WINGS

Captain Henri Biard ~ British winner of the 1922 Schneider Trophy

Hurst & Blackett First edition 1934.  288 pages with 25 photographs

Very Good condition hardback book in clean blue boards with gilt titles on the spine. Internally it is generally clean with some scattered spotting which affects a minority of the pages. The binding is very solid, tight and square.  The dustjacket is in exceptional condition for its age, complete, unclipped and without repair. The spine has only a hint of sun fade.. 

An extremely scarce aviation autobiography from one of the early test pilots. Biard was Chief Test Pilot of Supermarine from 1920-1933, was a close friend of RJ Mitchell and competed three times in the Schneider Trophy races. Written in a light hearted style it gives all sorts of fascinating detail and anecdotes about pioneer flying and the characters who were at the forefront of aviation.

Henri Biard was the British winner of the Schneider Trophy in 1922 flying an RJ Mitchell designed Supermarine Sea Lion II with a speed of 145 mph.  Previously he had been a pioneer aviator, recording his first flight in 1909 with no previous instruction.  Gaining Royal Aero Club Certificate 218, he flew with Hamel, Grahame-White, Paulhan and Cody in pre-war days and as a wartime instructor taught some of the famous WW1 flyers.  He saw some active service in the RNAS and in 1920 applied for and got a job as test pilot at Supermarines and in due course rose to become Chief Test Pilot.  In 1925 he set a world speed record in the Supermarine S4 and survived a high speed crash in it while preparing for the Schneider race in Baltimore USA. Biard left the company in 1933 when it merged with Vickers, flew non-operationally in the RAF during WWII and passed away in 1966.

A really nice copy of an exceptionally hard to find old flying memoir which has never been republished. The dustjacket in particular is vanishingly rare and a better one is unlikely to be found.