Gallery

A small selection of photographs from the ATA archive is included here. The collection includes photographs of about 600 of ATA’s 1245 aircrew. If you would like to donate a photo or are looking for a specific photograph, please contact us.

Click on any thumbnail to view a larger image.

ATA people – Men

		Ed Heering (USA) appointed CO of No 10 Ferry Pool at Lossiemouth
		Wally Handley, pre-war Speedway Ace, killed in ATA service
		Stewart Keith-Jopp, one-eyed one-armed veteran of World War I
		John Cobb, holder of the World Land Speed Record

ATA people – Women

		Ann Wood, from Massachusetts USA. Delivered 900 aircraft of 75 different types.Served at Ratcliffe
		June Howden (New Zealnd) at Brize Norton
		Hazel Raines (USA) and Jackie Sorour (S Africa) at Brize Norton
		Jackie Sorour (South Africa)
		Maggie Frost
		Freydis Leaf Sharland
		Molly Rose
		Joy Lofthouse
		Pauline Gower
		Margot Duhalde from Chile
		Ruth Ballard, married an American ATA pilot
		Diana Barnarto, the most glamorous of ATA’s women
		Joan Hughes, one of 11 women to fly 4-engined bombers

ATA people – groups

		Women at Hamble, 1944
		Whitchurch November 1942
		HQ Senior Staff, Heads of Ferry Pools 1942
		Flight Engineers at White Waltham 1943, including Freddie Laker (back row, 3rd from left)
		The first 8 ladies to join ATA, 1 January 1940
		Malcolm R, Fairweather D, Kempster J, Ellis H in 1941

ATA places – ferry pools

Ferry Pools in 1942 in the ‘mature’ ATA. Airfields in italics are no longer active.

We would be pleased to hear from anyone who can supply wartime photographs to fill in the gaps in our collection.

		No.1 White Waltham
		No.1 White Waltham Advanced Flying Training School
		No.1 White Waltham, waiting for the air taxi
		No.1 White Waltham, overhauling an Oxford
		No.2 Whitchurch (nr Bristol) – German Games
		No.3 Hawarden, near Chester (Google Earth)
		No.4 Prestwick, where many aircraft arrived from Canada and the USA.  Modern view of the airfield
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		No.5 Luton (later moved to Thame) – modern view of Luton Airport
		No.5 Thame – Dinner at Dinton Hall
		No.5 Thame Ferry Pool, wartime photo
		Initial Training School Thame
		No.5 Thame Ferry Pool (from GoogleEarth)
		No.6 Ratcliffe, near Leicester
		No.6 Ratcliffe dispersal – count the types!
		No.6 Ratcliffe – Ratcliffe Hall
		No.6 Ratcliffe – Painting in Crew Room by Rosamund Everard Steenkamp
		No.6 Ratcliffe Christmas Dinner at Ratcliffe Hall. Mr Taylor the Butler was also the banker for the card school!
		No.6 Ratcliffe in 2005
		No.7 Sherburn-in-Elmet, near Leeds
		No.7 Sherburn-in-Elmet, near Leeds
		No.7 Sherburn-in-Elmet, modern view
		No.8 Sydenham, Belfast
		No.8 Sydenham, Belfast, modern view Stirling bombers and Sunderland flying boats were built here
		No.10 Lossiemouth, near Inverness (Luftwaffe photo)
		No.10 Lossiemouth, near Inverness
		No.12 Cosford, near Wolverhampton
		No.14 Ringway (Manchester International)
		No.15 Hamble, near Southampton. Opened as all women pool in September 1941. The Operations Officer Alison King is handing out an aircraftcollection chit
		No.15 Hamble Airfield ca 1998
		No.15 Hamble. Nancy Miller (USA).  She wrote in her diary I shot across the airfield at 10ft and 300mph
		No.16 Kirkbride, near Carlisle, the last pool to be opened
		No.16 Kirkbride – known to ATA pilots as “the salt mines”.
		No.16 Kirkbride, near Carlisle, with a vast number of aircraft in storage at the end of 1945

Barton-in-the-Clay, Bedfordshire, was used for ab initio training of ATA pilots, as a sub-section of No. 5 Ferry Pool, which became the ‘Training Pool’ at Thame