Betty Skelton, a daredevil pilot who was a three-time national aerobatics champion and became known as the "fastest woman on Earth" when she set speed records in airplanes and automobiles, died Aug. 31 at her home in The Villages, Fla. She was 85.

She had cancer, said Dorothy S. Cochrane, a friend and the curator of general aviation at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum.

Ms. Skelton, who made her first solo flight -- illegally -- at age 12, went on to become a pioneering and charismatic pilot in the days of propellers and open cockpits. She gave her first aerobatics performance when she was 19, appearing in the same show in Jacksonville, Fla., in which the Navy's precision flight team, the Blue Angels, made its debut in 1946.

In her brightly painted Pitts Special biplane, the Little Stinker, Ms. Skelton performed awe-inspiring feats of airborne daring. She was the first woman to attempt the "inverted ribbon cut," in which she would fly upside down only 10 feet off the ground, slicing a ribbon with her propeller.

An unprecedented security lockdown of UK airspace over Olympic venues to prevent a 9/11-style attack will push British aviation companies to the brink of bankruptcy, according to the industry.

Aircraft that fail to comply with a no-fly zone over the capital and vast swathes of south-east England face being shot down by military Apache helicopters.

A month-long clampdown beginning next July will restrict all but essential flights over the capital to prevent any aircraft, including microlights and hang-gliders, from being used in a terrorist attack on Games venues or other disturbances.

Similar restrictions will apply over Weymouth and Portland, where sailing events will be staged, and over the football stadiums in Coventry, Cardiff, Manchester, Glasgow and Newcastle. Aircraft entering restricted airspace will require permission from RAF wing commanders seconded to the Metropolitan Police or face being shot down by the military.

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