Air Transport Auxiliary The Air Transport Auxiliary ( ATA ) was a British World War II civilian organisation based at White Waltham Airfield , that ferried new , repaired and damaged military aircraft between UK factories , assembly plants , transatlantic delivery points , Maintenance Units ( MU ) , scrap yards , and active service squadrons and airfields — but not to aircraft carrier s . It also flew service personnel on urgent duty from one place to another and performed air ambulance work . Mission . The original intended usage was to transport mail and medical supplies . However the pilots were immediately needed to work with the Royal Air Force ( RAF ) ferry pools transporting aircraft . By 1 May 1940 , they took over transporting all military aircraft from the factories to the Maintenance Units to have guns and accessories installed . On 1 August 1941 , the ATA took over all ferry jobs . This freed the much - needed combat pilot for combat duty . A special ATA Air display Air Pageant was held at White Waltham on 29 September 1945 to raise money for the ATA Benevolent Fund ; supported by the aircraft companies served by the ATA , it included comprehensive static displays of Allied and German aircraft ( including a V . 1 ) , aero engines and even an AA gun and searchlight complete with crew . Flying included Alex Henshaw in a Supermarine Seafire . Lord Beaverbrook , ( Max Aitken , 1st Baron Beaverbrook ) , gave an appropriate tribute at the closing ceremony disbanding the ATA at White Waltham on 30 November 1945 . < div > “ Without the ATA the days and nights of the Battle of Britain would have been conducted under conditions quite different from the actual events . They carried out the delivery of aircraft from the factories to the RAF , thus relieving countless numbers of RAF pilots for duty in the battle . Just as the Battle of Britain is the accomplishment and achievement of the RAF , likewise it can be declared that the ATA sustained and supported them in the battle . They were soldiers fighting in the struggle just as completely as if they had been engaged on the battlefront . ” < div > Accomplishment . During the war , the service flew 415 , 000 hours and delivered over 308 , 000 aircraft of 130 types including Spitfires , Hawker Hurricane s , Mosquitoes , Mustangs , Lancasters , Halifaxes , Fairey Swordfish , Fairey Barracuda s , and Fortresses . The average aircraft strength of the ATA training schools was 78 . Total of 133 , 247 hours were flown by school aircraft and 6 , 013 conversion courses were put through . The total flying hours of the Air Movement Flight was 17 , 059 of which 8 , 570 were on UK internal flights and 8 , 489 on overseas flights . 883 tons of freight was carried and 3 , 430 passengers transported without casualty . Total taxi hours amounted to 179 , 325 excluding Air Movements . Administration . The administration of the organisation fell to Gerard d ' Erlanger , a director of the British Overseas Airways Corporation ( BOAC ) . He had suggested a similar organisation prior to the war in a letter dated 24 May 1938 . In late August 1939 , the ATA was placed under British Airways Ltd . for initial administration and finance . On 10 October 1939 , Air Member for Supply and Organisation ( AMSO ) took over the control of the ATA . The first pilots were assigned to RAF Reserve Command and attached to RAF Flights to ferry trainers , fighters and bombers from factory and storage to Air Force Stations . Late in 1939 , it was decided that a third and entirely civilian ferry pool at White Waltham near Maidenhead in Berkshire should be set up . Operations of this pool began 15 February 1940 . On 16 May 1940 , RAF Maintenance Command through 41 Group , took control . Then on 22 July 1941 , the ATA came under the control of the Ministry of Production ( MAP ) . Although control shifted to these many departments , administration was always carried out by BOAC under Commander Gerard d ’ Erlanger CBE . Pilots . The organisation recruited pilots who were considered to be unsuitable for 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 " ) , pilots from neutral countries and , notably , women pilots . A unique feature of the ATA is that physical handicaps were ignored if the pilot could do the job . Thus there were one - armed , one - legged , short - sighted , and one - eyed pilots with the ATA . Representatives of 28 countries flew with the ATA . In late 1939 , Commander Pauline Gower MBE was given the task of organising the women ' s section of the ATA . There were 166 women pilots ( one in eight of the entire service ) who volunteered from Britain , the Commonwealth ( Canada , New Zealand and South Africa ) , United States , the Netherlands , Poland , and one from Argentina , Maureen Dunlop . Fifteen lost their lives in the air , including the British pioneer aviatrix Amy Johnson . One of many notable achievements of the women is that they earned the same pay as men in equal rank as the men flying with the organisation starting in 1943 . This was the first time that the British Government gave its blessing to equal pay for equal work , within an organisation under its jurisdiction . ( Note , at the same time , American woman flying with the Women Airforce Service Pilots , the WASP , were earning as little as 65 % of their male colleagues . ) Although initially restricted to non - combat types ( i . e . trainers and transports ) , women pilots were eventually permitted to fly virtually every aircraft flown by the RAF and Fleet Air Arm including the four - engined bomber s , but excluding the largest flying boat s . Training . Although the first ATA pilots were introduced to military aircraft at the RAF ’ s Central Flying School ( CFS ) , the ATA soon developed its own training programme . Pilots progressed from light , single - engined aircraft to more powerful and complicated aircraft in stages . They first qualified on one “ class ” of aircraft , then gained experience on that class by doing ferrying work of any and all aircraft in that class before returning to training to qualify on the next class of aircraft . As a result , pilots progressed based on their own capabilities , rather than on a rigid timetable . This not only ensured that as many pilots as possible advanced , but those that could not were still gainfully employed flying the aircraft types on which they had qualified . Once cleared to fly one class of aircraft , pilots could be asked to ferry any plane in that class even if they had never seen that type of aircraft before . To do so they had Ferry Pilot Notes , a two - ring book of small cards with the critical statistics and notations necessary to ferry each aircraft . A pilot cleared on more than one class , could be asked to fly an aircraft in any of the categories on which he or she was qualified ; thus even a pilot cleared to fly four - engined bombers could be assigned to fly a single - engined trainer if scheduling made this the most efficient way to get the aircraft to its destination . The ATA trained its pilots only to ferry planes , rather than to perfection on every type . For example aerobatics and blind flying were not taught and pilots were explicitly forbidden from doing either , even if capable of doing so . The objective of the ATA was to deliver aircraft safely , and that meant taking no unnecessary risks . A detailed account of the training that ATA pilots experienced and a vivid view of the daily life of an ATA pilot may be found in " Intrepid Woman , Betty Lussier ' s Secret War , 1942 - 1945 " , Betty Lussier , 2010 .