A former hairdresser who become the world’s first female Concorde pilot will have her ashes scattered from a plane flown by the last man to fly the supersonic airliner.

Despite leaving school at 15 with no A-Levels, inspirational Barbara Harmer became the first woman ever to command a Concorde, taking charge of a British Airways flight from Heathrow to JFK in New York in March 1993.

Now her partner of 27 years, Andrew Hewett, plans to send her off into the skies one last time after her tragic death from ovarian cancer aged only 57 last month.

Her private funeral will be held at Chichester Crematorium on Tuesday, International Women's Day, followed by a public memorial at Chichester Cathedral at a later date.

He said: "We will wait for a nice summer evening and scatter her ashes from a Tiger Moth plane flown by our friend Captain Les Brodie, who landed the last ever Concorde flight.

"It will be a fitting end to a remarkable life. We will distribute the ashes through a special tube at the side of the plane into the sea at the foot of her garden.

"Barbara was a keen sailor and wanted to be spread over the ocean. This will combine her two great passions."

Mr Hewett, 56, still lives in the seaside house they shared in Bognor, yesterday paid tribute to the love of his life as a "fiercely determined, brave and beautiful woman”.

He added: "Barbara had a smile that lit up a room. She could turn any gathering into a scene of fun and laughter and could melt anyone’s heart.

"But her real legacy is as an inspiration to women and to youngsters everywhere.

"Through her pragmatic, can-do attitude, Barbara achieved success in a male-dominated industry.

"It helped that she was a pretty, tanned brunette. But her success came through hard work and determination."

Mrs Harmer, whose first job was as an apprentice hairdresser, started taking flying lessons, paid for with a £10,000 bank loan after getting a job as an air traffic controller at Gatwick Airport.

After more than 100 rejections, she was given her first pilot’s job in 1983.

When she joined British Airways in 1988, only 60 of their 3500 pilots were women, and no woman had yet flown a Concorde.

Only two other women got to pilot the supersonic planes before they were grounded in October 2003.

Mrs Harmer, who never had children, was preparing to compete in a single-handed transatlantic yacht race when she was diagnosed with the cancer that would kill her within 18-months.

Mr Hewett said: "The doctors called it a Rottweiler cancer. But Barbara was such a brave woman she just coped.

"She was a shining example of courage, and touched the hearts of everybody who cared for her. Even the consultants said it was truly humbling.”