Air Ferry Squadrons of World War II

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United States U.S. Military World War II Air Ferry Squadrons

VRF-1 Squadron Insignia

From a military field, the largest being Floyd Bennett Field in New York, ferry pilots flew to the aircraft factories in transport planes, picked up the newly-built planes, and flew them back to the Field. After the aircraft were tested, accepted and commissioned, ferry pilots delivered the majority of these newly-built aircraft to the West Coast.

Naval Air Ferry Command Transcontinental Ferry Route, c. 1943

The main transcontinental ferry routes were laid out so that there would be airports or airfields where the planes could stop; these fields included ferry service units that specialized in providing ground support for the aircraft being ferried. The ferry pilots returned to the East Coast either on commercial flights or by flying battle-worn planes or new planes produced on the West Coast.

Naval Air Ferry Command

In 1944, Captain John W. King, USN, Commanding Air Ferons, issued the following commendation: "We of the Naval Air Ferry Command, although not in direct contact with the enemy in the performance of our duties, have a vital and direct link with the fleet and those engaged in combat. By the safe delivery of virtually all the new production service type aircraft to the fleet commands, we insure an adequate flow of the aerial means for the accomplishment of the mission of the Navy - the destruction of the enemy. By furnishing pilots for training and assignment to duty with the fleet, we participate, ourselves, directly and indirectly, in actual combat. It is no coincidence that former pilots of the Ferry Command have flown in combat the very airplane they formerly ferried to the shoreline where it was delivered to the fleet. Enlisted personnel of this Command are receiving experience and training in the maintenance, repair, and as members of flight crews, of combat aircraft. This better fits them for duty afloat and overseas with these very aircraft. The Ferry Command, and its accomplishments, brings us fair pride in the part we have played, and are continuing to play each day, in delivering, safely and expeditiously, the critical combat aircraft that the fleet needs to complete the utter destruction of our enemies in this war."

Websites

WAVE operating radio equipment at the control tower, NAS- New York, 1943.

• U. S. National Park Service. Floyd Bennett Field Aircraft Delivery Unit and Naval Air Ferry Command Deliver the Planes in World War II.
• U. S. National Park Service. Floyd Bennett Field:Naval Aviation's Home in Brooklyn
• Naval Air Ferry Command 1943-1945 Squadrons VRF-1, VRF-2, VRF-3, VRF-4, under command of NATS, Naval Air Transport Service.
• Naval Air Ferry Command, WAVES Stories Remembrances of Navy WAVES of Floyd Bennett Field.
• Bureau of Aeronautics, USN. Air Ferry Pilot Procedure, IN BRIEF
• Styles, Ruth for MailOnline. The female Top Guns of World War II: Inside the RAF squadron Britain's Air Transport Auxiliary employed 168 female pilots during the Second World War. DailyMail.com Wednesday, February 10, 2016.
• Felhofer, Mark W., PO1 USN, Retired. Naval Air Transport Chronology of Significant Events in Naval Aviation.
• Craven, W. F. and Cate, J. L., Ed. The Army Air Forces In World War II, VI Men and Planes Chapter 11, The AAF's Logistical Organization.
• Air Transport Command. S.A.A.F. Combat Cargo Groups of the Second World War.
• Atlantic Ferry Command Aircraft Deliveries to Britain. North Atlantic Ferry Museum 2016.

Comparison of F4F Wildcats with and without folded wings c1942.

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