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Nancy Stratford
American aviator (born 1919) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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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 in Great Britain during World War II and was later a pioneering helicopter pilot in Alaska.
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Early life
Nancy Jane Miller was born in Los Angeles, California on June 12, 1919.[1][2][3] She flew for the first time at 16 when her brother took her on a sightseeing flight over Los Angeles for her birthday.[4][1] She was enchanted with flying and began studying aviation at Oakland Airport in 1939.[2][3]
Career
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In 1942 she was engaged to be married, but wanted to join the civilian Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA), ferrying warplanes around Great Britain to supply the Royal Air Force.[2] Her fiancé forbade her to go, so she broke off the engagement and went.[4] 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.[1][2]
Returning from the war, she had trouble finding employment in the traditionally male-dominated field.[1] In 1947, she found work with a commercial service in Oregon where she flew, taught, and did bookkeeping.[1] The same year she earned seaplane and helicopter certifications, becoming only the fourth woman in the world licensed to fly helicopters.[1]
In 1960, she became the first woman helicopter operator in Alaska when she and her husband, Arlo Livingston, founded Livingston Copters near Juneau.[2] Among her passengers was mountaineer Edmund Hillary, whom she flew to Alaska's Mendenhall Glacier in 1963.[2] The business still operates, as NorthStar Helicopters.[2]
In 1970, she was forced to give up her pilot's license due to deafness[2] attributed to prolonged exposure to loud engine noise.[4]
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Later life
In 1978, she and her husband sold their helicopter business and moved to Washington.[2]
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.[2] Milton died in 2008.[1]
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.[1][3]
Upon the death of Jaye Edwards in August 2022, Stratford became the last surviving Attagirl, as the women pilots of the ATA were known.[5] She celebrated her 106th birthday in 2025, saying that the real key to long life is "chocolate and vodka tonics".[4]
Honors
In 2008, she was presented with an Air Transport Auxiliary Veterans Badge by British prime minister Gordon Brown.[2][6]
In 2015, she was recognized as an Alaskan Aviation Legend by the Alaska Air Carriers Association.[7]
References
Further reading
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