Empire of the Clouds: When Britain's Aircraft Ruled the World Book

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? 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? James Hamilton-Paterson captures that season of glory in a compelling book that fuses his own memories of being a schoolboy plane spotter with a ruefully realistic history of British decline - its loss of self confidence and power.It is the story of great and charismatic machines and the men who flew them: heroes such as Bill Waterton Neville Duke John Derry and Bill Beaumont who took inconceivable risks so that we could fly without a second thought.