Atlantic Ferry Organization

Royal Air Force Ferry Command
Active	20 July 1941–25 March 1943
Country	United Kingdom
Branch	Royal Air Force
Type	Command
Role	Aircraft delivery
Engagements	World War II

RAF Ferry Command was a Royal Air Force command formed on 20 July 1941 to ferry aircraft from the place of manufacture or other non-operational areas, to the front line operational units, e.g., the squadrons. It was subsumed into the new Transport Command on 25 March 1943 by being reduced to Group status. It had a short life, but it spawned, in part, an organisation that lasted well beyond the war years during which it was formed.

The practice of ferrying aircraft from US manufacturers to the UK was begun by the Ministry of Aircraft Production. Its minister, Lord Beaverbrook, a Canadian by origin, reached an agreement with Sir Edward Beatty, a friend and chairman of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, to provide ground facilities and support. MAP would provide civilian crews and management. Former RAF officer Don Bennett, a specialist in long distance flying and later Air Vice Marshal and commander of the Pathfinder force, led the first delivery flight in November 1940. In 1941, MAP took the operation off CPR to put the whole operation under the Atlantic Ferry Organization ("Atfero") which was set up by Morris W. Wilson, a banker in Montreal. Wilson hired civilian pilots to fly the aircraft to the UK. The pilots were then ferried back. "Atfero hired the pilots, planned the routes, selected the airports [and] set up weather and radiocommunication stations."

Aircraft were first transported to Dorval Airport near Montreal, and then flown to RCAF Station Gander in Newfoundland for the trans-Atlantic flight.

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