Female Spitfire Pilot…Mary Ellis:
From: captken66@gmail.com
To: DWSkjerven@aol.com
Sent: 9/21/2017 2:18:23 AM Central Standard Time
Subject: Female Spitfire pilot
To: DWSkjerven@aol.com
Sent: 9/21/2017 2:18:23 AM Central Standard Time
Subject: Female Spitfire pilot
What a gal!!!!
Female Spitfire pilot
By Sarah Oliver For The Mail On Sunday 5 February 2017
Mary Ellis (pictured
during her time as an Air Transport Auxiliary pilot in WW2) has celebrated
her 100th birthday.
Tearing through the
skies above the South Coast, two Spitfires evoke powerful memories
of Britain's wartime resilience.
But this stirring
image holds a further poignancy – for in the cockpit of the lead aircraft
sits Mary Ellis,
celebrating her 100th birthday by recreating her time as one of the
‘Ata-girls',
the select gang of female pilots who flew
Britain's fighters during the war
And over her shoulder
is one of the actual Spitfires she flew during her 1,000 flights as a
First Officer with the
Air Transport Auxiliary.
'Wizard, this is wizard!' yelled the delighted
centenarian through her intercom.
Mary was handed the
controls of the 275mph twin-seater as it swooped over West Sussex.
After about 15
minutes, she turned for home, and told her co-pilot Matt Jones: ‘Goodwood
on the nose, you have control …’ Then she
settled back to enjoy the ride back to base.
Earlier, Mary watched
in delight as Spitfire MV154 took its place beside her in an
extraordinary airborne
tribute. It was a plane she had delivered to RAF Brize Norton from
Southampton on
September 15, 1944, and it hides a sentimental secret. For at the end of
the 25-minute wartime
flight, she signed the cockpit, scrawling her maiden name Wilkins
and the initials ATA.
Mary Ellis (circled)
was handed the controls of the 275mph twin-seater as it swooped over
West Sussex
She hoped her tag
might be spotted by a handsome pilot and lead to a wartime romance –
although the impulsive act, a career one-off,
didn't bag her a boyfriend.
Mary, originally from
Oxfordshire, had her first flying lesson in 1938, and flew for pleasure
until 1941 when she
heard a BBC radio appeal for women pilots to join the auxiliary service
and so release male pilots
for combat duty.
Speaking at a surprise
birthday party on Thursday, Mary said: ‘The war was a challenge and
one had to do
something about it. I went on and on until I flew everything. I love the
Spitfire –
it’s my favourite aircraft, it's everyone's
favourite, it's the symbol of freedom.'
For four years she
ferried warplanes from factories to frontline squadrons. The 166 women
of the ATA – about one
in eight of the total – have been dubbed ‘The Female Few,’ echoing
Winston Churchill's description of the RAF
airmen who fought in the Battle of Britain.
Mrs Ellis looked back over her left shoulder
and glanced at the aircraft she once flew.
Mary was usually found
at the joystick of a Spitfire or a Hurricane but ultimately flew more than
50 types of aircraft, logging 1,100 hours of
flight, much to the astonishment of some colleagues.
As she sat on the
airfield ready to deliver her first Spitfire, the mechanic standing on the
wing
asked how many of them
she'd flown. When she said it was her first, he was so startled he fell
right off. The largest
aircraft she flew solo was the Wellington bomber. After landing at an East
Anglian airfield, Mary
was greeted by the ground crew who asked where the pilot was. ‘I'm the
pilot,' she said. They insisted on searching
the aircraft before they believed her.
It was dangerous work.
Mary was sometimes ordered to move combat-damaged planes that
were not officially
fit to fly, but had to be taken for repairs. She crash-landed twice and was
shot at once.
Mrs Ellis toasted a
glass of champagne with co-pilot Matt Jones, managing director of Boultbee Flight Academy Fourteen of her fellow ATA female flyers lost
their lives, including aviation pioneer Amy Johnson
Mary – who to this day
needs no spectacles, nor a walking stick – was one of the last six women serving in the ATA
when it disbanded after the war. She remained a private pilot and then became managing director of
Sandown Airport on the Isle of Wight. She married Don Ellis, a fellow pilot, in 1961, but was
widowed in 2009. Matt Jones, who flies Spitfires for Goodwood-based Boultbee Flight Academy,
reunited Mary with MV154 after first meeting her in 2015. He conspired with
the plane’s current owner,
pilot Maxi Gainza, to bring it to the UK from its base in Bremgarten, Germany.
He said: 'I gave Mary
control of our Spitfire. I wasn’t sure where we were but Mary was very clear. She pointed us towards
Thorney Island, up through the Witterings, flew on to Selsey Bill and then Bognor Regis, never losing a foot of altitude. ‘She showed me
precisely how she was able to deliver all those aircraft with just a map, a compass and a
stopwatch. I was utterly humbled by a superior aviator who also happens to be
60 years my senior!'
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