Ann Wood-Kelly Photographs

This collection consists of six black and white prints of Ann Wood-Kelly during her career in the British Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA), 1942 to 1945.

Ann Wood-Kelly (1918 - 2006) was educated in Philadelphia, Belgium, and at D'Youville College in Buffalo, New York. She took up flying and attended ground school through the Federal Government's Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP). Initially rejected for the all-male Bowdoin College flight training program, Wood-Kelly was accepted when the twelve-person program failed to locate a twelfth male applicant. She received her pilot's license in 1939, and in a short time she became a flight instructor herself in the Bowdoin program. In 1942 Wood-Kelly was recruited by Jacqueline Cochran to become one of the twenty-four American women flyers to serve in the British Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA). From 1942 to 1945, she ferried more than 900 planes of 75 different models to destinations in England and France. In recognition of her wartime service to the United Kingdom, Wood-Kelly was awarded the King's Medal by King George IV. After the war, she served as the First Assistant to America's first Civil Air Attaché, based at the US Embassy in London. Later Wood-Kelly returned to the United States where she held management positions for several airlines including Northeast Airlines, Pan American Airways, and Air New England. In 1964, she was appointed to the Women's Advisory Committee on Aviation by Lyndon B. Johnson. Throughout her aviation career Wood-Kelly was active in a variety of aviation organizations, including the National Aeronautic Association, the Aero Club of New England, and the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA).