The Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) was a British civilian organisation set up during the Second World War that ferried new, repaired and damaged military aircraft between factories, assembly plants, transatlantic delivery points, Maintenance Units, scrap yards, and active service squadrons and airfields. It also flew service personnel on urgent duty from one place to another and performed some air ambulance work.
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The ATA recruited pilots who were considered to be unsuitable for either the Royal Air Force or the Fleet Air Arm by reason of age or fitness. They were therefore humorously referred to as "Ancient and Tattered Airmen". The ATA also took pilots from neutral countries and, notably, women pilots.
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A unique feature of the ATA was that physical handicaps were ignored if the pilot could do the job. Thus there were one-armed, one-legged, short-sighted and one-eyed pilots with the ATA.
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Representatives of 28 countries flew with the ATA.
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On 14 November 1939 Commander Pauline Gower MBE was given the task of organising the women's section of the ATA.
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Women had to have a minimum of 500 hours' solo flying before joining the ATA, twice as much as the 250 hours originally laid down in September 1939 for the first members, all men.
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The first 8 women pilots were accepted into service on 1 January 1940, initially only cleared to fly Tiger Moths from their base in Hatfield.
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Overall during World War 2 there were 166 women pilots, one in eight of all ATA pilots, and they volunteered from Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the United States, the Netherlands and Poland.
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From Argentina and Chile came Maureen Dunlop and Margot Duhalde. Fifteen of these women lost their lives in the air, including the British pioneer aviator Amy Johnson. Two of the women pilots received commendations; one was Helen Kerly.
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ATA pilots had to make the most of training that was, some avowed after the war, inadequate. Instrument flying was not taught, but the service would have ground to a halt, according to Giles Whittell in his book Spitfire Women of World War II (2007), if pilots had not broken rules forbidding them to fly in bad weather.
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These women pilots were initially restricted to non-combat types of aircraft (trainers and transports), but they were eventually permitted to fly virtually every type flown by the RAF and the Fleet Air Arm, including the four-engined heavy bombers, but excluding the largest flying boats. Hurricanes were first flown by women pilots on 19 July 1941, and Spitfires in August 1941.
Pauline Gower, Commandant of the Air Transport Auxiliary Women's Section
Photo: MOD/HM Gov/Wikimedia • Believed to be in the Public Domain (Crown Copyright expired)
Diana Barnato Walker climbing into the cockpit of a Spitfire while serving with the Air Transport Auxillary
The USA had The Women Airforce Service Pilots
Photo: IWM/Wikimedia • Believed to be in the Public Domain (Crown Copyright expired)
One of the many notable achievements of these women is that they received the same pay as men of equal rank in the ATA, starting in 1943. This was the first time that the British government gave its blessing to equal pay for equal work within an organisation under its control.
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At the same time American woman flying with the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) were receiving as little as 65 per cent of the pay given to their male colleagues.
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Depending on their level of experience and training, they could be called on to ferry any one of 147 different aircraft types from 'anywhere to anywhere'. Often they had never seen a particular aircraft type before being ordered to fly it and their only guidance was a thin volume of 'Ferry Pilots Notes' - a pocket-sized flip pad of basic do's-and-don'ts for every aircraft in service.
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A pilot cleared on more than one class could be asked to fly an aircraft in any of the categories on which he or she was qualified. Thus even a pilot cleared to fly four-engined bombers could be assigned to fly a single-engined trainer if scheduling made this the most efficient way to get the aircraft to its destination.
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The ATA trained its pilots only to ferry planes, rather than to achieve perfection on every type. For example, aerobatics and blind flying were not taught, and pilots were explicitly forbidden to do either, even if they were capable of doing so. The objective of the ATA was to deliver aircraft safely and that meant taking no unnecessary risks.
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The Women Airforce Service Pilots
Video: Rick Ray • Shutterstock
Source: Wikipedia
Images: Believed to be in the Public Domain or used with permission
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