Nancy Jane Miller Livingston Stratford (born June 12, 1919) is an American aviator. She transported warplanes as a pilot in the civilian

Air Transport Auxiliary The Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) was a British civilian organisation set up at the start of the Second World War with headquarters at White Waltham Airfield in Berkshire. The ATA ferried new, repaired and damaged military aircraft between fac ...

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and was later a pioneering helicopter pilot in

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

Early life

Nancy Jane Miller was born in Los Angeles, California on June 12, 1919. She flew for the first time at 16 when her brother took her on a sightseeing flight over

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

for her birthday. She was enchanted with flying and began studying aviation at

Oakland Airport Oakland International Airport is an international airport in Oakland, California, United States. The airport is located south of downtown Oakland and east of San Francisco, serving the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. The airport is ...

in 1939.

Career

In 1942 she was engaged to be married, but wanted to join the civilian

(ATA), ferrying warplanes around Great Britain to supply the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

. Her fiancé forbade her to go, so she broke off the engagement and went. She logged around 900 hours of flying and gained experience on about 50 different types of aircraft, saying that her favorite was the

Supermarine Spitfire The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was used by the Royal Air Force and other Allies of World War II, Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. It was the only British fighter produced conti ...

. Returning from the war, she had trouble finding employment in the traditionally male-dominated field. In 1947, she found work with a commercial service in Oregon where she flew, taught, and did bookkeeping. The same year she earned

seaplane A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of takeoff, taking off and water landing, landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their tech ...

and

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...

certifications, becoming only the fourth woman in the world licensed to fly helicopters. In 1960, she became the first woman helicopter operator in

when she and her husband, Arlo Livingston, founded Livingston Copters near

Juneau Juneau ( ; ), officially the City and Borough of Juneau, is the capital of the U.S. state of Alaska, located along the Gastineau Channel and the Alaskan panhandle. Juneau was named the capital of Alaska in 1906, when the government of wha ...

. Among her passengers was mountaineer

Edmund Hillary Sir Edmund Percival Hillary (20 July 1919 – 11 January 2008) was a New Zealand mountaineering, mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropist. On 29 May 1953, Hillary and Sherpa people, Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the Timeline of M ...

, whom she flew to Alaska's

Mendenhall Glacier Mendenhall Glacier () is a glacier about long located in Mendenhall Valley, about from downtown Juneau in the southeast area of the U.S. state of Alaska. The glacier and surrounding landscape is protected as part of the Mendenhall Glacier R ...

in 1963. The business still operates, as NorthStar Helicopters. In 1970, she was forced to give up her pilot's license due to deafness attributed to prolonged exposure to loud engine noise.

Later life

In 1978, she and her husband sold their helicopter business and moved to Washington. After Arlo Livingston died in 1986, Stratford reconnected with a man to whom she had been engaged during the war, Milton Stratford. The two married in 1992 and moved to San Diego. Milton died in 2008. In 2013, encouraged by her niece Peg Miller, she published a memoir titled ''Contact! Britain!: A Woman Ferry Pilot's Story During WWII in England''. Upon the death of Jaye Edwards in August 2022, Stratford became the last surviving Attagirl, as the women pilots of the ATA were known. She celebrated her 106th birthday in 2025, saying that the real key to long life is "chocolate and vodka tonics".

Honors

In 2008, she was presented with an Air Transport Auxiliary Veterans Badge by British prime minister

Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. Previously, he was Chancellor of the Ex ...

. In 2015, she was recognized as an Alaskan Aviation Legend by the Alaska Air Carriers Association.

Early life

Career

Later life

Honors

References

Further reading