Air World – The Bell Bookshop

Squadrons Scramble!

Emma — Sun, 30 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Feel your pulse race and your heart pound as you follow the pilots of The Few running for their aircraft as the alarms sound and the enemy attack for a second time on a day of glory and death over the sunny skies of southern England. Then, beyond the Spitfire Summer of 1940, how the RAF’s pilots scrambled to defy the enemy over the battered ruins of Malta, the George Cross Island, or to defend Britain at night during the blacked out months of the Blitz.The prelude to D-Day, the disastrous raid on Dieppe was the scene of the RAF’s biggest air battle up to that point in the war, and Operation Overlord was shielded by the overwhelming aerial might of the 2nd Tactical Air Force. All these momentous events are told through the words of those pilots who fought in the unforgiving arena of the dogfight where a single moment can turn victory into defeat, life into certain death.Voices in Flight: Squadrons Scramble! goes beyond the air war in Europe into the baked plains and jungle-clad mountains of northeast India and Burma, where the enemy sported the Rising Sun instead of the Swastika and Hurricane fighters became Hurri-bombers.Every theatre is on show in this absorbing book, including Greece, the Mediterranean, and Russia, with an account from Hero of the Soviet Union Lieutenant Colonel Boris Safonov, who flew his Hurricane along with British pilots in the Arctic.Compiled by the renowned aviation historian Martin Bowman, this collection of wonderfully related stories of aerial combat, from a wide variety of pilots, some well-known, not only demonstrate the bravery and bravado of the knights of the air but also sheds light on the differing challenges of the campaigns fought as far afield as the North Sea and Singapore.

Barnstormers, Wing-Walking and Flying Circuses

Emma — Wed, 30 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

While large numbers of aeroplanes had been produced In America for the war effort overseas at the Western Front, it was found that that the British, French and Germans were far ahead of them when it came to flight technology, which led to a huge surplus of aeroplanes in the United States. The government’s solution to recover some of the money was to sell the surplus stock off for as little as $200 dollars each. With no licence being required to fly a plane, the offer attracted many ex-fighter pilots as well as civilians, who developed a new American pastime known as barnstorming. Part entertainers, part thrill-seekers, the barnstormers made their way across the country as solo acts and in groups called ‘Flying Circuses’. The American flier Ormer Locklear wowed the crowds by climbing out of his aeroplane and walk along the wing, and it wasn’t long before flying circuses held less appeal for spectators if it didn’t have a wing-walking act. Handstands, jumps across planes, and even the odd game of tennis were attempted by barnstormers to attract larger paying audiences. In 1936, the US Government banned wing-walking under 1,500 ft, which doomed aerial stunting, and while a few wing-walking teams operated in the 1970s, it wasn’t until barnstormer Vic Norman founded his famous AeroSuperBatics wing-walking team in the early 1980s that the sight of daredevils hand-standing and flying upside down on the wing was seen in Europe. Several teams around the world subsequently formed using aeroplanes such as the Boeing Stearman or the Curtiss ‘Jenny’ biplanes to wow crowds as a part of regular air displays, and their appeal has continued to rise since the 2000s.