Our photo this week shows Eleanor Lettice Curtis who was arguably the most remarkable woman pilot of the Second World War. 

Not only did she ferry warplanes from factories to R.A.F stations, but she was also one of the first woman to make a flight in a bomber.

During her years with the Air Transport Auxiliary, she sat at the controls of some 80 various types of planes and delivered about 400 heavy four-engine bombers including Lancasters and the US B-17 Flying Fortress.

Eleanor Lettice Curtis began flying when she was 22 and joined a flying club in Sussex.

Her first machine was a small moth bi-plane, but she obtained both her “A” and “B” licences – the latter the professional one. It had always been her ambition to fly and make it her career, and she soon gained a post with a small survey company working under contract for the Ordnance Survey.

At the conclusion of the Second World War, Lettice was determined to keep flying professionally.

She arrived at Boscombe Down in 1948 taking up a position as a technician and flight test observer – her role was flying in planes under test and making manual recordings of instrumentation in flight.

She undertook this role on many different planes and often flew to Khartoum for the planes to be tested under tropical conditions.

Whilst at Boscombe Down she became a keen competitor in flying races. In one of her first races, she borrowed a Spitfire and set up a new women’s record for the 100-kilometre closed circuit, doing 313.07 miles per hour.

She also took part in numerous high-profile races, often on England’s south coast, where she was usually one of a small number of female entrants.

She qualified to fly helicopters in 1992 and continued to fly aircraft until finally calling it a day in 1995.

Eleanor Lettice Curtis died in 2014 aged 99.