Last ATA female pilot

[Old Farang]

Brave woman who flew for freedom

Brave woman who flew for freedom | Flight Safety Australia


Ellis, who was aged 101, flew an estimated 76 types of aircraft,as diverse as Spitfires, P-51 Mustangs, de Havilland Mosquitoes and Lancasterbombers. (ATA pilots flew large aircraft single crew, but were forbidden to flyIFR.

MaryWilkins was born on 2 February 1917, the daughter of a prosperous farmer, andtook her first flight in 1925, aged eight, in a de Havilland Moth. By 16 yearsof age she was learning to fly and had her licence by aged 22—in the fatefulyear of 1939.

More than 10 per cent of theATA’s 1320 pilots—159 men and 15 women—were killed during the war, includinglong distance flight pioneer Amy Johnson. About the ATA, Britain’s wartime ministerof aircraft production, Lord Beaverbrook said, ‘They were soldiers fighting inthe struggle just as completely as if they had been engaged on thebattlefront.’ Ellis herself had an encounter with the Luftwaffe whiledelivering a Spitfire; the German pilot, on seeing her blonde hair, waved andflew away.

[Bearman]

A remarkable woman - what they did in their day was unbelievable - I had never heard of it until some years ago.