Benedetta Willis

Benedetta Willis (25 January 1914– December 2008) was one of the first women RAF pilots to get her wings.

Life
Willis was born in 1914 in Famagusta, Cyprus. She came to the UK when she was ten. A lifelong interest in flying lead her to the Insurance Flying Club in London. Her husband, Charles Henry Willis, was an instructor there when they met. They married and started a family. They also bought a plane. Willis worked as an architects assistant, but when World War II began her husband joined up and encouraged his wife to join the Air Transport Auxiliary. Willis became a First Officer when she joined up on 1 September 1941. She left Air Transport Auxiliary on 3 August 1943, a year after flying her first Spitfire because she was pregnant. She went on to have a total of four children. After the war, in 1953, Willis joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. Her RAF wings were awarded 18 August 1953. She and her husband retired to Bembridge, Isle of Wight. Charles Willis died in 1990 aged 81. Willis herself died in 2008.

First five
Jean Bird, Benedetta Willis, Jackie Moggridge, Freydis Leaf and Joan Hughes were the first five women to be awarded their wings. The next didn't gain wings until Julie Ann Gibson in 1991.