Lilian Bland died on 11 May 1971, having lived to see aviation transform from a novelty into a global industry.
Lilian Bland died on 11 May 1971, at the age of 92, having lived an extraordinarily long life that spanned from the earliest days of powered flight to the era of jet travel and the space age. After her brief but historic career as an aviator and aircraft designer, Bland had emigrated to Canada in 1911 with her father, where she took up farming, married her cousin Charles Bland, and had a daughter.
She later returned to England, living for a time in Cornwall, and largely stepped away from public life and aviation after her early achievements, though her name persisted in aviation histories and enthusiast circles. Her later years were spent in relative quiet, a marked contrast to the daring, headline-making feats of her youth.
Bland's death marked the passing of one of aviation's true trailblazers, a woman who had defied the conventions of Edwardian society to design, build, and fly her own aircraft at a time when such achievements by women were virtually unheard of. In the decades following her death, renewed interest in women's history and the history of aviation has led to a significant resurgence of recognition for her accomplishments, including museum exhibitions, heritage commemorations, and features in publications celebrating pioneering women.