THE Air Transport Auxiliary has an amazing history, which is largely ignored, explained retired wing commander Eric Viles.

"I feel really sad that more has not been done and said about the ATA," he said. The Chipping Sodbury man has been chairman of the Air Transport Auxiliary Association, an international body, for six years - his wife, Mary, is the group's secretary.

Well-known pilots flew with the ATA, including Amy Johnson, who was killed ferrying an Oxford in 1941, and world-famous racing driver John Cobb.

The King of Siam's son flew with the ATA and Freddie Laker, who flew with the ATA as a flight engineer.

A staggering number of its pilots were women and large percentage of the ATA - 175 pilots out of a force of 600 - lost their lives delivering aircraft.

With war looming, Gerard d'Erlanger, a director of British Airways, felt private pilots in British could be used in some effective way, reliving RAF pilots for combat duty.

Thus, just before war started in September 1939, the ATA came into being and d'Erlanger received about 100 replies from about 1,000 civilian pilots he had written to.

The first 30 reported to the Royal Hotel, Bristol, in late August 1939, ready to be air-tested.

They included publicans, farmers, journalists and First World War pilots.

Within a few days some of these pilots, whose experience had been limited to Gipsy Moths or their equivalent, found themselves delivering Harvards, then Blenheims.

Mr Viles believed the "miracle" of the ATA was the ability of the pilots to climb into a plane they have never flown before and deliver it hundreds of miles.

He said: "It is very very difficult to fly aircraft you have never been in before and you had to fly through all weather."

In January 1940, Pauline Gower, a pilot with several thousand hours' flying, was asked to recruit eight women to ferry Tiger Moth trains from the de Havilland Factory to RAF flying Schools.

At its peak 108 women pilots belonged to the ATA.

Eventually, explained Mr Viles, there were two all-women pools of ATA pilots. Amy Mollison (nee Johnson) met her death ferrying an Airspeed Oxford in January 1941.

Enemy action was an ever-present danger for much of the time the ATA was in existence, but a far more potent enemy was the weather.

Aircraft had to get through if it was humanly possible, often when it was apparently impossible.

Almost all the fatal and other accidents were due to this hazard.

By the time the ATA was disbanded the aircrew include nationals of 22 countries, as well as Brits.

Pilots came from Belgium, Canada, Chile, China and New Zealand to name a few. By November 30, 1945 the ATA's work was considered done. By this time the organisation had ferried 309,011 aircraft - including all the Lancasters to take part in the Dambusters Raid - and 414,984 hours had been flown.

The Air Transport Auxiliary Association was formed in 1946 and has more than 300 members worldwide.

The husbands and wives of ATA pilots are allowed to become associate members. The association meets each year at RAF Lyneham - this year's meeting will mark the organisation's 65th anniversary.

At 77 years old, Mr Viles is one of the association's youngest members.

Mr Viles, who received an MBE in 1969, joined the ATA as a 16-year-old in 1944. He was one of 160 Air Training Corps cadets waiting for RAF call-up to volunteer.

In his time with the ATA he flew in more than 40 different types of aircraft. "For younger people like myself it was very exciting," he explained.