ATA Amy Johnson (Born 1 July 1903 – disappeared 5 January 1941)--single Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) pilot figure -- RETIRED -- LAST THREE!
$55.00
Item Number: RAF006B
ATA Amy Johnson (Born 1 July 1903 – disappeared 5 January 1941) Amy Johson will forever be an icon of flying with her flying exploits pre-WWII well documented, with most famously flying solo from the UK to Australia in 1930. When WW II began, the company she worked for was taken over by the air ministry, and, in May 1940, Johnson joined the newly formed ATA, transporting RAF aircraft around the country. On January 5th 1941, while flying an Airspeed Oxford, Johnson went off course in adverse weather conditions. Reportedly out of fuel, she bailed out, the aircraft crashed into the Thames Estuary near Herne Bay. A ship from a passing convoy diverted after see her parachute, but weather was too bad, the tide was strong, and it was freezing cold in the water. Ropes were thrown out to her, but she could not grab them and was lost under the ship. A second body was seen in the water, HMS Haslemere Captain, Lt Cmdr Walter Fletcher, dived into the water, got to the body, but they were dead. By the time Fletcher was recused, he was unconscious and died in hospital a few days later. Fletcher was posthumously awarded the Albert Medal in May 1941. There has always been some controversy surrounding what happened, that she was shot down by an RAF pilot after failing to give the correct radio signals.
As a member of the ATA with no known grave (her body was never recovered), Johnson is commemorated, under the name of Amy V. Johnson, by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission on the Memorial at Runnymede. Johnson's watertight flying bag, her log book and cheque book later washed up and were recovered near the crash site.
The Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) The ATA was a British civilian organization set up at the beginning of WWII, headquarters at White Waltham Airfield in Berkshire. The ATA ferried new, repaired, and damaged military aircraft between factories, assembly plants, transatlantic delivery points, maintenance units, scrapyards, and active service squadrons and airfields, but not to naval aircraft carriers. Also ferrying service personnel performed some air ambulance work. During the war, around 10% of ATA pilots were women, were 168 female pilots, one in eight of all ATA pilots, and they volunteered from Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the United States, the Netherlands, and Poland. The female pilots, nicknamed "Attagirls", had a high profile in the press, and from 1943 they received equal pay to their male colleagues, a first for the British government.
In Feb 2024, we are releasing the first two of our ATA Women. We are extremely pleased with the figures and will look to be releasing several figures representing these pioneering women, who stepped up to serve when they were asked. This is the first of the new ATA female pilots from Thomas Gunn. The masters for these WAAF girls were all painted by a national champion award winning model painter and we hope you can see the quality shining through on these figures.
Limited Availability.
Due to be released in APRIL 2024.
