10% of the Air Transport Auxiliary during WWII were women and they were civilians.
The ATA ferried new,repaired and damaged military aircraft between factories,assembly plants,transatlantic delivery points,maintenance units,scrapyards,active service squadrons and airfields. They flew service personnel on urgent duty from one place to another and air ambulance work.
The only thing they were not allowed to do was delivery to Royal Navy aircraft carriers. In 1943 they were paid the same as their male colleagues.
It was not unusual for ground crew at any given airfield to approach a ferried Avro Lancaster on landing and expecting to see the usual crew of 7 to be left astounded when a lone woman ATA pilot would climb down alone from the aircraft!
Spitfires,Hurricanes,Lancaster’s,Wellington’s,Mosquito’s,Halifax’s,Fairey Swordfish,even Boeing Fortresses. Of the 147 various aircraft types there was barely anything left that these intrepid women could not fly!
Overall there were 166 women pilots who did this work during WWII of whom 15 lost their lives in service including the British Aviation pioneer Amy Johnson.
After the death in December 2020 of Eleanor Wadsworth at the age of 103 and Jaye Edwards(née Petersen) in August 2022 only one female former ATA pilot survived,American Nancy Stratford.
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