Feeling ‘Quite Young,’ 70 Years On

Joy Lofthouse is a 92-year-old Air Transport Auxiliary veteran. She returned to the skies in a Spitfire 70 years on from the end of World War II.

Joy said that the experience of flying the iconic plane again, seven decades later, as “lovely: it was perfect,” and made her feel “quite young.”

The ATA made an enormous contribution to the war effort by taking over from service pilots the task of ferrying Royal Air Force and Royal Navy warplanes between factories, maintenance units and front-line squadrons.