Against The Sun Story of Wing Commander Roland Beamont (1955 First) 

Hardcover in Dust jacket

English Electric's P.1, Britain's first truly supersonic fighter, took the air for the first time on August 4th last year. The official announcement credited the P.1 with exceeding the speed of sound in straight and level flight. Foreign reports attributed to it a speed under the same conditions, of well over 1,000 m.p.h. And the man who flew it was Wing Commander Roland Beamont, who in his flying career has been awarded the D.S.O. and bar, O.B.E., D.F.C. and bar, has been mentioned in despatches, and was also awarded the American D.F.C.

Before the P.1, Beamont had put the Canberra jet bomber through its paces. Taken on as English Electric's chief test pilot in 1947, he watched the Canberra grow, stole the 1949 Farn- borough show with an amazing display of its capabilities, and finally used it to turn the Atlantic crossing into a day- return excursion, a flight which won for Beamont and his crew the Royal Aero Club's Britannia trophy for the year's best performance in the air.

Beamont began his flying career as a fighter pilot, first in the Battle of France and on through the Battle of Britain. After two years in Hurricanes, he was 'rested' at Hawker's, where he tested the Typhoon, Britain's new fighter. The Typhoon suffered the inevitable calami- ties of too-rapid development; it became a jinx aircraft. Beamont fought for it and proved it in action when Fighter Command wanted to throw it out of service. Given a newly-formed Typhoon squadron, he led it to victory over the Focke Wulfe 190, then outflying every British plane. From Typhoons he went to Tempests and, at 23, was given a Tempest wing-in time for D-day and Continued on back flap