Connecting with Amy Johnson and the Air Transport Auxiliary
I’ve been thinking recently about the special connections and encounters the Literary Aviatrix Community offers us. This month, as we discuss Amanda Harrison’s memoir Solo2Darwin: In the Footsteps of Amy Johnson in the Aviatrix Book Club, I’m reminiscing about meeting her in Maidenhead, England for the first time last July, and how that meeting converges with so many other people and aspects of this experience.
I was on a thirty-day backpack tour of Europe with my 12-year-old son last summer that took us to some unlikely destinations to visit friends scattered to new locations since our time living in Barbados. One of those families was in nearby Windsor, so I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to meet up with UK authors and book club members for lunch, for evening cocktails, or both, if they were so inclined.
My son and I flew into Heathrow from our previous stop in The Netherlands and headed out to Maidenhead where there is a small, well-curated museum display honoring the women who flew during World War II for the Air Transport Auxiliary. The ATA were a civilian organization that supported the war effort by, among other things, ferrying both new and damaged aircraft between maintenance and manufacturing depots and launch points. They recruited British pilots who were considered unfit for service in the Royal Air Force and counted members from 25 different countries among them. Ten percent were women pilots, and ATA historians are proud to note that the women received equal pay and benefits to the men (in stark contrast to the WASP.)
I’d made reservations for lunch at a lovely bright and airy restaurant, Sauce and Flour, that served mouthwatering handcrafted pasta dishes. We were joined by Amanda, Mandy Hickson (An Officer, Not a Gentleman), Polly Vacher, MBE (Wings Around the World), Aviatrix Book Club members Arhynn Descy, Suzy Morgan, and Maaike Lustenhouwer, who flew in from The Netherlands as well, and a young lady from the U.S., Stella Nawyn, and her family.
Stella is now a high school senior local to my aviation community in South Florida. I’ve interacted with her at Ninety-Nines events for the past several years and am wholly impressed by her enthusiastic and focused pursuit of her aviation dreams, and the warm support of her parents. When I had the privilege of interviewing Mandy Hickson about her book, I thought it was a great mentor text for a young woman involved in Civil Air Patrol since Mandy’s path to military flying began with her participation in the RAF Air Cadets program. Mandy kindly sent a signed copy inscribed to Stella for Christmas a few years ago, and last spring, we took a photo with Stella holding the book in her CAP uniform sporting a shiny sash signifying her recent aviation scholarship award.
During my travels, I noticed Stella’s mom posting pictures of their own summer adventures in the UK and asked if they might be available to join us for lunch. The timing worked perfectly, and Stella sat next to Mandy at a table full of these wonderfully inspiring women. I know it made an impression on her, but it filled my heart to the brim as well.
In 1930, Amy Johnson, CBE, became the first woman to fly solo from England to Darwin, Australia. Amanda was inspired by Amy because she accomplished this feat despite not being titled and wealthy. In 2019, Amanda launched in her own vintage open cockpit Tiger Moth to retrace Amy’s flight to Australia.
Amanda sat next to Polly, whose memoir recounts her attempt to fly solo around the world by way of the North and South poles in 2001 (at the tender age of 58) to raise funds for the non-profit, Flying Scholarships for the Disabled. Polly wrote the foreword for Amanda’s book, and I learned in my interview with Amanda yesterday that Polly was a very generous mentor as she planned her own solo flight.
I first learned that Amanda’s book was coming out thanks to her publishers at Grubb Street. Grubb Street were Polly’s publishers and I had reached out to them to track her down for our interview last spring. When Amanda’s book was launching, her editor Natalie reached out to let me know about it. Huge thanks to Grubb Street for publishing their stories!
After a spectacular lunch and visit, Suzy, Arhynn, my son, and I visited the ATA exhibit at the Maidenhead Heritage Centre while Amanda took Maaike up for a flight. There, we saw the impressive collection of women ATA pilots’ memorabilia, including the Ferry Pilots Notes I’d read so much about in the various stories featuring ATA. This kneeboard book is a collection of note cards meant to tell ATA pilots everything they needed to know about the various aircraft they might be assigned to fly. All of that information was contained on a single card for each aircraft. Once fully qualified to fly for ATA, this was often all the training pilots received before climbing into a particular aircraft they were assigned to ferry for the first time—a far cry from the hefty dash-one pilot operator’s manuals I spent weeks studying before my first flights.
It was wonderful to see the chart on the wall with the names of the women ATA, and the various countries from which they hailed. While we were there, they fired up the Spitfire simulator for my son to fly, and I bought a little Spitfire pin as a souvenir.
After our museum visit, Suzy took us out to White-Waltham Airfield, which was the location of ATA Headquarters during WWII, and the “spiritual home” of the ATA. We toured the old headquarters building that now serves as West London Flying Club’s clubhouse. It still has the feel of a military headquarters and officers’ club with a great collection of memorabilia and a bar with a warm and welcoming social atmosphere.
From there, we continued to the plush Aviator Hotel in Hampshire where I’d booked a room for the night, and where Suzy, Maaike, Arhynn, and Amanda settled in with me for evening cocktails in the lounge. Here is where we learned more about Amanda than her attempt to fly solo to Darwin. Amanda is also dyslexic and a breast cancer survivor, experiences which she weaves into her memoir. It was a very special experience to sit with her and our book club friends who I’d talked with virtually over the past four years, but met in person for the first time on this trip.
May 5th marks the 95th anniversary of Amy Johnson’s departure from Croyden, England in 1930 for her record-making trip to Australia. Amanda is involved in coordinating a commemorative “Launch of Fly Festival” at Croyden May 3-4, 2025.
On May 5th, my Literary Aviatrix Classics cohosts, Dr. Jacque Boyd and Captain Jenny Beatty, will join me to record our next episode about Amy’s out-of-print memoir Sky Roads of the World.
On January 5th, 1941, Amy Johnson died while ferrying an Airspeed Oxford for the ATA.
Today, I wore my Spitfire pin from the Maidenhead Cultural Centre for my interview with Becky Aikman, author of a new book launching on May 6th—Spitfires: The American Women Who Flew in the Face of Danger During WWII. I am thrilled about this overdue history dedicated to the American women pilots who flew ahead of the Women Air Force Service Pilots, and ahead of U.S. involvement in the war, to offer their skills and experience in support of the United Kingdom’s war effort. Becky shared that the title of the book has double meaning. ‘Spitfires’ refers both to the iconic British WWII aircraft, with its petite cockpit that seemed tailor-made for women, and to the big boisterous personalities of the women who flew it for the ATA.
What strikes me in this moment is how interwoven and connected we all are. I spent two decades working in aviation without this insight or appreciation and never could have imagined the sisterhood our stories have the power to foster. I’m grateful to find myself in a place in life where I have the time and resources to devote to learning about our collective history, the flexibility to connect with other women who have accomplished so much in their own aviation journeys, and the opportunities to share the magic with young women like Stella. I am confident she will keep our history alive and continue to pay it forward to those who come behind her.
OG ‘Read or Die’ Aviatrix Book Club Ladies
