Jacqueline Cochran was an American pilot and business executive. She pioneered women's aviation as one of the most prominent racing pilots of her generation. She set numerous records and was the first woman to break the sound barrier on 18 May 1953. Cochran was the wartime head of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) (1943–1944), which employed about 1000 civilian American women in a non-combat role to ferry planes from factories to port cities. Cochran was later a sponsor of the Mercury 13 women astronaut program.
Nancy Harkness Love, born Hannah Lincoln Harkness, was an American pilot and airplane commander during World War II. She earned her pilot's license at age 16. She worked as a test pilot and air racer in the 1930s. During World War II she convinced Colonel William H. Tunner of the U.S. Army Air Forces to look to set up a group of female pilots to ferry aircraft from factories to air bases. This proposal was eventually approved as the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron. Love commanded this unit and later all ferrying operations in the newly formed Women Airforce Service Pilots. She was awarded the Air Medal for her work during the war and was appointed lieutenant colonel in the US Air Force Reserve in 1948.
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.
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.
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.
Audrey Florice Durell "Wendy" Drummond Sale-Barker was a British alpine skiing champion and prominent aviator. She was the daughter of Maurice Drummond Sale-Barker and the grand-daughter of children's writer Lucy Sale-Barker. After her marriage to George Douglas-Hamilton, 10th Earl of Selkirk in 1947, she became Audrey Douglas-Hamilton, Countess of Selkirk.
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.
Alan David Butler was a Rhodesian sailor, businessman and politician. He competed at the 1960 and 1964 Summer Olympics in the Flying Dutchman event and finished in fourth and eleventh place, respectively.
Marion Wilberforce was a Scottish aviator and one of the first eight members of the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA). She flew many planes including Spitfires, Hurricanes, Lancaster Bombers, Wellington Bombers and Mosquitos. She rose to become deputy commander of the No. 5 Ferry Pool at Hatfield, and later became commander of the No. 12 Ferry Pool at Cosford, one of only two women pool commanders in the whole ATA.
Margot Duhalde Sotomayor was a Chilean pilot who served with the Air Transport Auxiliary in World War II. She was Chile's first female military pilot and first female air traffic controller, and the last living Chilean veteran of the war.
Alan Butler, born as Alan Samuel Butler, was a British aviator and, as claimed in his obituary in The Times, the first private aeroplane owner-driver. From 1923 Butler was chairman of De Havilland Aircraft Company, which he financed, until 1950, a year when De Havilland employed 20,000 people and was building the Comet, the world's first commercial jet airliner.
Joy Lofthouse was a British pilot having joined the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) as an ab initio pilot in December 1943. She went on to fly Spitfires and bombers for the Air Transport Auxiliary, and was one of only 168 "Attagirls" who served.
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.
Benedetta Willis was one of the first women RAF pilots to get her wings.
Vera Elsie Strodl Dowling was a Danish pilot who gained fame in the Second World War as the only Scandinavian woman to fly for the RAF's Air Transport Auxiliary. Later, based in Alberta, Canada, she instructed pilots under the Commonwealth Training Programme. In May 2000, she was honoured with membership of Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame.
Rosemary Rees MBE was a British aviator who worked for the Air Transport Auxiliary. She was second in command to Margot Gore at Hamble from the 29th September 1941 when the site became an all-women ATA ferry pool.
Eleanor Wadsworth was an English second world war pilot, who served as one of the RAF's "Spitfire women". Wadsworth was the oldest surviving pilot of the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA), before her death in December 2020.
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.
Stella "Jaye" Edwards was a British aviator. Edwards, who was nicknamed "Jaye" and "Pete", flew Royal Air Force warplanes for the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) during World War II.
