Vera Elsie Strodl Dowling (16 July 1918 – 11 January 2015) was a Danish pilot who gained fame in the Second World War as the only Scandinavian woman to fly for the RAF's Air Transport Auxiliary.

Her Danish parents had moved to England to run a cattle farm but ran into financial difficulties complicated by her father's problems with alcohol.

[1] She settled in Hastings which was close to the Sussex Aero Club where she first worked as a waitress and cleaner in order to save some money for taking flying lessons.

Instead, she joined Taylorcraft Aviation Corporation (later called Auster Aircraft Limited) at Rearsby, Leicestershire.

[1][3] In 1941, she volunteered for the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) where she had the job of ferrying many different types of new, repaired and damaged military aircraft between factories and airfields until the end of the war in 1945.

Although the ATA ferrying work was not as dangerous as mainstream RAF missions, there were many casualties, with one out of every six pilots losing their lives.

[1] In 1947, she was employed by Osterman Aero in Gothenburg, Sweden where she flew various aircraft including an amphibious Republic Seabee.

She visited remote communities in the prairies and the north of Canada, taking part in church services.