Amy Johnson was 27years-old in 1929 when she captured the imagination of the world by completing a 19-day solo aeroplane flight from London to Australia.
When she landed in Darwin 72 years ago today, on May 24th of that year, her exciting tales of flying blind through desert sandstorms, and forced landings where she had patched her aircraft's wings with sticking plaster, were sufficient to create an enduring international celebrity.
But one of Amy Johnson's claims was treated sceptically: her success was partly due, she said, to the fact that she had a sixth sense by which she could navigate without a compass.
It is well known that certain birds and animals can use the Earth's magnetic field to navigate. Pigeons are one of the most notable examples, but there are up to 60 other species with which the same gift has been identified.
In some creatures it is believed that pigments in the eyes become slightly magnetic when exposed to light, and under the influence of the Earth's magnetic field they alter the optical signals transmitted to the brain.
Other species have tiny crystals of an iron oxide called magnetite embedded in their brains. When these are placed there, they are rather like iron filings near a magnet, and orientate themselves in the direction of the magnetic force.
Then in 1989 researchers discovered tiny crystals of magnetite in the human brain, which prompted more investigation.
The research, in its simplest form, consisted of driving blindfolded volunteers to unfamiliar locations. It was found that, still blindfolded, a small minority could indicate their direction relative to home, but that when magnets had been placed close to their heads, they could not do so.
Interesting variations to age and sex have subsequently come to light. Males, apparently, who possess this intuitive sense of direction, sometimes called magneto-reception, have only a relatively short interlude in life when it is found to be in evidence - and even then it is very weak.
But it is found to be particularly strong in some female subjects, developing gradually from the age of about nine, reaching a plateau of ability at 18, and persisting until its decline after the age of 40.
So perhaps there was something in the legendary and unbelieved assertions of poor Amy Johnson after all.
And could it be that the reason why her aircraft ditched into the Thames Estuary on a cold, dark, foggy morning in January, 1941, was because her innate directional facility was on the wane?
The wreckage was located easily, but although they searched and searched, the body of poor Amy Johnson herself was never found.