Airborne - Neil Williams

Airborne
Very few pilots, if any, can claim a flying career as varied and audacious as Neil Williams – RAF pilot, test pilot, noted film and demonstration pilot, acclaimed air display pilot, charter pilot, 13 times British Aerobatic Champion and, in many observer’s eyes, the rightful World Aerobatic Champion.

With a reputation for being able to handle the rarest, oldest and most difficult - and even dangerous - aeroplanes, the pages of Neil Williams’ book is filled with evocative types from Spitfire, Mosquito, Lancaster, Sea Fury, Yak, Harvard and Heinkel; to Sopwith Pup, 1912 Monoplane and de Havilland Humming Bird. From Meteor, Canberra and Hunter to Tiger Moth, Pitts and Falcon executive jet.

Neil Williams’ airborne experiences were no less adventurous: the exhilaration of a Spitfire first solo; the loneliness of being lost at night over the Indian Ocean; the catastrophic experience of crashing an aircraft in front of 80,000 air show spectators; and his amazing crash landing following an in-flight structural failure – a feat which has entered aviation legend and for which he was awarded the Queen’s Commendation for Valuable Service in the Air.

Now this classic work, one of the best flying books ever written, is re-published with dozens of previously unpublished photographs and three new chapters. This is a book to inspire, a book that captures the true essence, adventure and romance of flight. This is the story of an extraordinary pilot’s life lived to the full in the only place that matters – Airborne.