In June 1946, a plane flew over the Mediterranean Sea from Rome to Paris. There was nothing unique about this flight other than the fact that one of the passengers took over as the pilot for the final 20 minutes of the trip. Dr. Helen Keller, an American novelist, educator, and campaigner who has been blind and deaf since childhood, was the passenger.
Keller had been in the air before, but many women of her generation would fly infrequently or never. On the set of Deliverance, a biographical movie about her life in which she truly appeared, she took her first trip as a passenger in 1919.
In Order To Dispel This Scepticism.
Even though Keller was well-known throughout the United States by the time she was 16 and abroad by the time she was 24, some members of the general public continued to have their doubts about Keller’s ability to successfully communicate with hearing people and earn a college degree, both of which she had already accomplished.
Deliverance’s creators stated that they intended to “show her doing all those things that [able-bodied] people do” in order to dispel this scepticism. This included “scenes in which she dresses herself, just to show the public that she can, and in which she sleeps, to prove to the curious that she closes her eyes.” Additionally, because flying was so popular at the time and aeroplanes were still a relatively new invention, the creators chose to include Keller in the flying scene.
Flew The Four-Engine Aircraft Across The Mediterranean Sea
The article claims that Keller, who was born in Alabama, flew the four-engine aircraft across the Mediterranean Sea for 20 minutes. The Glasgow-based reporter was informed by Keller that she had flown the aircraft “via hand ‘speak'” between herself and Polly Thomson.
According to reports, Thomson stated, “She sat in the co-seat pilot’s with the pilot beside her, and I transmitted to her his directions.” “Her delicate touch on the controls astounded the flight crew. No trembling or vibration occurred. She simply sat there and controlled the plane firmly and calmly.
Keller was able to experience flying because of her enormous media success, both domestically and abroad. Few women of Keller’s generation would ever have taken a flight. Her first flight took place in 1919, when the biographical movie Deliverance about her aimed to show her engaging in “normal” activities (even though women almost never flew).
Prior to her journey in 1946, Keller took to the skies a few more times after developing a love for it. A plane, in her words, is “a giant graceful bird gliding across the illimitable skies,” she once remarked. It makes sense that she would later become a pilot.
She was given the controls of a Douglas Skymaster while she flew from Rome to Paris as part of a tour of Europe to advance the cause of blind people. Keller piloted the aircraft for 20 minutes over the Mediterranean Sea.
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Final Words
Polly Thomson, her travelling companion, assisted her in following the pilot’s directions as they were communicated by hand “language.” The onboard staff was taken aback by her delicate touch on the controls. There was no trembling or tremor, Thomson told the Glasgow Bulletin. She simply sat there and controlled the aircraft firmly and calmly. She said that it “was great to sense the delicate movement of the aeroplane through the controls,” Keller said.
