NOVEL WAR-WORK

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23601, 9 March 1940, Page 5 (Supplement)

NOVEL WAR-WORK

SOME of Britain's women air pilots are undertaking novel war-work. As aircraft for the services pour out from the factories they have to be delivered to the Royal Air Force aerodromes or wherever they are wanted. In order to relieve the men pilots, a special women's sction of the Air Transport Auxiliary Service has been set going. The work was described in a recent Daventry broadcast, by Pauline Gower, who is in charge of the Section. Miss Gower said: "I've been flying for more than ten years. I started back in the old days of joy-riding and the aerial circus. Then later, when civil flying opened up, I went on to more serious work: I ran a passenger service across the Wash from Hunstanton to Skegness. Altogether I've carried thirty thousand passengers by air. Then when the chance of this new work came along,

Women Pilots Fly R.A.F. Machines

you can guess 1 fell for it straight away. "Worrying work —ferrying new aircraft from the factory—takes up a lot of time. Royal Air Force pilots, of course, are wanted for other duties and couldn't well spare the time. Then this scheme —the Air Transport Auxiliary Service —was launched by the Air Ministry and organised by British Airways. The members were civilian pilots, but soon after the outbreak oi: war pressure of work became very heavy. And so the idea that women pilots might help came in. There are eight of them in my team and others will be selected as soon as they're needed. We've had any number of applications. "All eight are very experienced pilots. There's Mrs. Crosslcy, for instance; she was the first woman to go as an acrobatic pilot on a touring aerial circus. She's done a good deal of what is called 'banner-towing,' trailing a large streamer about the sky. Then there's Miss Mona Friedlander, who's been doing what is called army co-op. flying, that is flying during searchlight practice. "Then Miss Joan Hughes, Mrs. Fairweather, Miss Cunnison and Mrs. Wilberforce, are flying instructors; while Mrs. Patterson, one of the bestknown flying instructors in England, is an examiner for the Guild of Air Pilots and Navigators. Lastly, there's Miss Rosemary Rees, who's done a great deal of air touring on the Continent. So you see our united flying experience is pretty varied."