Lilian Bland (22 September 1878 – 11 May 1971); Anglo-Irish journalist and aviator who, in 1910–11, became one of the first women in the world to design, build, and fly an aircraft. Bland was born in Maidstone, Kent on 22 September 1878, to a family of Anglo-Irish gentry, the third child of John Humphrey Bland and his wife Emily Charlotte (née Madden) and lived at Willington House, Willington Street (formerly, Willington Lane). Around the turn of the century, she began working as a journalist and press photographer for various London newspapers; she lived an unconventional lifestyle for the period, smoking, wearing trousers, and practising martial arts. Between 1900 and 1906, following the death of her mother, Bland and her father moved to Tobercorran House in Carnmoney, north of Belfast, to live with her aunt Sarah. Sarah Bland had married General William James Smythe, who had died in 1887 leaving no children, and the two siblings had decided to set up house together. From here, Bland continued her photographic work, spending days on remote Scottish islands photographing seabirds. Bland's uncle Robert sent her a postcard of the Blériot monoplane from Paris, inspiring her to take up flying. At this point, no one in Ireland had yet made a powered flight – the first would be Harry Ferguson, in December – and to make an aircraft would involve building it herself. Her late uncle, General William James Smythe, an astronomer and member of the Royal Society, had provided the house with a fully fitted workshop, and after some background reading on the Wright brothers, Bland successfully built a flyable model biplane. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilian_Bland) undefined

More on Google