Sheila Christine Hopkins Scott was born in England on April 27, 1927. During World War II, she served as a nurse in a naval hospital. From the end of the war throughout the 1950s, Scott worked as an actress and a model. In 1960, she earned her pilot's license and began to compete in races, winning both the 1960 De Havilland and Jean Lennox Bird trophies. In the early 1960s, Scott flew as a demonstrator for Cessna and Piper aircraft. Scott made her first around the world flight in 1966, and set several records during the late 1960s. On June 1, 1971, Scott set off from London in a Piper Aztec in an attempt to fly from equator to equator over the North Pole. Scott's aircraft, the Mythre, carried NASA equipment as part of a communications experiment to test the Interrogation Recording and Location System (IRLS) of the Nimbus polar orbiting satellite. With her landing in London on August 4, 1971, Sheila Scott became the first person to fly over the North Pole in a single engine aircraft. Scott is credited with more than 100 light aircraft records amassed throughout her career. In 1968, Scott was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire and, in 1972, was awarded the Royal Aero Club's Gold Medal. Scott also served as governor of the British section of the Ninety-Nines. Sheila Scott died on October 20, 1988.
