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Recruitment of Women Pilots for the ATA - Phase I

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  The Air Transport Auxiliary opened its ranks to women in November of 1939 and hired the first eight women pilots by the end of the year. The women started flying effective 1 January 1940. This post looks at how these early women fliers were recruited.   The ATA was conceived as a means to enable qualified pilots not eligible for service in the RAF to contribute their unique skills (flying) to the war effort. Since the purpose of the organisation was to put qualified pilots to work -- not train people to fly -- recruitment was initially confined to fully trained pilots. The minimum qualifications were a 'A' (private) licence and more than two hundred hours solo flying. Male applicants had to be over the age of 28 (as those younger than that were subject to military service) and could be as old as 50.  This age range included all men who had flown in the First World War. Women could be as young as 22. Due to the small numbers the ATA planned to employ (thirty men and ei...
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The Commander of the Berlin Airlift: General William Tunner

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  Although his influence was felt only in stages, as Commander of the Combined Airlift Taskforce, General Tunner had overall command of the Berlin Airift. He vigorously imprinted his own character upon it. His innovations and his forceful personality saved the Airlift from chaos and collapse at a critical juncture.  Tunner had been one of the first officers in the entire Air Force to specialise in air transport. He had helped establish the Ferrying Division and nurtured it from a handful of men to an organisation 50,000 strong and delivering 11,000 planes a month to domestic and overseas destinations. In fact, he can be credited with creating not only an organisation but an entire ethos and standard for air transport pilots.  Tunner passionately believed that transport pilots had a different mission and required different qualities than combat pilots. He was proud to claim that he had “proved that air transport was a science in itself; to be carried out at its maxim...
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