Friday, February 5, 2010

Maidenhead Museum: Spitfire Women

From Culture 24:
Maidenhead Heritage Centre & Museum is uncovering the fascinating story of the many female pilots who ferried aircraft to the RAF in World War Two with a new Research Centre & Exhibition dedicated to the work of the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA).

Due to open this summer the Museum is looking for information on pilots and others who worked for the ATA at airfields across the UK during World War II.

ATA pilots, many of whom were women, delivered much needed aircraft from factories to front line squadrons. They were based at 13 Ferry Pools at airfields around the country, including the ATA’s headquarters at White Waltham outside Maidenhead.

“1200 male and female pilots of 28 different nationalities delivered over 309,000 aircraft, an amazing achievement, especially as most ATA pilots had only flown light aircraft before the war,” explained Richard Poad, aviation historian and Chairman of Maidenhead Heritage Centre.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Think that Amy Johnson did this and sadly died as a result in a flight that crashed.I am researching amazing people and writing up their stories at http://myamazingpeople.com