Billie Swift Takes Flight
The year is 1941. In a field near her home, twelve-year-old Billie Swift witnesses the crash of a Spitfire fighter plane. Billie has a huge interest in aircraft and indeed would love to become a pilot. It is therefore not surprising that Billie becomes fixated on a question: has the pilot survived the crash? Seeking an answer to this question, Billie visits the airfield at White Waltham. By lying about her age, she succeeds in joining the ATA, the Air Transport Auxiliary, whose pilots had the task of delivering aircraft to combat bases.
At this stage of the book, the credulity of the reader is tested to the limit. Billie’s mother apparently believes she is still at school, while in reality she is learning to fly combat aircraft.
Billie notices that one of the ATA pilots is behaving suspiciously. For a start he has a car which is much more expensive than his position would suggest. And when Billie searches his car she finds a list of many different foods, suggesting that he is engaged in black market trading. The remainder of the novel explains how Billie progresses in the ATA. The text contains a great deal of information about the different aircraft the ATA pilots were ordered to fly, the different characteristics of the different planes. It also describes the relationships developing between the members of a service whose efforts were crucial in the war. It emphasises, for example, the difference in the wages paid to male and female pilots.
Lawrence provides a glossary of the real-life people mentioned in the book.
