‘Flying feminist’ Lilian Bland celebrated in new exhibition

Northern Irish museum celebrates car-dealing, trouser-wearing, jiu-jitsu fighting aviation pioneer

In an era that stifled women, Lilian Bland blazed with a life force that defied all convention, including gravity.

She worked as a press photographer, smoked, wore trousers and dungarees, rode a bicycle, taught jiu-jitsu and opened a car dealership, apparently impervious to the fact that she lived in the Edwardian era.