Annette Elizabeth Mahon

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Annette Elizabeth Mahon (21 October 1918 – 7 October 2013) was an Irish pilot and the only Irish woman to fly with the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) during World War II. She earned the nickname Queen of the Barracudas for flying the Fairey Barracuda aircraft regularly after they entered service in 1943.

Born in Dublin, she was one of six children. Her father worked for the Post Office, and she later trained at a Sacred Heart school and worked for an accountancy firm before the war. Inspired by a ride in Alan Cobham’s Flying Circus, she dreamed of flying. At the start of the war she moved to Northern Ireland to drive ambulances with the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF). She heard about the ATA, applied for pilot training in 1942, and was accepted. She trained at Prestwick in Scotland and then ferried aircraft around northern Scotland.

During the war she flew 12 different aircraft, including Spitfires, totaling about 475 flight hours. She especially enjoyed flying the Fairey Barracuda, which led to her nickname. After the war she mostly stayed at home but in 1973 volunteered with the group that became the Royal International Air Tattoo at Fairford.

She married Dr. Maurice Hill in 1947 in London. They had three daughters, though one, Elizabeth, died young in 1966. Her husband worked for the UK Atomic Energy Authority, and the family moved around the UK. Maurice Hill died in 1996. Annette Mahon Hill died in Basingstoke, England, in 2013 at the age of 94.