She was a ferry pilot – picking up and delivering various military aircraft to and from factories and airbases throughout the United States.

In 1940 at the University of Washington in Seattle,[1] she enrolled in the Civilian Pilot Training program, while working at Boeing on B-17s.

London and five other women were given the task to deliver Piper Cubs from Delaware to an aircraft factory in Pennsylvania in order to prove to the Army that they could fly airplanes.

[6] In 1943, she became commanding officer of the Long Beach 6th Ferrying Group at Daugherty Field and the program was renamed to the Women Air-force Service Pilots.

[7][8] London was moved to an Army airbase in Long Beach, California, and became a squad commander and was there along with Cornelia Fort, Evelyn Sharp, Barbara Towne, and Bernice Batten.

Female pilots like London typically carried a small bag of clothes due to a lack of room in the planes they flew.

[14] After the war, London wanted to continue to fly, but she was turned down by airlines that forwarded her stewardess applications instead.

[15] Barbara London ran a flight school and charter service, and later worked at the Long Beach Airport.

She also assisted in the founding of the All Woman Transcontinental Air Race and the Long Beach chapter of the Ninety Nines.