Description

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. The book includes over 400 black & white photographs.