Air Transport Auxiliary

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The Air Transport Auxiliary was a British World War II organisation established to transfer new, repaired and damaged warplanes between factories, delivery points from the United States, maintenance depots and active service airfields.

The administration of the organization fell to Gerald d'Erlanger, a director of the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC). He had suggested a similar organization prior to the war.

During the war, the service delivered over 300,000 aircraft of many types including Spitfires, Hawker Hurricanes, Mosquitoes, Mustangs, Lancasters, Halifaxes, Fairey Swordfish and Barracudas and Fortresses.

The organisation recruited pilots who were considered to be unsuitable by reasons of age or fitness for either the Royal Air Force or the Fleet Air Arm (therefore humorously referred to as "Ancient and Tattered Airmen") and, notably, women pilots. There were 166 women pilots (one in eight of the entire service) who volunteered from Britain, the Commonwealth, United States, Poland and one from Chile. Fifteen lost their lives in the air, including the British pioneer aviatrix Amy Johnson.

The ATA ferried all types of aircraft and women pilots were permitted to fly virtually every aircraft including the four-engined bombers, but excluding the largest flying boats. Aircraft were delivered to RAF and FAA bases, but not to aircraft carriers.