By Heather McNab
Pioneering pilot Nancy-Bird Walton is an "absolutely inspiring choice" as the name for western Sydney's new airport, according to Premier Gladys Berejiklian.
Known as the "Angel of the Outback", Ms Walton took her pilot's licence at the age of 18 in 1933, bought her own plane and set off on a tour of regional NSW.
Pilot Nancy-Bird Walton died in 2009. She was named a National Living Treasure in 1997.
She began transporting the sick from isolated regions around the country, helped set up the Royal Far West Children's Health Scheme, and was an early pilot for the Royal Flying Doctors' Service.
"Nancy-Bird Walton was a pioneer not just for women but for anybody," Ms Berejiklian said at the site of the airport in Badgerys Creek on Monday.
Nancy Bird Walton
"She helped set up the flying doctors, she did things which nobody else did, male or female."
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said it is fitting that having recognised her mentor Charles Kingsford Smith at Sydney International Airport, "we now recognise Australia's greatest female aviation pioneer."
Western Sydney International, to be also known as the Nancy-Bird Walton Airport, is due to open in 2026.
Ms Walton's family say they are "extremely excited and thrilled, and it's just a huge honour" for their mother and grandmother.
Born in Kew on the NSW mid north coast in 1915, Ms Walton was taught to fly by Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and became the youngest woman in the Commonwealth to hold a commercial pilot's licence.
She was awarded the Order of Australia in 1990 and died in 2009, aged 93.
Aviation pioneer Nancy Bird Walton died in 2009, aged 93.Credit: Jim Rice
The new airport is taking shape, Ms Berejiklian said, and so is the airport city around it.
The premier on Monday announced a new agribusiness precinct which will contribute 2500 direct jobs and support up to 12,000 more.
The precinct will link directly to the Sydney Markets, which will have a base at the airport.
High-tech farming and glasshouses will create fresh produce and handle incoming products from NSW farms for global export, which will allow food produced in the state to be flown directly from farms to the world around the clock.
AAP