Empire of the Clouds: The Golden Era of Britain's Aircraft

Author: Hamilton-Paterson, James

Brand: Penguin Random House

Edition: Main

Binding: paperback

Number Of Pages: 416

Release Date: 05-04-2018

model number: 9780571341481

Part Number: 9780571341481

Details: 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 better than sex.

How did Britain so lose the plot that today there is not a single aircraft manufacturer of any significance in the country? What became of the great industry of de Havilland or Handley Page? And what was it like to be alive in that marvellous post-war moment when innovative new British aircraft made their debut, and pilots were the rock stars of the age?

EAN: 9780571341481

Package Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1.1 inches

Languages: English