The Sky Their Frontier

By 1918, only fifteen years since the Wright brothers made their historic flight at Kitty Hawk, aviation was no longer in its infancy. The demands of total war had turned the aircraft into a killing machine of awesome potential. On the other hand, the aircraft's usefulness as a source of commercial revenue had yet to be explored, and in this context the obstacles seemed almost insurmountable. Commercial aircraft had to have range, speed and adequate size; they had to be able to fly in all kinds of climatic conditions, transporting their payloads efficiently and in safety.
At the end of the First World War, no such aircraft existed. Yet only a decade later, a new generation of airliners was plying the world's embryo air routes, and new and exciting machines capable of spanning the great oceans were on the drawing boards.
It was one of mankind's greatest technological triumphs, and one that would not have been possible without the courage and determination of a relatively small band of men; not only the aircrews, but also the managers of the world's pioneer airlines and the financiers who were prepared to stake fortunes on what was then very much an unknown quantity.
In The Sky, Their Frontier, Robert Jackson tells the full story of the development of civil aviation throughout the world, during the formative years between 1920 and 1940. It is a story of men and machines, braving enormous hazards to carve out regular air services across the Atlantic and Pacific, the vastness of the Asian and African continents, and exploring the air links between east and west over the icy wastes of the Polar regions. The tale was often one of disaster, of machines and crews disappearing without trace over ocean, desert or jungle. But the quest continued; as man's quest for knowledge and advancement will always continue.
The fruits of that quest are visible throughout the world today, in the contrails of the great jet airliners that carve their passage through the stratosphere six miles and more above the earth. It should never be forgotten that in the shadow of those contrails fly the ghosts of airliners of times long past, and of the gallant pioneers who flew them.


by Robert Jackson
Published by Airlife 1983 1st edition. 160pp profusely illustrated, index. 21x27 v/good, d/j good (covered in clear plastic and stuck to inner boards.)





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