For much of the 20th century, warplanes were fixed in the world’s imagination, a symbol of the perils and excitements of the modern era. Wings is a rich and compelling account of military flying from its heroic early days to the present.

The Royal Air Force is synonymous with its heroic achievements in the summer of 1940, when Winston Churchill’s ’famous few’ - the Hurricane and Spitfire pilots of RAF Fighter Command - held Göering’s Luftwaffe at bay in the Battle of Britain, thereby changing the course of the war. For much of the twentieth century, warplanes were fixed in the world’s imagination, a symbol of the perils and excitements of the modern era. But within the space of a hundred years, military aviation has morphed from the exotic to the mundane. An activity which was charged with danger - the domain of the daring - is now carried out by computers and pilotless drones.

 

Aviators have always seemed different to soldiers and sailors - more adventurous, questing and imaginative. Their stories gripped the public and in both wars and air aces dominated each side’s propaganda, capturing hearts and dreams. Writing with the verve, passion and the sheer narrative aplomb familiar to many thousands of readers from his bestselling Second World War aerial histories, Fighter Boys and Bomber Boys, Patrick Bishop’s Wings is a rich and compelling account of military flying from its heroic early days to the present.

 

 

 

 

CRITICS ABOUT THE BOOK 

’A soaring, blazing sortie through a century of RAF aerial warfare told with the precision of a Spitfire turning into the attack, and etched with prose as clear as contrails in azure blue skies.’ ― Jonathan Glancey, author of ’Spitfire’

 

’In this superb, pacy, often moving portrait of brave young men and women maintaining their sang-froid against hopeless odds, Patrick Bishop has done full justice to this subject, and confirmed himself as one of our finest popular military historians.’ ― Mail on Sunday

 

’Highly recommended’ ― Military History Monthly ’Magisterial sweep and range are combined with succinct and lucid analysis, all in prose as crisp as fresh lettuce.’ ― Daily Express

 

’For better or worse, we have needed wings and skilled, swift airmen and women to wear them. Mr Bishop leads us brilliantly through these violent skies.’ ― Country Life

 

 

 

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Patrick Bishop has been a foreign correspondent since 1982, covering numerous wars and conflicts around the world and he has reported from the front line of almost every major war of our era. In the last six years he has emerged as a military historian of the first order with his top-ten bestsellers Fighter Boys and Bomber Boys, which cast new light on the men who fought in the Battle of Britain and the Strategic Air Campaign against Germany. He is also the author of the much-praised Battle of Britain and 3 Para.

 

(Source : amazon.com)