Hurricane Girl

After she took a joyride at an air display in 1933, Winifred Crossley's life changed forever. She decided she would learn to fly, and once she qualified as a pilot she became obsessed with mastering the difficult art of aerobatics. During the summer of 1936 she was employed as the first professional female aerobatic pilot, performing twice daily in a Tiger Moth with the last great aerial circus to tour the United Kingdom and Ireland. For the next three years she flew old-fashioned Avro 504 biplanes, tugging gliders and towing aerial advertising banners. In January 1940 she was one of the celebrated ‘First Eight’ women pilots chosen to join the Women’s Section of the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) to ferry aircraft for the RAF and the Royal Navy. In July 1941 Winnie Crossley became the first woman ever to fly a frontline RAF fighter, a Hawker Hurricane. Following that successful flight the women of the ATA were eventually allowed to fly almost every aircraft to serve with the British during the war. Winnie herself flew dozens of different types, from Spitfires to Lancasters, Mustangs to Liberators, Mosquitoes to Wellingtons. She was one of only eleven women who qualified to fly four-engine heavy bombers, and one of only three of the original eight women pilots to serve from the first day to the last of the six-year existence of the Women’s Section of the ATA. A true pioneer airwoman, she is all-but forgotten today. This is her story.