Taking to the Skies: The Story of British Aviation 1903-1939

Amazingly, the first manned, powered flight in the world took place only a hundred years ago. The event itself went almost unrecorded. But the cork had left the bottle and, with rapid momentum, the race was on for faster and longer ranged aeroplanes, buoyed up by huge public enthusiasm for the pioneer aviators such as A.V.Roe, Charles Rolls, Geoffrey de Havilland, and Thomas Sopwith. They were urged on by the popular newspapers such as Northcliffe's Daily Mail which sponsored races and air events in lavish fashion. This book is the story of the early days of British Aviation and the part it played in the evolution and growth of man's mastery of the air. Covering the period up to 1939, it describes the frustrations of early trials and experiments; the development of military aircraft during the First World War; the intense popularity of flying with air shows and flying circuses attended by vast crowds; and the desperate competition for both military and civil air supremacy during the 1920s and 1930s. Britain's quest for continuing improvement culminated in July 1939 when the first production Spitfire emerged from the Vickers Woolston Works near Southampton — the aeroplane of one's dreams, as Douglas Bader later described it.