The Genealogical Society  of Victoria Inc. 

Books > General

Taking to the Skies: The story of British Aviation 1903-1939
	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. The first manned, powered flight in the world took place in 1903. The event itself went almost unrecorded but the cork had left the bottle. 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 Claude Grahame-White, Geoffrey de Havilland, and Thomas Sopwith. They were urged on by the popular newspapers such as Northcliffe’s Daily Mail that sponsored races and air events in lavish fashion. Covering the period up to 1939, the book describes the frustrations of early trials and experiments, the development of military aircraft during the First World War, 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 1938 when the first production Spitfire emerged from the Supermarine Woolston Works near Southampton –‘the aeroplane of one’s dream’s, as Douglas Bader later described it. Graham Smith’s book recalls the era of peril and exhilaration, when both aeroplanes and pilots fought the elements together. These were determined men and woman who endured unreliable instruments, bitter cold wind, and the deafening roar of the engine, as they pushed back the frontiers of flight. Graham Smith served in the RAF in the 1950s and has been an aviation enthusiast ever since. His books include many of the titles in Countryside Books’ best selling series on airfields in the Second World War, including volumes on Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex. His most recent was The Mighty Eighth in the Second World War. Author: Graham Smith A5; pbk; 320pp with bibliography & index.