Mary Ellis (pilot)

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Mary Ellis (2016)

Mary Ellis (born February 2, 1917 as Mary Wilkins in Leafield, Oxfordshire , England , † July 24, 2018 in Sandown , Isle of Wight ) was an aviation pioneer and one of the last surviving British pilots from World War II .

Life

Childhood and youth

Mary Ellis was born on February 2, 1917 in Leafield, Oxfordshire, to Charles and Ellen Wilkins and grew up with her four siblings on their parents' farm. Because of the proximity of her hometown Leafield to the two military airfields Port Meadow and Bicester Airfield , she developed a great fascination for aviation in her childhood. According to her own statements, her fate as a pilot was sealed when Mary's father made it possible for her to take part in a flight in a de Havilland DH.60 Moth as part of an air show . At the age of 16, she took flying lessons in Witney , acquired the pilot license and flew for pleasure until the 1940th

Second World War

In 1941, Mary Wilkins heard an Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) advertisement on the radio seeking private pilots to move military aircraft between factories, airfields, and other locations. Mary applied, was accepted into the ATA in October 1941 and assigned to the pilot pool in Hamble near Southampton on the south coast of England. During the war it flew around 1,000 aircraft of 76 different types, including the Airspeed Oxford transport aircraft , fighter planes like the Spitfire and Hawker Tempest, and bombers like the Lockheed Hudson . In the process, her life was in danger several times: Her aircraft was probably hit by self- fire over Bournemouth . When landing in fog, her Spitfire almost collided with an oncoming machine. Finally, she survived a crash landing when the chassis of her Spitfire jammed and the engine overheated.

After the Second World War

After the ATA was dissolved in 1945, Mary Wilkins was seconded to the Royal Air Force and continued to transfer planes. She was one of the first women to fly the Gloster Meteor , Britain's first jet-powered fighter. In 1950 she became the manager of Sandown Airfield on the Isle of Wight and hired her ATA colleague Vera Strodl as a flight instructor. Away from the airport, she loved fast cars, participated in and won sports car rallies and ran a fashion boutique.

Mary married Don Ellis, a fellow pilot and flight instructor in Sandown in 1961, and lived with him in a house next to the runway at Sandown Airfield until his death in 2009. In 2016 she published her autobiography A Spitfire Girl: One of the World's Greatest Female ATA Ferry Pilots Tells Her Story . Mary Ellis was active as a pilot well into old age. On her 100th birthday, accompanied by a flight instructor, she flew a Spitfire once again the 108 NM (200 km) route from Thorney Island in West Sussex to Wittering .

Mary Ellis died on July 24, 2018 at the age of 101 at her home in Sandown, Isle of Wight.

Awards and honors

In November 2016, she and her ATA colleague Joy Lofthouse were honored in front of members of the Royal Family at the annual memorial ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall in London .

In 2017, a plaque was unveiled at RAF Brize Norton Air Force Base to honor pilots Mary Ellis and Molly Rose's contributions to the Air Transport Auxiliary.

In January 2018 she received the Freedom of the Isle of Wight award .

Works

Movies

Mary Ellis appeared in various documentaries about aviation in World War II. In 2010 she appeared in the British documentary Spitfire Sisters , which tells the story of the female pilots in the British Air Transport Auxiliary Forces , and in 2011 in Air Transport Auxiliary , another documentary about the organization and its members. Her last film appearance was in the British documentary Spitfire in 2018 .

Autobiography

  • Mary Ellis, Melody Foreman: A Spitfire Girl: One of the World's Greatest Female ATA Ferry Pilots Tells Her Story . Pen & Sword Books Ltd, 2016, ISBN 978-1-4738-9536-2 (English).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Ceylan Yeginsu: Mary Ellis, Who Flew British Spitfires in World War II, this at 101. In: The New York Times . July 26, 2018, accessed August 1, 2020 .
  2. ^ A b c Obituary: Mary Ellis the air pioneer. In: BBC . July 26, 2018, accessed August 1, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Ferry pilot Marry Ellis has died. In: Aerokurier . July 26, 2018, accessed August 1, 2020 .
  4. ↑ WW2 Spitfire pilot Mary Ellis from Isle of Wight turns 100. In: BBC. February 2, 2017, accessed August 1, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Female WW2 flyers honored in RAF Brize Norton ceremony. In: BBC. March 14, 2017, accessed August 1, 2020 .
  6. ^ Freedom of the Isle of Wight granted to Mary Ellis. In: Island Echo. January 18, 2018, accessed August 1, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Second world pilot Mary Ellis dies aged 101. In: The Guardian . July 26, 2018, accessed August 1, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Ellis, Mary
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wilkins, Mary (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British pilot
DATE OF BIRTH February 2, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH Leafield, Oxfordshire , England
DATE OF DEATH July 24, 2018
Place of death Sandown , Isle of Wight , England