Woman of the Day Air Transport Auxiliary pilot Eleanor Wadsworth, born OTD in 1917 in Nottingham. She delivered the Swordfish plane credited with saving a Royal Navy convoy en route from Britain to Russia in 1944 by sinking German U-Boat U674. The Swordfish, a torpedo bomber plane, had an open cockpit. One, she recalled, took four days to get from RAF High Ercall in Shropshire, via Dumfries, to RAF Machrihanish outside Campbeltown because of extreme weather and she had only her sheepskin-lined flying jacket to keep out the cold. Now that is above and beyond! Eleanor was working as an assistant architect at the ATA’s new HQ at White Waltham airfield near Maidenhead in 1941 but she was “looking for a new challenge". She spotted on a notice board that the ATA was looking for women to train as non-combat pilots to back up RAF and Allied fliers. “The thought of learning to fly for free was a great incentive. I put my name down and didn’t think much about it.” Eleanor had never even been in a plane before but in June 1943, she reported for flight training, at first in a Miles Magister monoplane (known as a Maggie) and then in a de Havilland Tiger Moth biplane. After just twelve hours total flying, she flew a Maggie solo. Progressing steadily through the larger and more powerful planes, Eleanor flew her first Hurricane fighter in March 1944 out of RAF Henlow. “How marvellous to take to the air on my own.” Before long, she was flying 22 different planes all without radios or compasses, without an instrument manual (like other ATA pilots, she had to rely on her ferry notes), and guiding herself via a map on her lap, following the paths of rivers or railway lines. It was no picnic. Quite often, ATA pilots didn’t know what type of plane they would be required to deliver until they walked out onto the tarmac and it was often a new type they hadn’t encountered before. That’s why the ferry notes were so important. They had to familiarise themselves with those very quickly. Once in the air and despite being in a non-combat role, they still faced danger from raiding Luftwaffe fighters, from British anti-barrage balloons or even “friendly fire” from anti-aircraft guns on the ground. Eleanor flew her first Spitfire on 18 May 1944. “It was so perfect to handle, just lovely and flew like you would want it to.” Spitfires were her favourite - she flew 132 of those and flying 'straight and level' was her mark. She also flew 28 Hurricanes, numerous unarmed Mustangs, Swordfish and American Hellcats (they were only armed when they were staffed by their combat crews) as well as the mighty Lancaster and Wellington bombers built for five crew. Of her total of 590 flying hours during her ATA service, 430 hours were solo. On more than one occasion, Eleanor recalled the astonished faces of RAF crew when she alighted from the cockpit of a Lancaster. “What is often forgotten is that we were the first to get equal pay for equal work and this fact is often forgotten about the ATA.” Eleanor flew until the last day of WW2 in 1945 and married an ATA flight engineer later that year. She died in 2021, aged 103. “There was no heroism. We all had a job to do and it was my good fortune to have what was a very enjoyable job.”