Bang on Milairjunkie
Mary Russell was born Mary Du Caurroy Tribe in Stockbridge Hampshire, married Lord Herbrand Russell, who later became the Duke of Bedford, she becoming the Duchess. She vanished off Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. The three town names are the tenuous link to Massachussetts towns.
When she vanished she was piloting her aircraft and she has never been found, a distinction she shares with Amelia Earhart and Amy Johnson. A further shared distinction is that each disappearance has a deeper mystery surrounding the disappearance, i.e. where exactly did Earhart come down and why, also was there a secret reason for her flight.. Why did Amy Johnson get so far off course, was there a third person on the flight and why are the circumstances of the flight still the subject of the Official Secrets Act.. Why did the Duchess of Bedford turn a local flight into a flight across eastern England and over the North Sea?
She was a trained nurse and radiographer (so had the training to see obscured objects!) and an avid bird watcher. As Milairjunkie says, her Fokker was called Spider and she flew a number of de Havilland Moths.
The obscure clue regarding three legs and tailless relates to her involvement in the first International Isle of Man Air Race as a promoter and judge in1936. Three legs is the symbol of the Isle of Man and Manx cats are tailless.
She was a very different as a pioneer in as much as she did not hold a pilot's licence during her record breaking flight to Karachi.and had only soloed 2 days before her record breaking flight to South Africa. During her record breaking journeys she was often a passenger, knitting, sketching watching the landscapesand wildlife and meeting the natives, though she did take the controls in flight.
Once she gained a full licence she became very active in promoting the role of women in aviation.
Scorpiomikey, If you think living to over 60 is a long life, you must think that, at 65, I'm ancient and my Dad who died at 91 was a latter day Methusala!