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 initial plan was that the ATA would carry personnel, mail and medical supplies, but the pilots were immediately needed to work with the Royal Air Force (RAF) ferry pools transporting aircraft.

They were soldiers fighting in the struggle just as completely as if they had been engaged on the battlefront.During the war the ATA flew 415,000 hours and delivered more than 309,000[4] aircraft of 147 types, including Spitfires, Hawker Hurricanes, de Havilland Mosquitoes, North American Mustangs, Avro Lancasters, Handley Page Halifaxes, Fairey Swordfish, Fairey Barracudas and Boeing Fortresses.

About 883 tons of freight were carried and 3,430 passengers were transported without any casualties; but a total of 174 pilots, were killed flying for the ATA in the wartime years.

After an encounter with German fighters in UK airspace,[7] the mid-upper gun turrets of Avro Anson transports were armed.

Initially the Air Ministry was lukewarm to the idea but, with war imminent, they accepted d'Erlanger's proposal and the ATA was set up in 1939.

[10] In late August 1939 the ATA was placed under British Airways Ltd for initial administration and finance,[1] but on 10 October 1939 Air Member for Supply and Organisation (AMSO) took over.

People from 28 countries flew with the ATA, including Prince Suprabhat Chirasakti (or Jirasakdi), the adopted nephew of the abdicated King Prajadhipok (Rama VII) and Queen Rambai Barni of Thailand, who died in the crash of a Hurricane in 1942.)[12].

British women pilots included Mary de Bunsen, Ethel Ruth Nicholson,[17] Edith Beaumont[18] and Diana Barnato Walker.

[21] Six Canadian women pilots flew in the ATA, including Marion Alice Orr,[22] Violet Milstead[23] and Helen Harrison-Bristol.

[24][25] Fifteen of these women lost their lives in service, including the British pioneer aviator Amy Johnson, Margaret Fairweather, Joy Davison, Jane Winstone,[26] Honor Salmon, Susan Slade and Dora Lang[27] who died alongside Flight Engineer Janice Harrington.

[29] A notable American member of the ATA was the aviator Jacqueline Cochran, who returned to the United States and started a similar all-female organisation known as the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP).

In June 1940 the role of No 5 Ferry Pilots Pool was expanded to other non-combat types of aircraft (trainers and transports) such as the de Havilland Dominie, Airspeed Oxford, Miles Magister and Miles Master;[30] eventually women were incorporated in the other (previously all-male) ferry pools, and were permitted to fly virtually every type flown by the RAF and the Fleet Air Arm, including the four-engined heavy bombers, but excluding the largest flying boats.

[36] As the ATA became established and expanded the size and number of aircraft variants, the need for having a variety of engineers quickly became apparent.

There were many specific categories and levels of Engineers within the ATA organisation including Flight, Ground, SCE, Records Clerk, Tarmac, etc.

To do so they had ATA Pilots Notes, a two-ring book of small cards with the critical statistics and notations necessary to ferry each aircraft.

Some of the awards were presented directly by Prime Minister Gordon Brown at a Downing Street reception in September 2008.