John Frazer has always known his destiny is to be a Royal Air Force pilot. As a young man, he zealously studies vast amounts of technical information on ships and aircraft and their operation. By the time he is trained to fly in Rhodesia, it is July 1951, and John is ready for anythingor so he thinks.As John trains over the vast grasslands of Africa, he feels far removed from Europe, where storm clouds are gathering and a Cold War is brewing. After John graduates at the top of his ...

Southern England. Late summer 1940. The nation is fighting for its very survival and the Luftwaffe's aerial offensive is unrelenting. All that lies between invasion and salvation for Britain is the 'thin blue line' of RAF Fighter Command and its pilots.This newly illustrated anniversary edition of Life as a Battle of Britain Pilot reveals what it was like to fly a fighter plane in the Battle of Britain. Who were the Spitfire and Hurricane pilots of 1940? H...

My name is Leslie Joy (Les to my friends), and I was born on the 16th March 1923 in Bradford, Yorkshire. This is my true story of how at the age of 19 I joined the RAF, fell in love with a Tiger Moth, got my wings and flew as a Lancaster Bomber pilot in World War II, and survived just!

Our Lancaster raced over the perimeter track and then tore down the slope through the dispersal area... with its wheels thumping on the grass but still firmly on the ground. It now seemed that nothing could save us and that, in the next couple of moments, we would disappear in a great explosion. I could hear Bob saying "Get off the ground, you bastard, get off," while Harry just said nothing..."Into the Darkness" is the true story of a young Australian thown into the crucible of th...

THE WORLD'S GREATEST TEST PILOT TELLS HIS STORY'When you read through his life story, it makes James Bond seem like a bit of a slacker'Kirsty Young, Desert Island Discs'The greatest test pilot who ever lived. A true inspiration'Tim Peake, astronaut and former regular British Army Air Corps officer'The stories beggar belief'Guardian'Fascinating...

This book takes you, raid by raid, through the author's tour of operational duty over the last five months of 1944. It is a bomber pilot's story, but it is also about the grinding operational pressure, the brotherhood of the crew and fears of injury and death. It is about a squadron of Bomber Command that bore a barely-equalled burden in operational effort and losses. It is about young airmen the author knew, who lived and too often died amid the turmoil in enemy skies.

This WWII memoir of an NCO Royal Air Force pilot offers a vivid, personal account of wartime life and dangerous operations over Europe.In 1941, Graham White was passing a Royal Air Force recruiting center and, on the spur of the moment, signed up. As a non-commissioned RAF pilot, he went on to fly long-range night-fighters against the Luftwaffe. White experienced badly designed and dangerous aircraft, such as the Beaufighter with its Merlin engine. But he also flew...

'An extraordinarily gripping and powerful story' Evening Standard'An intimate account . . . rich in detail' James Holland________Two months before the outbreak of the Second World War, eighteen-year-old Geoffrey Wellum becomes a fighter pilot with the RAF . . .Desperate to get in the air, he makes it through basic training to become the youngest Spitfire pilot in the prestigious 92 S...

In 1940, against the backdrop of the Battle of Britain, 66 Squadron's commanding officer, Squadron Leader Athol Forbes, asked ten of his pilots to record their experiences of flying one of the greatest aerial battles ever waged. The Ten Fighter Boys, published in 1942, comprised the first-hand accounts of pilot officers and sergeant pilots from all walks of life. Among them was Sergeant Jimmy Corbin, who wrote the third chapter. He was 23 – old by pilot standards ...

In 1945 Britain was the world's leading designer and builder of aircraft -- a world-class achievement that was not mere rhetoric. And what aircraft they were. The sleek Comet, the first jet airliner. The awesome delta-winged Vulcan, an intercontinental bomber that could be thrown about the sky like a fighter. The Hawker Hunter, the most beautiful fighter-jet ever built and the Lightning, which could zoom ten miles above the clouds in a couple of minutes and whose pilots rated flying it as ...

An in-depth look at some of the 20th century's notoriously terrible aircraft.Many aircraft, some famous and some rare, gained a reputation for being difficult to fly and sometimes downright dangerous. This book looks at some of the worst culprits over a period spanning World War I to the age of supersonic flight. The following aircraft are included . . .B.E.2: The Royal Flying Corps went to war in it in 1914. The B.E. was easy to fly and very stable—but it wa...

"A good read both to aviators in general and to the Lightning fraternity in particular" ( Royal Air Force Historical Society).According to a recent international study, the Lightning is the fifth most popular military aircraft of all time. With over twenty individual stories from former Lightning pilots, this book relates the highs and lows, the dramas and the demands of those who operated this iconic aircraft until its sharp end.Tales include the ...