Research Catalog

A Spitfire girl : one of the world's greatest female ATA ferry pilots tells her story / Mary Ellis ; as told to Melody Foreman.

Title
A Spitfire girl : one of the world's greatest female ATA ferry pilots tells her story / Mary Ellis ; as told to Melody Foreman.
Author
Ellis, Mary
Publication
Barnsley, S. Yorkshire : Frontline Books, an imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd, 2016.

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StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
TextRequest in advance UG626.2.E45 E45 2016Off-site

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Details

Additional Authors
Foreman, Melody
Description
xviii, 224 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates; 24 cm
Summary
"We visualise dashing and daring young men as the epitome of the pilots of the Second World War, yet amongst that elite corps was one person who flew no less than 400 Spitfires and seventy-six different types of aircraft - and that person was Mary Ellis (nee Wilkins). Her story is one of the most remarkable and endearing of the war. Serving as a ferry pilot with the Air Transport Auxiliary, she transported aircraft for the RAF, including fast fighter planes and huge four-engine bombers. On one occasion Mary delivered a Wellington bomber to an airfield and as she climbed out of the aircraft the RAF ground crew ran over to her and demanded to know where the pilot was. Mary said simply: 'I am the pilot!' Unconvinced the men searched the aircraft before they realised a young woman had indeed flown the bomber all by herself. After the war she accepted a secondment to the RAF, being chosen as one of the first pilots, and one of only three women, to take the controls of the new Meteor fast jet. By 1950 the farmer's daughter from Oxfordshire with a natural instinct to fly became Europe's first female air commandant."--Provided by publisher.
Alternative Title
Spitfire girl, one of the world's greatest female Air Transport Auxiliary ferry pilots tells her story
Subject
  • Ellis, Mary, 1917-2018
  • Great Britain. Air Transport Auxiliary > History
  • Great Britain. Air Transport Auxiliary
  • 1900-1999
  • Women air pilots > Great Britain > Biography
  • Oxfordshire (England) > Biography
Genre/Form
  • Personal narratives – British
  • History
  • Autobiographies
  • Biographies
  • Autobiographies.
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (page 220) and index.
Processing Action (note)
  • committed to retain
ISBN
  • 1473895367
  • 9781473895362
OCLC
968161986
Owning Institutions
Harvard Library