Ferry flying is the flying of aircraft for the purpose of returning to base, delivery to a customer, moving from one base of operations to another or moving to or from a maintenance facility for
maintenance, repair, and operations
The technical meaning of maintenance involves functional checks, servicing, repairing or replacing of necessary devices, equipment, machinery, building infrastructure, and supporting utilities in industrial, business, and residential install ...
.
A commercial airliner may need to be moved from one airport to another to satisfy the next day's timetable or facilitate routine maintenance; this is commonly known as a positioning flight or repositioning flight, and may carry revenue freight or passengers as local aviation regulations and airline policies allow.
They may also be necessary following a major weather event or other similar disruption which causes multiple cancellations across an airline's network resulting in many aircraft and crew being 'out of position' for normal operations; the
2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull or the mass evacuation of US airspace following the
9/11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerci ...
being significant examples of this.
Ferry permit
A ferry permit is a written authorization issued by a
National Airworthiness Authority to move a non-
airworthy
In aviation, airworthiness is the measure of an aircraft's suitability for safe flight. Initial airworthiness is demonstrated by a certificate of airworthiness issued by the civil aviation authority in the state in which the aircraft is registe ...
civil aircraft from its present location to a maintenance facility to be inspected, repaired and returned to an airworthy state.
Ferry pilots
Louise Sacchi flew single- and multi-engine planes 340 times across both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, breaking several records in the process.
Other notable ferry pilots include:
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Helen Marcelle Harrison Bristol
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Lettice Curtis
Eleanor Lettice Curtis (1 February 1915 – 21 July 2014) was an English aviator, flight test engineer, air racing pilot, and sportswoman.
Origins
Curtis was born on 1 February 1915 at Denbury in Devon, a daughter of Eleanor Francis (née Mast ...
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Maureen Dunlop de Popp
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Mary Ellis
Mary Ellis (born May Belle Elsas, June 15, 1897 – January 30, 2003) was an American actress and singer appearing on stage, radio, television and film, best known for her musical theatre roles, particularly in Ivor Novello works. After appe ...
, WWII pilot in the United Kingdom
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Luis Fontés
Luis Fontés (26 December 1912 – 12 October 1940) was a British racing driver of Brazilian parentage who, along with John Stuart Hindmarsh, won the 1935 24 Hours of Le Mans for the Lagonda automobile company and won the inaugural Limerick Gr ...
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Joan Hughes
Joan Lily Amelia Hughes, MBE (27 April 1918 – 16 August 1993) was a World War II ferry pilot and one of Britain's first female test pilots. She was considered a capable instructor and flew everything except flying boats.
Early life
Hughe ...
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Amy Johnson
Amy Johnson (born 1 July 1903 – disappeared 5 January 1941) was a pioneering English pilot who was the first woman to fly solo from London to Australia.
Flying solo or with her husband, Jim Mollison, she set many long-distance records du ...
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Jim Mollison
James Allan Mollison MBE (19 April 1905 – 30 October 1959) was a Scottish pioneer aviator who, flying solo or with his wife, Amy Johnson, set many records during the rapid development of aviation in the 1930s.
Early years
Born on 19 ...
(Amy Johnson's husband)
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Robert Neale
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Robert Olds
Robert Olds (June 15, 1896 – April 28, 1943) was a general officer in the United States Army Air Forces, theorist of strategic air power, and proponent of an independent United States Air Force. Olds is best known today as the father of Brig. ...
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Jarvis Offutt
First Lieutenant Jarvis Jenness Offutt (October 26, 1894 – August 13, 1918) was an American aviator from Omaha, Nebraska, who died in World War I. Offutt Air Force Base is named in his honor.
Early life
Born and raised in Omaha, Offutt was ...
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Jadwiga Piłsudska
Jadwiga Piłsudska-Jaraczewska (; 28 February 1920 – 16 November 2014) was a Polish pilot, who served in the Air Transport Auxiliary during the Second World War. She was one of two daughters of Józef Piłsudski.
Life and career
Piłsudska ...
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C. W. A. Scott
Flight Lieutenant Charles William Anderson Scott, AFC (13 February 1903 – 15 April 1946Dunnell ''Aeroplane'', November 2019, p. 46.) was an English aviator. He won the MacRobertson Air Race, a race from London to Melbourne, in 1934, in a tim ...
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Diana Barnato Walker
Diana Barnato Walker MBE FRAeS (15 January 1918 – 28 April 2008) was a pioneering British aviator. In World War II, she became one of the first women pilots of the Air Transport Auxiliary, flying 80 types of aircraft and delivering 260 Spitfir ...
See also
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Air Transport Auxiliary
The Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) was a British civilian organisation set up at the start of the Second World War with headquarters at White Waltham Airfield in Berkshire. The ATA ferried new, repaired and damaged military aircraft between factori ...
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Dead mileage
Dead mileage, dead running, light running, empty cars or deadheading in public transport and empty leg in air charter is when a revenue-gaining vehicle operates without carrying or accepting passengers, such as when coming from a garage to be ...
, a similar concept in ground transportation
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Ferry range
The maximal total range is the maximum distance an aircraft can fly between takeoff and landing. Powered aircraft range is limited by the aviation fuel energy storage capacity (chemical or electrical) considering both weight and volume limits. U ...
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RAF Ferry Command
RAF Ferry Command was the secretive Royal Air Force command formed on 20 July 1941 to ferry urgently needed aircraft from their place of manufacture in the United States and Canada, to the front line operational units in Britain, Europe, North Af ...
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United Kingdom aircraft test serials
United Kingdom aircraft test serials are used to externally identify aircraft flown within the United Kingdom without a full Certificate of Airworthiness. They can be used for testing experimental and prototype aircraft or modifications, pre-deli ...
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Women Airforce Service Pilots
The Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) (also Women's Army Service Pilots or Women's Auxiliary Service Pilots) was a civilian women pilots' organization, whose members were United States federal civil service employees. Members of WASP became t ...
References
Further reading
* {{cite news , url= https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/business-aviation/2018-04-05/long-trip-tbm-910 , title= A Long Trip in a TBM 910 , work= AIN , first= Matt , last= Thurber , date= April 5, 2018
Aircraft operations
Aviation by mission