{"id":28859171,"date":"2026-10-20T11:46:49","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T09:46:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/lilian-bland-mayfly-first-woman-design-build-fly-aircraft-1910\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T11:47:42","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T09:47:42","slug":"lilian-bland-mayfly-first-woman-design-build-fly-aircraft-1910","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/it\/lilian-bland-mayfly-first-woman-design-build-fly-aircraft-1910\/","title":{"rendered":"Lilian Bland and the Mayfly: The Woman Who Built Her Own Plane"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\r\n<!-- mfsh:top -->\r\n\r\n<style>\r\n.mfsh-trigger{display:inline-flex;align-items:center;gap:10px;height:44px;padding:0 18px;margin:0 0 26px;border:2px solid 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Its owner was not willing to wait. She filled an empty whisky bottle with fuel, borrowed the only tubing in the house, which happened to be her deaf aunt's ear trumpet, and fired the thing up in the dark and the rain. The neighbours, she later reported, thought one of the local mills had blown up.<\/p>\r\n<p>Her name was Lilian Bland, a sports journalist and press photographer living at Carnmoney, just north of Belfast. The machine bolted behind her seat was the Mayfly, a biplane she had designed and built herself from spruce, ash, bamboo and calico. Within weeks it carried her into the air, making her the first woman to fly an aircraft in Ireland, and the Mayfly the first powered biplane in Ireland.<\/p>\r\n<p>She is widely credited as the first woman in the world to design, build and fly her own aeroplane. Then her father offered her a car to stop, and she took it.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f4f6f9;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:18px 22px;margin:22px 0 26px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:700;color:#0d1117\">Quick Facts<\/p><ul style=\"margin:0;padding-left:18px\"><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Who:<\/strong> Lilian Bland (28 September 1878 to 11 May 1971), Anglo-Irish journalist, photographer and aviator<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Aircraft:<\/strong> The Mayfly, a pusher biplane she designed and built herself at Carnmoney, County Antrim<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Engine:<\/strong> 20 hp air-cooled, two-cylinder, two-stroke engine from A.V. Roe, bought for \u00a3100<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Size:<\/strong> 23 ft long, 27 ft 7 in wingspan, 250 sq ft of wing, per Flight's 1910 drawing<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>First powered flight:<\/strong> Late summer 1910 at Lord O'Neill's park in Randalstown; Engineers Ireland gives 31 August<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Cost:<\/strong> Under \u00a3200 in total, by her own estimate in Flight<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Why she stopped:<\/strong> Her father offered her a car, a Model T Ford, if she gave up flying<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Later life:<\/strong> Ford dealer in Belfast, homesteader in British Columbia, then Kent and finally Sennen, Cornwall<\/li><\/ul><\/div>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">A postcard, a seagull and a Blackpool air show<\/h2>\r\n<p>Bland was born in Maidstone, Kent, on 28 September 1878, into a family of Anglo-Irish gentry. Around 1900 she and her father moved to Tobercorran House in Carnmoney to live with her widowed aunt, Sarah Smythe. By then Bland was already an unconventional figure: she wore breeches, smoked, rode astride rather than side-saddle, and was an accomplished shot. She earned her living as a sports journalist and press photographer for London newspapers.<\/p>\r\n<p>It was photography that pointed her at the sky. She spent days on Scottish islands photographing seabirds, watching the gulls ride the wind. Then her uncle Robert sent her a postcard of Louis Bl\u00e9riot's monoplane from Paris, and the idea took hold.<\/p>\r\n<p>In 1909 she went to the first official aviation meeting in Blackpool, notebook in hand, measuring the machines on display and telling anyone who would listen that she was going to build and fly her own. The reaction, she later wrote, was &ldquo;hoots and derision&rdquo;, which did not worry her at all.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/lilian-bland-mayfly-in-flight-1911.jpg\" alt=\"The Mayfly biplane in flight a few feet above a field, with Lilian Bland seated between the wings\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">The Mayfly in the air with Lilian Bland at the controls, as published in Flight on 18 February 1911. Photo: Flight, 1911 \/ public domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Building the Mayfly<\/h2>\r\n<p>Her late uncle, General William James Smythe, had left a well-equipped workshop, and Bland went to work there. First came a model biplane with a six-foot wingspan, which she flew as a kite. Then she scaled up to a full-size glider of spruce, bamboo, ash and American elm, with unbleached calico for the wings. Steering was a bicycle handlebar.<\/p>\r\n<p>Doubters questioned whether it would ever leave the ground, so she named it the Mayfly, with deliberate irony: it may fly, or it may not. On the slopes of Carnmoney Hill she tested it with the help of four burly members of the Royal Irish Constabulary and a local lad, Joe Blain. When the wind lifted the glider, the four constables let go. Joe hung on. If the Mayfly could lift five men, Bland reasoned, it could carry an engine.<\/p>\r\n<p>She ordered one from the young firm of A.V. Roe in Manchester, the company that would later build the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/avro-504\/\">Avro 504<\/a>: a 20 hp, air-cooled, two-cylinder two-stroke, at a price of \u00a3100. When delivery dragged on, she crossed to England and brought the engine home herself, with an adjustable-pitch propeller, to the astonishment of her fellow passengers.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TH2kRBZNFYA\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;font-style:italic\">National Museums NI tells the story of Lilian Bland and the Mayfly for its Museum of Innovation exhibition at the Ulster Transport Museum.<\/p>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">A whisky bottle and an ear trumpet<\/h2>\r\n<p>What happened next is the most famous episode of the whole story, and it comes straight from Bland's own pen. She reported it to Flight magazine, the weekly she had been reading and writing to since it was founded in 1909. Her letter appeared on 16 July 1910.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><div><em>&ldquo;I got it on the aeroplane and tried it late last night; but as I have not got my tank yet I tried to feed it out of a whisky bottle, and the only tubing I could find was my aunt&rsquo;s ear-trumpet. Under the circumstances the engine behaved better than I expected, it was like a cat-fight on a very enlarged scale.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Lilian Bland<\/strong> &mdash; letter to Flight magazine, published 16 July 1910<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p>In the same letter she added that the mechanic, absorbed in the engine, had been pouring petrol over the wing instead of down the ear trumpet, and that the engine &ldquo;subsided with a sigh&rdquo;. She also offered some practical advice on dress: mechanic's overalls were best, because skirts were out of the question with all the wires, not to mention the oil.<\/p>\r\n<p>The engine was beautifully balanced, she wrote, but the vibration was enormous and every nut danced itself loose. Wires snapped. She double-nutted the bolts, strengthened the structure and reworked the undercarriage. Then she needed somewhere bigger than a hillside to fly.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/bland-mayfly-biplane-side-view-1910.png\" alt=\"Side view of the Bland Mayfly pusher biplane standing on a grass field with its two main wheels and long skids\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">The finished Mayfly on the ground: engine and propeller behind the pilot's seat, elevators on bamboo booms out front. Published in Flight, 17 December 1910. Photo: Flight, 1910 \/ public domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Airborne at Randalstown<\/h2>\r\n<p>Lord O'Neill lent her his parkland at Randalstown, about 800 acres of it. There was one drawback, she told Flight: the park contained a loose bull, &ldquo;and if it gets annoyed and charges I shall have every inducement to fly!&rdquo;<\/p>\r\n<p>Because the engine sat behind the pilot, Joe Blain stood between the tail booms and swung the propeller. The first attempts were short hops. Then the Mayfly flew. Engineers Ireland dates the breakthrough to 31 August 1910; Wikipedia says late August, and some accounts say September. Accounts credit her with climbing to about 30 feet and covering about a quarter of a mile, though sources differ on the details, and many of her flights were far shorter.<\/p>\r\n<p>So short, in fact, that she was not always sure she had left the ground. She walked back across the wet grass to look for the point where the wheel tracks stopped.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #1565c0;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><div><em>&ldquo;I could hardly believe it. After each flight, I ran back to see where the wheel tracks left the grass, to convince myself that I really had been airborne.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Lilian Bland<\/strong> &mdash; describing her first powered flights in 1910, as quoted by Engineers Ireland<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p>It was a genuine first for Ireland. Harry Ferguson had made the first powered flight in Ireland in December 1909, but no woman had flown there, and the Mayfly became the first powered biplane in Ireland. In December 1910 Flight published her detailed description of the machine with a scale drawing. Her whole outlay, she estimated, was under \u00a3200, most of it the engine; the wood cost her only \u00a33 or \u00a34.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dCn2SAOGu70\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;font-style:italic\">Ireland Made, the Irish transport archive, retells how Lilian Bland designed, built and flew the Mayfly in 1910.<\/p>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The car that ended a flying career<\/h2>\r\n<p>Bland kept flying into early 1911 and tried to turn her work into a business, advertising biplanes at \u00a3250 without an engine and gliders at \u00a380. Few buyers came. She also knew the Mayfly's limits: it was underpowered, and a bigger engine would have needed an expensive redesign of the whole airframe.<\/p>\r\n<p>Her father, alarmed for her safety, made her an offer: give up flying and he would buy her a car, a Model T Ford. Having proved her point, she accepted. The engine was sold and the airframe went to a boys' gliding club.<\/p>\r\n<p>She threw herself into the car instead. By April 1911 she was running a Ford dealership in Belfast, which Engineers Ireland calls the city's first. On 3 October 1911 she married her cousin Charles Loftus Bland, a lumberjack from British Columbia, and the couple emigrated to Canada to homestead on virgin land on the wild coast of Vancouver Island, where boats were the most practical transport and, by necessity, she learned to keep their engines running.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/lilian-bland-community-park-mayfly-sculpture-glengormley.jpg\" alt=\"Stainless-steel sculpture of the Mayfly biplane on a round platform in a green park with trees behind\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">The stainless-steel Mayfly sculpture in the Lilian Bland Community Park in Glengormley, unveiled when the park was renamed in her honour in August 2011. Photo: Slowtech2000 \/ Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Canada, Cornwall and a long goodbye<\/h2>\r\n<p>Their only child, Patricia, was born on 13 April 1913. She died of tetanus in 1929, aged 16, and the marriage did not survive the loss. Bland returned to England in 1935, settled in Kent and worked as a gardener, playing the stock market with her wages.<\/p>\r\n<p>By the 1950s she had retired to a cottage at Sennen, near Land's End in Cornwall, where she painted, gardened and bet on the horses. In 1971, aged 92, she was quoted in the Belfast Telegraph saying the only excitement left to her was gambling. She died on 11 May 1971 and is buried in the churchyard at Sennen.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Z7iQ-TOtphw\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;font-style:italic\">A 1987 report on Myra Gleeson's research into Ireland's pioneering women aviators, which began when she saw a photograph of Lilian Bland.<\/p>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Remembering the Mayfly<\/h2>\r\n<p>For decades Bland was a footnote. That has changed. The Ulster History Circle placed a blue plaque at the family home in Carnmoney. On the centenary of her flight, Glengormley Park in Newtownabbey was renamed the Lilian Bland Community Park, its centrepiece a stainless-steel Mayfly. In 2021 National Museums NI featured her in an exhibition on Irish innovators at the Ulster Transport Museum at Cultra.<\/p>\r\n<p>Her career as an aviator lasted barely a year. Yet in that year a woman with a borrowed workshop, a hillside, four policemen and an ear trumpet did what most of the men at Blackpool only talked about. She designed an aeroplane, built it, and flew it. Then she swapped it for a Ford and went looking for the next adventure.<\/p>\r\n<p><em>Sources: Flight (16 July and 17 December 1910, via lilianbland.ie), Engineers Ireland, Women's Museum of Ireland, Scientific American, National Museums NI, Wikipedia (Lilian Bland; Bland Mayfly)<\/em><\/p>\r\n<!-- mfsh:bottom -->\r\n\r\n<button type=\"button\" class=\"mfsh-trigger mfsh-bottom\" data-mfsh-placement=\"bottom\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><svg><use href=\"#mfsh-i-share\"\/><\/svg>Share this story<\/button>\r\n\r\n<!-- \/mfsh:bottom -->\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<style>.mfq{margin:34px 0 8px}.mfq h2{font:26px\/1.3 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117;padding-top:22px;margin:0 0 6px}.mfq .qa details{border-top:1px solid #5C91FF;margin:0;padding:0}.mfq .qa details:last-of-type{border-bottom:1px solid #e2e7ee}.mfq .qa summary{cursor:pointer;list-style:none;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;gap:16px;padding:22px 26px;font:18px\/1.7 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117}.mfq .qa summary::-webkit-details-marker{display:none}.mfq .qa summary::after{content:\"+\";font:24px Helvetica,sans-serif;color:#3568e0;flex:0 0 auto}.mfq .qa details[open] summary::after{content:\"\\2013\"}.mfq .qa details:hover summary{color:#3568e0}.mfq .qa .a{font:16px\/1.7 \"Gilroy regular\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#454e5e;padding:0 26px 24px}.mfq .qa .a a{color:#3568e0}@media(max-width:680px){.mfq .qa summary{padding:18px 14px;font-size:17px}.mfq .qa .a{padding:0 14px 20px}}<\/style>\r\n\r\n\r\n<section class=\"mfq\"><h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2><div class=\"qa\"><details open><summary>Who was Lilian Bland?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Lilian Bland (1878 to 1971) was an Anglo-Irish sports journalist and press photographer who designed, built and flew her own aircraft, the Mayfly, at Carnmoney and Randalstown in County Antrim in 1910. She became the first woman to fly an aircraft in Ireland and is widely credited as the first woman in the world to design, build and fly her own aeroplane.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What was the Bland Mayfly?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The Bland Mayfly was a pusher biplane designed and built by Lilian Bland in 1910 from spruce, ash, bamboo, elm and calico, steered with a bicycle handlebar. It was 23 feet long with a 27 ft 7 in wingspan and a 20 hp two-cylinder engine from A.V. Roe. It was the first powered biplane in Ireland.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>When did Lilian Bland first fly the Mayfly?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Lilian Bland made her first powered flights in the Mayfly in late summer 1910 at Lord O'Neill's park in Randalstown, County Antrim. Engineers Ireland dates the first flight to 31 August 1910, Wikipedia says late August, and some accounts say September. She is credited with reaching about 30 feet and covering about a quarter of a mile.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Why did Lilian Bland use a whisky bottle and an ear trumpet?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Lilian Bland's A.V. Roe engine arrived without its petrol tank in 1910. Rather than wait, she fed the engine fuel from a whisky bottle, using her deaf aunt's ear trumpet as tubing. She described the result to Flight magazine as sounding like a cat-fight on a very enlarged scale, and locals thought a mill had blown up.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Why did Lilian Bland stop flying?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Lilian Bland stopped flying in 1911 after her father, worried about her safety, offered to buy her a car, a Model T Ford, if she gave up. The Mayfly was underpowered and would have needed an expensive redesign to take a bigger engine, so she accepted. The engine was sold and the airframe given to a boys' gliding club.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What happened to Lilian Bland after aviation?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">After giving up flying, Lilian Bland ran a Ford dealership in Belfast, married her cousin Charles Bland in October 1911 and homesteaded in British Columbia. After her daughter Patricia died in 1929 the marriage ended. She returned to England in 1935 and retired to Sennen in Cornwall, where she died on 11 May 1971, aged 92.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>How is Lilian Bland remembered today?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Lilian Bland is commemorated by an Ulster History Circle blue plaque at her family home in Carnmoney. Glengormley Park in Newtownabbey was renamed the Lilian Bland Community Park in August 2011, with a stainless-steel Mayfly sculpture, and National Museums NI featured her in a 2021 exhibition on Irish innovators at the Ulster Transport Museum.<\/div><\/details><\/div><\/section>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"FAQPage\",\"mainEntity\":[{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Who was Lilian Bland?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Lilian Bland (1878 to 1971) was an Anglo-Irish sports journalist and press photographer who designed, built and flew her own aircraft, the Mayfly, at Carnmoney and Randalstown in County Antrim in 1910. She became the first woman to fly an aircraft in Ireland and is widely credited as the first woman in the world to design, build and fly her own aeroplane.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What was the Bland Mayfly?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"The Bland Mayfly was a pusher biplane designed and built by Lilian Bland in 1910 from spruce, ash, bamboo, elm and calico, steered with a bicycle handlebar. It was 23 feet long with a 27 ft 7 in wingspan and a 20 hp two-cylinder engine from A.V. Roe. It was the first powered biplane in Ireland.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"When did Lilian Bland first fly the Mayfly?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Lilian Bland made her first powered flights in the Mayfly in late summer 1910 at Lord O'Neill's park in Randalstown, County Antrim. Engineers Ireland dates the first flight to 31 August 1910, Wikipedia says late August, and some accounts say September. 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Glengormley Park in Newtownabbey was renamed the Lilian Bland Community Park in August 2011, with a stainless-steel Mayfly sculpture, and National Museums NI featured her in a 2021 exhibition on Irish innovators at the Ulster Transport Museum.\"}}]}<\/script><div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/feng-ru-first-chinese-aviator-oakland-1909\/\">Feng Ru: The Man Who Built China's First Aeroplane in Oakland<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/harriet-quimby-americas-first-licensed-female-pilot-crossed-the-channel-then-died-at-an-airshow\/\">Harriet Quimby: America's First Licensed Female Pilot Crossed the Channel \u2014 Then Died at an Airshow<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/louis-bleriot-the-madman-who-flew-the-channel-in-a-monoplane\/\">Louis Bl\u00e9riot: The Madman Who Flew the Channel in a Monoplane<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/amy-johnson-solo-england-australia-1930-jason\/\">Amy Johnson: The First Woman to Fly Solo to Australia<\/a><\/p><\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lilian Bland designed, built and flew the Mayfly in Ireland in 1910, fuelling it from a whisky bottle and an ear trumpet. Then her father offered a car.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":28859147,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[665,666],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28859171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aviation-world","category-history-and-legends"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Lilian Bland and the Mayfly: Her Own 1910 Plane | MiGFlug<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Lilian Bland designed, built and flew the Mayfly in Ireland in 1910, fuelling it from a whisky bottle and an ear trumpet. 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