Mary Ellis’s Followers (1)

Mary Ellis

Born

in Leafield, The United Kingdom

February 02, 1917

Died

July 24, 2018

Genre

Memoir

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When MaryWilkins was 11, her father paid for her to have a joy ride in a biplane at a travelling circus. Mary decided she wanted to learn to fly and when she was 16 she started having lessons.Mary successfully gained a private pilot's licence and flew for pleasure up until the start of the Second World War in 1939, when all civilian flying was banned.

In October 1941, she joined the Air Transport Auxiliary, and was posted to a pool of women flyers based in Hamble in Hampshire. Over the course of the war she flew over 1,000 planes of 76 different types, including Harvards, Hurricanes, Spitfires and Wellington bombers. Some of her flights were to relocate planes from Royal Air Force airfields to the frontline, and others were to ferry new plan ...more