AIRBORNE

Signed by Neil Williams on the title page
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Signed dedication on half title page

‘To Taffy
With happy memories of  many hours in
our Zlin 226 at Farnborough
Neil’

The dedication is to Squadron Leader Graham ‘Taffy’ Rich AFC who was a wartime PRU pilot
who photographed the Möhne Dam the morning after the Dambuster Raid. He also flew
Mosquitos in the films ‘633 Squadron‘ and ‘Mosquito Squadron’ as well as various
other films including ‘The Blue Max’.  At one time he owned a Spitfire and worked with the
actor and Spitfire owner Cliff Robertson.  He died in 1992.

Airlife First edition 1977.  175 pages and illustrated by Neil’s wife

Fine condition hardback book in a Fine condition unclipped dustjacket.  

This is a book of flying stories, but with a difference. All of these stories are true, covering the experiences of the author as a fighter, test, demonstration, airshow, film, jet charter, and champion aerobatic pilot. The stories include aircraft from the early flying machines to modern military and civil jets.

Read of the exultation of first solos in a Spitfire and a Mosquito, the desolation of being lost over the Indian ocean at night short of fuel in a jet bomber, the humour of receiving a parking ticket after a forced landing, the shattering experience of crashing an airplane in front of a crowd of 80,000 people, and the now legendary story of how the author landed his Zlin after a wing folded in flight, which gained him the Queen’s Commendation for Valuable Service in the Air.

A wide and exciting variety of aircraft are covered including the Spitfire, Mosquito, Sopwith Pup, Hunter, Scimitar, Meteor, Yak, Heinkel and Falcon. The magic of flight is here to be shared; the tranquillity, the excitement, the terror, the humour, and the adventure.

This book was published just before Neil’s untimely death in 1977 when he crashed in a Spanish-built Heinkel He111 that he was ferrying from Madrid to the UK. Neil Williams

A great book of flying adventures and very scarce signed.