Aviation in Leicestershire and Rutland

Ref: 5258

SOLD In stock

Price: £35.00

sadly, flyingbooks is now closed.

{detailed description}From the earliest balloon ascent in 1813 and the experimentations of Percy Pilcher, Leicestershire and Rutland have been in the vanguard of British aviation development. Until now, no one book has covered this fascinating story. This is a loving and definitive account of the many aspects of aviation the area has experienced, from First World War anti-Zeppelin stations and the flying circuses of the 1920s, to the RAF Bomber Command raids on the Reich, the USAAF operations with their Troop Carrier units, and the USAF and RAF photo-recce and nuclear-capable bombers of the cold-war period. The counties' airfields have also been used for ab initio and advanced pilot training, for RAF transport aircraft, for aircraft ferrying units, for Thor IRBM and Bloodhound anti-aircraft missiles, as a major gliding centre, as well as for aircraft maintenance and refurbishment. The jet engine was born in Lutterworth, Spitfires were built at Desford, the Auster light aircraft family was created at Rearsby and a diverse range of post-war military aircraft made first flights from Bitteswell. Today the RAF fly some of their most potent first-line jets from Cottesmore and the most modern of airliners fly daily within the area from one of the country's leading regional airports. This magnum opus contains a mine of information in a text that extends beyond 250,000 words and is complemented by no less than 660 photographs, most of which have never been published before. It has been carefully designed to appeal to students, historians and enthusiasts, living in, or with links to, the counties.

Cover illustration: A wartime scene representative of several airfields in the counties. The groundcrew prepare Vickers Wellingtons of N014 OTU for more arduous training flights from their base at Cottesmore. The inset on the back cover is an air-to-air photograph by Klaus Kropf of a Cottesmore-based aircraft of more recent times - an RAF Panavia Tornado GR.I of the Tri-National Tornado Training Establishment. Reproduced from a specially commissioned painting by Roy Gamer GAvA
{Author / Publisher / Date}by Roy Bonser
published by Midland Publishing 2001 1st edn. 392pp profusely illustrated, index, appendix, bibliography 22x30
{condition}fine, d/j slightly rubbed at edges
{delivery info}