Ferry Pilot | |
---|---|
Directed by | Pat Jackson |
Produced by | Ian Dalrymple |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Associated British Film Distributors |
Release date |
|
Running time | 31 minutes [1] |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Ferry Pilot is a British short documentary film produced in 1941 about the work of the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA). Directed by Pat Jackson and produced by Ian Dalrymple the film was the work of the Crown Film Unit and was released at the end of 1941. [1] [2] Originally conceived as a very short five minute film, it was expanded to a running time of over 30 minutes during production. [3]
The film starts with the commander of one of ATA ferry pools and his assistant receiving telephone calls about aircraft to be moved between factories and airfields and working out pilot rosters. It moves on to introduce the variety of people, both men and women, who are pilots in the ATA. The movements of two pilots, an older Englishman and a young American as they are transported to a factory in an ATA Avro Anson to collect two Supermarine Spitfires for delivery to an RAF base somewhere in England. After delivering the Spitfires, the English pilot flies an Armstrong Whitworth Whitley to another airfield with the American pilot as a passenger. The two land, unaware that they came close to being attacked by German aircraft, and are picked up by another ATA crew to return to their base. The film ends with the two signing-off for the day with the ferry pool commander. [4]
The Times described the film as having "an attractively deceptive casualness about it", not indulging in heroics but paying "an admirable tribute to a service about which the public knows little." [5] The Northern Whig called the film "a sound competent piece of film production" urging its readers to see the film, while Flight said "the film bears the stamp of authenticity one would expect in a production of the Crown Film Unit", ending the review "This little film was well worth making; it is also well worth seeing." [6] [7]
RAF Andover is a former Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force station in England, 2 miles (3.2 km) west of Andover, Hampshire. As well as RFC and RAF units, units of the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps, Royal Canadian Air Force, United States Army Air Forces, and the Air Transport Auxiliary were also stationed at the airfield.
Marion AliceOrr, CM was a pioneering Canadian aviator who was the first woman to run a flying school. She served with the Air Transport Auxiliary during World War II and was awarded the Order of Canada in 1986.
Air Transport Command (ATC) was a United States Air Force unit that was created during World War II as the strategic airlift component of the United States Army Air Forces.
White Waltham Airfield is an operational general aviation aerodrome located at White Waltham, 2 nautical miles southwest of Maidenhead, in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England.
The Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) was a British civilian organisation set up at the start of the Second World War with headquarters at White Waltham Airfield in Berkshire. The ATA ferried new, repaired and damaged military aircraft between factories, assembly plants, transatlantic delivery points, maintenance units (MUs), scrapyards, and active service squadrons and airfields, but not to naval aircraft carriers. It also flew service personnel on urgent duty from one place to another and performed some air ambulance work. Notably, around 10% of its pilots were women, and from 1943 they received equal pay to their male colleagues, a first for the British government.
Royal Air Force Keevil or more simply RAF Keevil is a former Royal Air Force station lying between the villages of Keevil and Steeple Ashton, about 4 miles (6.4 km) east of the town of Trowbridge, in Wiltshire, England.
Joan Lily Amelia Hughes, MBE was a World War II ferry pilot and one of Britain's first female test pilots. She was considered a capable instructor and flew everything except flying boats.
Diana Barnato Walker MBE FRAeS was a pioneering British aviator. In World War II, she became one of the first women pilots of the Air Transport Auxiliary, flying 80 types of aircraft and delivering 260 Spitfires. In 1963, she became the first British woman to break the sound barrier, flying at Mach 1.6, which also represented a world air speed record for women.
Pauline Mary de Peauly Gower Fahie was a British pilot and writer who established the women's branch of the Air Transport Auxiliary during the Second World War.
Eleanor Lettice Curtis was an English aviator, flight test engineer, air racing pilot, and sportswoman.
Jane Winstone was a New Zealand aviator. She was born in Whanganui, New Zealand in 1912 and flew in the Second World War as a pilot in the British civilian Air Transport Auxiliary and died in service.
Maureen Adele Chase Dunlop de Popp, née Dunlop, was an Anglo-Argentine pilot who flew for the British Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) during World War II, and became notable as a pin-up on the cover of the Picture Post magazine.
Helen Kerly or Ruth Helen Clark was a British female ATA pilot officer during the Second World War who was one of only two such women who received a commendation.
Ferry Pilot is a film produced in 1942 by Stuart Legg and Ross McLean for the National Film Board of Canada series The World in Action, in cooperation with the United Kingdom Ministry of Information and the Crown Film Unit. The film has an unaccredited narration by broadcaster Lorne Greene.
Hazel Jane Raines was an American pioneer aviator and flight instructor with the Civilian Pilot Training Program. During World War II, she was part of the first group of United States women to fly military aircraft, which they did in a war zone for the civilian British Air Transport Auxiliary. She was later a member of the civilian contract labor Women Airforce Service Pilots. After the war, she taught instrument training in Brazil. When President Harry S. Truman authorized the integration of women into the military, she served with Women in the Air Force and was based in Texas, Alabama, and finally London until her death. Raines was the first woman in Georgia to earn a pilot's license, and has been inducted into both the Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame and the Georgia Women of Achievement.
Violet Milstead Warren was a Canadian aviator, noted for being the first female Canadian bush pilot and one of only four Canadian women to work in the British Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) during WWII. With over 600 hours of flight time during the war, she was the longest serving female Canadian ATA pilot. She worked as a flight instructor at Barker Field in Toronto, Ontario, and her students included commercial pilot Molly Reilly and author June Callwood. She is a member of the Canadian Aviation Hall of Fame, the Order of Canada, and the Bush Pilots Hall of Fame.
Mary Ellis was a British ferry pilot, and one of the last surviving British women pilots from the Second World War.
June Constance Howden, also known as Judy Howden was a New Zealand aviator and one of five New Zealand women who joined the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) during World War Two.
Veronica May Volkersz was a British aviator and beauty queen. She flew for the RAF's Air Transport Auxiliary in the Second World War and was the first British woman to fly an operational jet fighter when she ferried a Meteor from the Gloster factory to RAF Moreton Valence on 15 September 1945.
Anna Leska was a Polish pilot certified to fly gliders, balloons and aeroplanes. She was one of the two first Polish woman pilots to join the British Air Transport Auxiliary, the other being Stefania Wojtulanis-Karpińska.