Victoria Principal is a qualified pilot

With her manicured nails and designer clothes, she may not look like your typical astronaut – but former Dallas star Victoria Principal is aiming to  be the first woman commercial pilot in space.

Victoria, 58 – who played long-suffering Pamela Ewing in the classic TV series – has already paid £100,000 to be among the first passengers on Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic spacecraft when it blasts off in 2010.

And at a meeting with the tycoon in California's Mojave Desert last week, the star, who has built up a £20million cosmetics empire since leaving Dallas, revealed she also wanted to pilot the company’s SpaceShipTwo.

A source said: 'Victoria asked Richard outright why there were no women pilots for the spacecraft. He was a bit taken aback and they started talking about her piloting the craft. Victoria has this fluffy image, but she has brains as well as beauty. She is a qualified pilot and Richard told her he’d be happy for her to start training to fly his spaceship.

‘He has always recognised the value of a good story and having Pam Ewing behind the controls for the first blast-off would be amazing. Richard and Victoria could not be treating it more seriously. They were in deep conversation all afternoon going over the technicalities of piloting such a flight.’

Victoria is among 120 people who have already paid in full to be sent 70 miles above Earth on two-and-a-half-hour trips where they will travel at up to 2,500mph and briefly experience weightlessness.

If a deal is struck Principal would take control of SpaceShipTwo

On Monday, Branson and American aerospace designer Burt Rutan unveiled WhiteKnightTwo, a 140ft-wingspan craft designed to lift SpaceShipTwo to 50,000ft before the spacecraft blasts into the upper atmosphere with two pilots and six passengers.

Physicist Stephen Hawking, designer Philippe Starck and Princess Beatrice, whose boyfriend Dave Clark works for Virgin Galactic, have all signed up to be among the first space ‘tourists’.

The source said: ‘Who will be a passenger on the first flight will be determined by lottery. Obviously Richard will be on the inaugural flight.’

In Dallas, Principal starred as Pam Ewing, wife of Bobby, played by Patrick Duffy

Victoria starred in Dallas from 1978 to 1987 as Pamela Ewing, sister-in-law to scheming oilman JR, played by Larry Hagman. Her father was in the US Air Force and she learned to fly 18 years ago.

Last night, her spokesman said: ‘Victoria isn’t ready to talk about this at the moment. It is early days.’