The Flying Woman: A Rolls Royce story

Now, let’s be honest, we’re all ROLLS ROYCE fans aren’t we? The sheer class of the cars manufactured by the British Luxury automobile maker makes us all go gaga over it!

Apart from being known worldwide for building super durable and enduring cars,(at least 65 percent of all Rolls-Royce cars ever to emerge from the production line are still operational and on the roads today), their ever-so-iconic figurine logo of a woman is something that has garnered a lot of fans over the years. Let’s take a look at the (controversial) story behind it!

A little backstory before we look at the origin of the spirit of ecstacy or The Flying Woman.

In 1911, John Walter Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu, a British Politician, soldier and a car collector assigned his friend and sculptor, Charles Robinson Sykes to sculpt a personal mascot for his 1909 Ghost.

Now the controversial part : Charles chose Eleanor Velasco Thornton as his model. Well, she was his secretary-turned-mistress and not many people knew about their secret love affair. Charles sculpted the figurine in a way that would denote their secret affair- Eleanor in fluttering robes, having placed one forefinger against her lips.

In 1910, a trend started wherein people were affixing inappropriate ornaments on their cars.( seriously?, on a rolls? ). This infuriated the then Managing Director of Rolls Royce who resorted to Charles again to design and come up with a more dignified and graceful mascot.

Now, again with Eleanor in mind, and after many variations, Charles would go on to design the Rolls Royce symbol which is used today. A logo which captures "the spirit of the Rolls-Royce, namely, speed with silence, absence of vibration, the mysterious harnessing of great energy and a beautiful living organism of superb grace…”.

Since 2003, The Flying Lady is designed to retract back into the hood upon collision or when touched.