Flying The North Atlantic

The North Atlantic is one of Man's most challenging barriers, and a three-thousandmile-wide water mass that has only recently been conquered by aviation in this century. After the first direct flight across the North Atlantic by Allcock and Brown, the path from Europe to America has been the focus for technological development and commercial enterprise on a huge scale. In this absorbing illustrated history, Jim Barry traces the beginnings of the first flying boats, the establishment of scheduled flights and the building of airports such as Heathrow and New York International.
Accounts of the haphazard early days of Foynes and Shannon airfields in Ireland are recounted with humour: before the arrival of the telephone a gentleman on horseback was employed to let the staff know of the imminent arrival of any aeroplane at Foynes. In addition, the most important breakthroughs are recorded, such as the first chartered non-stop flight from Britain to America, the wartime shuttle service and the beginning of the tourst flights.
With a backdrop of the competitive rivalry of Pan Am, BOAC, and Imperial Airways, the technological progress of aircraft construction makes fascinating reading. Photographs of the first flying boats, the Sikorsky 42, and the 'pick-a-backs'— powerful mother planes used to launch smaller aircraft from their backs—are included. In addition, the early Boeings portray the vanguard of the transatlantic crossings, and the more recent illustrations of Concorde and the experimental hypersonic spacecraft show the future of flight to come.
6 colour photographs
100 black and white photographs 20 line illustrations


by Jim Barry
Published by Batsford 1987 1st edition. 144pp profusely illustrated with mostly b&w photos, 4pp in colour, index, bibliography. 19x25 near mint in price clipped d/j.
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Note:
"Long" descriptions, where shown, may have been taken from the book's dust jacket notes, and as such are relevant to the date of publication (e.g. any references to "new edition" "previously unpublished photographs" etc.) and not the present.