RAF Ferry Command

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

The RAF Ferry Command, formed on 20 July 1941, subsumed into the new Transport Command on 25 March 1943 by being reduced to Group status, had the purpose of delivering ('to ferry') aircraft from the place of manufacture or other non-operational areas, to the front line operational units, e.g., the squadrons. 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") 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."

The organization was passed to Air Ministry administration though retaining civilian pilots, some of which were Americans, alongside RAF pilots, navigators and British radio operators. The crews were briefed by local meteorologists like R. E. Munn. After completing delivery crews were flown back to Canada for the next run.

Ferry Command was formed on 20 July 1941, by the raising of the RAF Atlantic Ferry Service to Command status. Its commander for its whole existence was Air Chief Marshal Sir Frederick Bowhill.

As its name suggests, the main function of Ferry Command was the ferrying of new aircraft from factory to operational unit. Ferry Command did this over only one area of the world, rather than the more general routes that Transport Command later developed. The Command's operational area was the north Atlantic, and its responsibility was to bring the larger aircraft that had the range to do the trip over the ocean from American and Canadian factories to the RAF home Commands.

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