Spitfire Books
OPEN COCKPIT

OPEN COCKPIT

Flying Pre-war Fighting and Training Aircraft

By Wing Commander John Nesbitt-Dufort

  • Price: £ 15

Speed & Sports Publications first edition, first impression 1970. 77 pages and illustrated with  photographs.

Very Fine condition card cover book. Despite its age, this book feels new and unread.

Written by Wing Commander John Nesbitt-Dufort, better known for his volume of memoirs ‘Black Lysander’, this book is a collection of articles written for Pilot and Light Aeroplane magazines about what it was like to fly twelve of the classic inter-war aircraft such as the Siskin, Fury, Hart, Avro 504 and the Gauntlet.

As a qualified flying instructor with over 2000 hours experience at the outbreak of war, the author missed the Battle of Britain because he was engaged in instructional duties but he had the knowledge that he had trained many of ‘The Few’ such as Billy Fiske.  However, he managed to find a way back onto operations with Special Duties Squadrons where he specialised in flying agents in and out of Occupied France on cloak and dagger missions. After crashing in France and evading capture he was awarded the DSO.

DSO Citation 1941: “This officer has carried out 16 operational sorties over enemy territory, involving attacks on aerodromes, as well as other flights of extreme importance. His skill, determination and courage have been of the highest order.”

He returned to test flying and then was CO of 488 (NZ) Squadron during 1943. He later commanded a Night Fighter Wing flying Mosquitos and Spitfires.   In his career he flew over 10,000 hours on over 100 types of aircraft and had first hand knowledge of what it was like to fly many of them in action.

A fascinating little book and especially scarce in this top condition.