted to be the first woman to fly through the sound barrier. She approached the R.A.F., but they refused to lend her an aircraft. Jackie then approached the U.S.A.F.,who agreed to lend her a ‘Sabre Jet’. Unfortunately, by this time, the French President’s daughter, Jaqueline Cochran had flown at Mach1 in a Mystere Jet. Jackie said that she was very disappointed, but at least she was the first English/ South African woman to do so.

I will always treasure my all too brief meeting with Jackie. I feel very proud to have spent time with this amazing lady.

I like this post very much because everything fits perfectly to my thoughts, which I carry with me for many months now. Often my feeling is, that it´s a pity that planners in advertising agencies only can share their thoughts on ideas about ads – rather than sharing the thoughts on the roots of the idea process developping new products. Until now companies put advertising agencies into the advertising-drawer – and this is because 90% of the brains are people with skills for advertising. The 10%, which go beyond, don´t represent the advertising agency and therefore they don´t get involved in the idea-finding process of product ideas.

So thank you for writing down your thoughts and giving people inspiration to use their knowledge and talent beyond advertising ads.