In 1945 Britain was the world's leading designer & builder of aircraft
- a world-class achievement that was not mere rhetoric. & 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 & the Lightning which could zoom ten miles above the clouds in a couple of minutes & whose pilots rated flying it as better than sex. Just what was it like to be alive in that marvellous post-war moment when innovative new British aircraft made their debut & pilots were the rock stars of the age? In this special fully illustrated & lavishly produced large format hardback edition James' text is joined by glorious photographs that precisely capture the elegance excitement & genius of these extraordinary aircraft & offer a behind the scenes glimpse into a lost world of pioneering design engineering & the daring of a generation of test pilots.