New Book – HIGHWAYS TO THE EMPIRE – Long-Distance Flying Between The Wars

HIGHWAYS TO THE EMPIRE – Long-Distance Flying Between The Wars

Colin Cruddas

The name of Sir Alan Cobham pervades the whole of British civil aviation
in the 1920s and 1930s. Beginning as a pioneer joy-riding pilot in the
earliest days of civil aviation through to his one-man campaign to make
Britain air-minded with his National Aviation Day displays and then his
experimentation with in-flight refuelling, Sir Alan was a veritable tour
de force. But he also undertook serious surveying flights throughout
Africa, India and on to Australia – thus linking Britain with its
Empire – which helped form the basis of Imperial Airways’
international route network.

The author, Colin Cruddas, has already covered aspects of Cobham’s
British-based activities in his book Those Fabulous Flying Years. Now
the overseas aspects of Sir Alan’s efforts are recorded in this
follow-up book Highways To The Empire.

However, this is not just the story of Sir Alan’s endeavours, it is
the first time an author has woven together and put into the context of
the time all the threads of long-distance flying across the Atlantic and
to the extremities of the British Empire – the survey flights, the
various record-breaking attempts by the likes of Jim & Amy Mollison, CWA
Scott and Alex Henshaw as well as the many other flights undertaken
simply by adventurers or publicity-seekers.

ISBN 0 85130 376 5 A4 HARDBACK & DUSTJACKET
256 PAGES INCLUDING OVER 400 BLACK & WHITE ILLUSTRATIONS
Foreword by Alex Henshaw

Available to order from http://www.air-britain.co.uk