ATA & Attagirls - tb >> .
I Was There - BBC >> .
A history of the A.T.A. > .
"Spitfire Sisters, women of the ATA" > .
The Air Transport Auxiliary - Spitfire Women Preview - BBC Four > .
Ferry Air Pilots & Mr Churchill At RAF Station (1941) > .
Training in ATA > .
WASPs > .
The Women Airforce Service Pilots - WASPs > .
Women in the RAF; School discipline, Woman's Hour - BBC Radio 4 .
I Was There - BBC >> .
A history of the A.T.A. > .
"Spitfire Sisters, women of the ATA" > .
The Air Transport Auxiliary - Spitfire Women Preview - BBC Four > .
Ferry Air Pilots & Mr Churchill At RAF Station (1941) > .
Training in ATA > .
WASPs > .
The Women Airforce Service Pilots - WASPs > .
Women in the RAF; School discipline, Woman's Hour - BBC Radio 4 .
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/29/mary-ellis-obituary .
Air Transport Auxiliary, ATA
Ferry Air Pilots & Mr Churchill At RAF Station (1941)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buZRWX9GvdY
In 1938, Sir Gerard John Regis Leo d'Erlanger, a member of a renowned banking family and an accomplished pilot, became convinced that Great Britain urgently needed the help of its amateur pilots to wage a war he saw coming.
When Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, the plan was suddenly taken seriously. D’Erlanger was by then the director of British Airways, so the company was asked to oversee the initiative. Letters were sent to about 1,000 male pilots asking if they wanted to serve their country by ferrying airplanes. About 100 replies came back, and after interviews and flight tests, the first 30 men were picked that September for what became the Air Transport Auxiliary, or ATA (which d’Erlanger joked stood for Ancient and Tattered Airmen). But what was most unusual—even radical—was the decision two months later [December, '39?] to satisfy the increasing demand for ferry services by including female pilots. On December 16, 1939, the first group of twelve women pilots were assembled at Whitchurch, and flight-tested in a Gypsy Moth. From this group of twelve, eight were selected and appointed as Second Officers.
It was the first time in British history that women were hired to fly military aircraft.
Pauline Gower, daughter of a parliamentarian, Sir Robert Gower, was asked to organize the ATA’s women’s division. In January 1940, Gower was given the authority to recruit eight experienced female pilots to transport two-seat Tiger Moth trainers from the de Havilland factory in Hatfield, north of London, to bases in the United Kingdom. The team members came from a wide range of backgrounds: Rosemary Rees was a former ballet dancer; Mona Friedlander, an international ice hockey player; and Winifred Crossley, the daughter of a doctor. Marian Wilberface was a pilot with her own Gipsy Moth. Joan Hughes had been Britain’s youngest pilot; she started flying at 15, before age restrictions were established. Margaret Cunnison and Gabrielle Patterson were both flight instructors (the first woman to instruct, Patterson also was a member of the National Women’s Air Reserve, a group that provided aid in national emergencies).
Some of the later recruits, such as Diana Barnato Walker, came from privileged backgrounds. Heiress to the DeBeers mining fortune, Walker grew up riding horses and attending lavish parties hosted by her father, race-car driver Woolf Barnato.
One recruit, Molly Rose, had taken her first flight from her own back yard. One of her older brothers, Arthur, had learned to fly at Cambridge and used the fields behind their house to take off and land his Tiger Moth.
http://www.airspacemag.com/military-aviation/the-womens-raf-118165440/?all&no-ist
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauline_Gower
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3194754/The-female-Guns-World-War-II-Inside-RAF-s-woman-ferry-squadron-rubbed-shoulders-men-flew-Spitfires.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1219834/The-sisters-fly-Spitfires-WWII-reunited-iconic-aircraft.html
http://hitlernews.cloudworth.com/female-pilots-women-of-ww2.php
http://www.wickfordhistory.org.uk/page/ata_girl
Ferry Pilots
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmc6INOwQ3U .
USA - WASPS:
Women Proved to be Exceptional Pilots During WW2 > .
Women in the Military - watm >> .
Air Transport Auxiliary, ATA
Ferry Air Pilots & Mr Churchill At RAF Station (1941)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buZRWX9GvdY
In 1938, Sir Gerard John Regis Leo d'Erlanger, a member of a renowned banking family and an accomplished pilot, became convinced that Great Britain urgently needed the help of its amateur pilots to wage a war he saw coming.
When Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, the plan was suddenly taken seriously. D’Erlanger was by then the director of British Airways, so the company was asked to oversee the initiative. Letters were sent to about 1,000 male pilots asking if they wanted to serve their country by ferrying airplanes. About 100 replies came back, and after interviews and flight tests, the first 30 men were picked that September for what became the Air Transport Auxiliary, or ATA (which d’Erlanger joked stood for Ancient and Tattered Airmen). But what was most unusual—even radical—was the decision two months later [December, '39?] to satisfy the increasing demand for ferry services by including female pilots. On December 16, 1939, the first group of twelve women pilots were assembled at Whitchurch, and flight-tested in a Gypsy Moth. From this group of twelve, eight were selected and appointed as Second Officers.
It was the first time in British history that women were hired to fly military aircraft.
Pauline Gower, daughter of a parliamentarian, Sir Robert Gower, was asked to organize the ATA’s women’s division. In January 1940, Gower was given the authority to recruit eight experienced female pilots to transport two-seat Tiger Moth trainers from the de Havilland factory in Hatfield, north of London, to bases in the United Kingdom. The team members came from a wide range of backgrounds: Rosemary Rees was a former ballet dancer; Mona Friedlander, an international ice hockey player; and Winifred Crossley, the daughter of a doctor. Marian Wilberface was a pilot with her own Gipsy Moth. Joan Hughes had been Britain’s youngest pilot; she started flying at 15, before age restrictions were established. Margaret Cunnison and Gabrielle Patterson were both flight instructors (the first woman to instruct, Patterson also was a member of the National Women’s Air Reserve, a group that provided aid in national emergencies).
Some of the later recruits, such as Diana Barnato Walker, came from privileged backgrounds. Heiress to the DeBeers mining fortune, Walker grew up riding horses and attending lavish parties hosted by her father, race-car driver Woolf Barnato.
One recruit, Molly Rose, had taken her first flight from her own back yard. One of her older brothers, Arthur, had learned to fly at Cambridge and used the fields behind their house to take off and land his Tiger Moth.
http://www.airspacemag.com/military-aviation/the-womens-raf-118165440/?all&no-ist
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauline_Gower
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3194754/The-female-Guns-World-War-II-Inside-RAF-s-woman-ferry-squadron-rubbed-shoulders-men-flew-Spitfires.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1219834/The-sisters-fly-Spitfires-WWII-reunited-iconic-aircraft.html
http://hitlernews.cloudworth.com/female-pilots-women-of-ww2.php
http://www.wickfordhistory.org.uk/page/ata_girl
Ferry Pilots
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmc6INOwQ3U .
USA - WASPS:
Women Proved to be Exceptional Pilots During WW2 > .
Women in the Military - watm >> .
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