Molly Rose, 87, was among the former female pilots invited to Downing Street to meet Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Men and women who served in the Air Transport Auxiliary were awarded a special badge of recognition for their contribution to the war effort.

They delivered more than 309,000 aircraft between factories and airfields during the war.

Mrs Rose, of Bampton, also attended a reunion at White Waltham airfield, near Maidenhead, the original headquarters of the ATA, where there was a flypast featuring Second World War aircraft.

She said: "It was a fantastic day and the noise of the planes' engines brought back so many memories."