Air
Transport Auxiliary
Civilian pilots
played an active part in the fight against the Axis forces, not more so than
the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) men and women aircraft ferry pilots.This
page is dedicated to their dedication and bravery.
The Air Transport Auxiliary
In 1939, the pre-war Civilian Air Guard was
reformed under Gerard d'Erlanger as the Air Transport Auxiliary. In September
1939 it consisted of 22 men and women pilots, and eventually built up to 16
Ferry Pools.
The ATA functioned as an ferry service, moving
aircraft form their factories to the airfields of the RAF and the Fleet Air
Arm. By the early part of 1940, the women pilots numbered 26, throughout the
war the women's Ferry Pool at Hamble delivered spitfires from various
factories as well as two and four engined aircraft. By September 1941,
the ATA pilots were ferrying all types of operational aircraft. By the end of
the war they had delivered 309,011 aircraft of more than 200 types including
swordfish, albacore, sea otter, walrus, spitfires, flying fortresses and lancasters.
The wartime strength of the ATA was 1,152 men and
600 women including 166 pilots and flight engineers. The women pilots
peformed exactly the same duties as the men, and had equal pay and right from
late 1943. Many American pilots, men and women, cmae over the
"Pond" to join the ATA, and did an invaluable job.
The ATA lost 174 people in the war, among them
the famous pioneer Amy Johnson CBE, she died on 6th January 1941 when the Oxford
she was ferrying crashed in the Thames Estuary.
Air Transport Auxiliary Association (2001)
E Viles, 40 Goldcrest Road,
Chipping Sodbury, Bristol, BS17
6XG, ENGLAND
Tel +44 01454 319175
Membership open to former ATA air and
groundcrew.
Just some of those who were mentioned or lost
during Fleet Air Arm duties:
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Names of a few
Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) women
aircraft ferry pilots
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Incident
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F/Capt Miss PM Bennett
ATA
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Flying Barracuda DR202
on ATA ferry from Eastleigh, engine overheating, required to force land at
Halfpenny Green, 8.6.1945
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S/O Miss J Broad
ATA
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Flying accident with
Barracuda P9787
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F/O Miss Cholmondley
(Australian ATA)
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12FP Ferry, Whilst
flying Swordfish NF 300 engine trouble, force landed safely at Speke.
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T/O Miss MO Frost ATA
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Whilst starting up
Barracuda RJ792 in the morning at Wigtown ferrying from Dunino, 3 prop
blades found chipped.
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T/O Miss S Hart ATA
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ATA Sherburn, whilst
flying Barracuda RK358, undercarriage would not retract - accident,
29.6.1945
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T/O Miss Barbara
Lankhear ATA (New Zealand)
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Flew Barracuda BP 993. This
aircraft was painted with the name "Te Rauparaha" and four
vertical bombs over 4 swastikas. 12.9.1945
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F/O Miss CR Leathart
ATA
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15FPP Hamble ferry,
whilst flying Skua L3020, port leg of Skua collapsed landing on nose at
Lee-on-Solent.
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T/O Miss MEA Powys ATA
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Accident whilst flying
Supermarine Spitfire NN192
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Cdt Miss PM Provis ATA
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Flying Swordfish NF 369 4FP ferry, force landed
undershot airfield, hit embankment avoiding hangar and parked aircraft.
Turnberry.
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T/O Mrs MJ Ratcliffe
ATA
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12 FP ferry, flying
Barracuda ME237 hydraulic leak, landed safely at Wroughton
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S/O Mrs M Rose
ATA
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Flying Swordfish NF 262
to Worthy Down, problems at 200ft, force-landed in field ran into
hedge overturned 13.5.1944
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T/O Miss AM Russell ATA
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Okay after accident
flying Supermarine Sea Otter JN252
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T/O Miss KM
Stanley-Smith ATA
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5(T) FR Thame Ferry,
flying Swordfish NS133 port tyre burst taxying Hawarden.
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F/O Miss G
Stevenson (USA) ATA
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Okay after accident
flying Supermarine Walrus L2184.
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TRIBUTE TO THE QUEEN OF THE AIR AND ATA PILOT
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Mrs Amy JOHNSON
MOLLISON
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Amy Mollison (nee
Johnson) graduated from the University of Sheffield in 1926 and began work as a secretary in London. While in London she became a member of the London Aeroplane
Club, gaining her pilot's license in 1928. She was also the first British
woman granted an aircraft engineer's license.
In 1929 she decided to make a
reputation for herself by
attempting a long distance flight no woman
had ever tried before. She chose to fly to Australia so she would not have to pilot over a large
expanse of ocean. Lord Wakefield to front half of the expense for
her craft, a De Havilland Gipsy Moth named "Jason", her father
paid for the other half. After 85 hours of solo flight and a
previous cross country flight record of 147 miles she left for Darwin, Australia on 5 May, 1930. Her trip took 19 days and she became and
instant celebrity, and she was dubbed "Queen of the Air" by the
British press.
Thereafter, she continued making record
flights, including a failed attempt to Peking in 1931 and with Jack Humphries as a copilot
again in 1931 set a speed record from London to Tokyo in ten days. In 1932 she broke the record for
solo flight to Cape
Town, South Africa.
Amy Johnston joined the Air Transport
Auxiliary in 1939. On 5 January 1941, while on a flying mission for the Air Ministry
from Blackpool to Oxford Amy overshot her destination by 100
miles. She ditched in the Thames Estuary after running out of fuel,
and although a convoy trawler tried to rescue her, she drowned.
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Amy is remembered in
many ways, one of which is the British Women Pilot's Association award --
an annual Amy Johnson Memorial Trust Scholarship to help
outstanding women pilots further their careers.
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Created: 3-04-2001, Last Modified 3-04-2005
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