Britain's last surviving female World War Two pilot, who flew Spitfires and Hellcats, has died aged 103.
Eleanor Wadsworth died at her home in Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk last month.
She was one of 166 Spitfire Women, who flew planes from factories to airfields as part of the allied war effort.
Born in 1917 in Nottingham, the great-grandmother-of-seven was the last surviving British woman pilot to fly in the Second World War.
The then 25-year-old was originally working as an architect's assistant when she saw a notice recruiting people with no flying experience.
She joined the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) trainee pilot scheme after war broke out in 1939.
Eleanor piloted 22 types of aircraft including Spitfires, Mustangs, Swordfish and Hawker Hurricanes with the Air Transport Auxiliary.
At the end of the war in 1945, Eleanor had flow 590 flying hours, 430 of which were flown solo.
Speaking fondly of her memories in 2018, she said: "The thought of learning to fly for free was a great incentive.
"We would be trained to transport planes and pilots to and from various airfields.
"I was one of the first six to be accepted. Only 25 per cent got verified out of everyone who applied.
"I put my name down without thinking anything else about it and was accepted after passing all the medical checks.
"Anybody who fulfilled the necessary training was quickly accepted.
"It was out of a wide range of people, it wasn't just females - they wanted people who had never flown before."
Eleanor left her mother and her two younger siblings, Janet and George, in Nottingham and was sent to Haddenham Airfield in Buckinghamshire, to start the first leg of her training, over eight decades ago.
Before learning to drive the aircraft she had to do meteorological training, learning the internal combustion, different engines and navigation.
She added: "I was able to fly solo after 12 hours of training - from never being able to fly before.
"But it takes a life time to be able to learn to fly perfectly.
"It is not particularly difficult to learn if you are taught to fly properly.
"You had to have a good idea of maps.
"Navigation was also really important because we never had any air to ground connection in those days.
"We couldn't phone or get in touch with anyone else. Once we were in the air we were on our own."
