The ATA's First Pilots

The core of the ATA in the early days of WWII came from those private fliers who had gained their Royal Aero Club Certificates during the 20s and 30s, although they were supplemented later by others including airline pilots and seconded RAF personnel. As Anthony Phelps describes it, in the early days, "Everyone seemed to know everyone else, and either had something very definite to do or very firmly did nothing."

It was all very informal. Later, it became an enormous organisation with strictly-enforced rules, but the first recruits were aviation pioneers, used to looking after themselves.

In late 1940, they introduced a numbering system (which would eventually reach 1,152 men and 168 women) to identify each pilot, and assigned numbers retrospectively to those already there.

By the end of 1939, they had just 39 male pilots.

And one woman ...