| Notes: Includes 2 Imperial airways luncheon tickets? menu? 1 is creased, both have the a name in ink on the back. Jacket has light wear, binding sound, front endpage has the previous owner's name in ink, dated 1970. This book spans the first 50 years of British commercial aviation, from the early pioneering flights by a handful of converted 1918 warplanes and their pilots through the great days of Imperial Airways, which blazed new airline trails across Europe to the Middle East and Australia and westward to the Americas. From this inheritance grew the BOAC of today, the first airlinne ever to fly jets and a world leader in international air transport. The story of its trials, tribulations and triumphs is objectively and readably written and is illustrated by maps and over 270 evocative photographs, many of them never published before. From the great Handley Pages and elegant "Empire" flying boats of the thirties to the jets of today and the jumbos and Concordes of tomorrow, all are here in the first fully pictorial record of Britain's premier airline. |