Empire Of Clouds

Product Description

In 1945 Britain inherited the title of the world's pioneer & leading builder of jet aircraft. And how extraordinary these aircraft were over the next ten years. 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, & the Lightning, which could zoom ten miles above the clouds in a couple of minutes & whose pilots rated flying it as better then sex. By the early 1960's, the designers, the extremely brave test pilots, & the legendary companies they worked for
- Avro, hawker, Vickers, de Havilland
- were gone or facing a bleak future. A heroic & distinguished industry was coming to an end, & now these magnificent planes are much-loved museum pieces. What was it like to be alive in that marvellous post-war decade when innovative new British aircraft made their debut several times a year, & pilots were the rock stars of the age? & how did Britain lose the plot so completely? James Hamilton-Paterson captures that season of glory in a compelling story that fuses his own memories of being a schoolboy plane-spotter with a rueful history of Britain's loss of self confidence & power. It is a glimpse of a vanished world: the exhilarating story of atomic-age aviation pioneers, their great & charismatic machines, & the men who flew them.