ATA, Air Transport Auxiliary 'Anything To Anywhere

1940s

ATA was a civilian organisation established at the start of WW2 to enable Royal Air Force and Fleet Air Arm pilots to undertake operational duties rather than move aircraft between factories, maintenance units and airfields.

All ATA pilots were volunteers. Initially only men but females were soon accepted and nicknamed 'ATA girls'. The ATA became one of the first major organisations to treat men and women equally. ATA pilots were often only given a booklet which contained vital information on each of the aircraft and they were restricted to flying in daylight without a radio using only maps and 'contact' navigation which meant always being in the sight of the ground.

ATA was operational from February 1940 until November 1945 and consisted of 16 ferry pools, 2 Training Units, and used 1,152 male pilots and 168 female pilots. It also had 151 flight engineers, 19 radio officers and 3,000 ground staff.

The ATA were based at White Waltham Airfield in Berkshire, but No.14 Ferry Pool ATA were based at what is now Manchester Airport where there is a commemorative plaque in their Memorial Garden near Terminal 1.

(Monochrome Photograph showing) - Manchester Airport ATA memorial

Most of the ATA pilots were British, but there were also pilots from over 30 countries including The United States of America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Poland. During the 5 years of the ATA's existence they had flown 500,000 hours and delivered 309,000 aircraft of 147 different types.

There are some incredible stories about ATA pilots not least of all when some of the ATA girls single handedly delivered Lancasters to RAF airfields to be bet met by disbelieving ground staff who asked "where's your pilot?" There astonished look can only be imaged when the ATA girls replied (no doubt curtly) "I AM the pilot!".

There were many well known female ATA pilots. Famous aviatrix Amy Johnson joined the ATA and was sadly killed in service on a delivery flight. She was very good friends with Sir Kenneth Crossley's daughter Fidelia Crossley, a former air race pilot, who also became an ATA pilot.

(Newspaper Cutting titled Woman Pilot)

THE newest recruit to the Air Transport Auxiliary, the organisation of pilots who deliver air-planes from the factory to the RAF stations, is Miss Fidelia Crossley Miss Crossley is the daughter of Sir Kenneth Crossley, the motorcar manufacturer and a sister of the late Mr. Anthony Crossley, M.P, who was killed in an air crash in Denmark in August 1939. She has held a pilot's licence for some years. In 1932 she was the only woman competitor in an air race across Britain some years.
Dawn to Dusk
Like all A.T.A. recruits, Miss Crossley is on trial for one month.
Miss Fidelia Crossley Probationary air pilot.
She tells me that her daily flights have passed without Incident. The hours of duty are from dawn to dusk, but Miss Crossley manages to return to London each night. She stays at the International Sports-men's Club