A Spitfire Girl: One of the World's Greatest Female ATA Ferry Pilots Tells Her Story
Nov 2016 · Pen and Sword
Ebook
240
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About this ebook
This WWII biography recounts the heroic contributions of a female pilot who flew Spitfires, Hurricanes and Wellington Bombers for the RAF. A farmer’s daughter from Oxfordshire, Mary Ellis fell in love with flying at the age of eleven, when she rode in a biplane at a flying circus. Already a licensed pilot by the time the Second World War broke out, Mary joined the Air Transit Auxiliary in 1941. As a ferry pilot, she transported aircraft for the Royal Air Force, including more than four hundred Spitfires and seventy-six different kinds of aircraft.
After the war, Mary accepted a secondment to the RAF as one of the first pilots to fly the new Gloster Meteor, Britain’s first fighter jet. By 1950, she became Europe's first female air commandant. In this authorized biography, Mary and biographer Melody Foreman vividly recount her action-packed career spanning almost a century of aviation.
Mary says: I am passionate for anything fast and furious. I always have been since the age of three and I always knew I would fly. The day I stepped into a Spitfire was a complete joy and it was the most natural thing in the world for me.
After the war, Mary accepted a secondment to the RAF as one of the first pilots to fly the new Gloster Meteor, Britain’s first fighter jet. By 1950, she became Europe's first female air commandant. In this authorized biography, Mary and biographer Melody Foreman vividly recount her action-packed career spanning almost a century of aviation.
Mary says: I am passionate for anything fast and furious. I always have been since the age of three and I always knew I would fly. The day I stepped into a Spitfire was a complete joy and it was the most natural thing in the world for me.
About the author
MELODY FOREMAN is a qualified journalist and graduate with experience in newspapers and television documentaries. She is the author of the best-selling Bomber Girls, A Spitfire Girl, the biography of ATA pilot Mary Ellis, and has also written two books about the history of Kent. Melody is a contributor to Britain at War magazine and a former editor of the Kent Battle of Britain Museum magazine. She maintains an avid interest in the Air Transport Auxiliary, the social history and reportage of both world wars, vintage aviation, film studies, literature and Dutch art.
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