WWII Trailblazers. Meet the Canadian women pilots who ferried war planes to the front lines. The ATA was created on the eve of the war to ferry war planes all over the United Kingdom. It used civilian pilots to get the planes into position. Often the ATA pilots flew planes straight from the factories to the operational fields. The ATA freed up the Royal Air Force pilots to do battle in the skies over Britain and Europe against the German Luftwaffe. Finding enough civilian pilots was a challenge for the ATA. Through the war years, more than 1,300 pilots ferried planes in Britain. The need for more and more pilots led the ATA to what was then considered a revolutionary solution. It turned to women pilots from around the world and 166 women were hired and trained to fly the planes of war. The women flew everything from training planes like the Tiger Moth to fighter planes, including the Hurricane and the Spitfire.