Product Description

The first RAF pilots to experience turbojet-powered aircraft were confronted with an utterly new concept of propulsion. Often, in the very early wartime years, their introduction to new jet aircraft was amazingly simplistic - but successful. "Our briefing and cockpit checks were presented superbly by the wing commander. When describing the start-up procedure, the engines were described as Bunsen burners, the paraffin as gas, igniters were matches and high-pressure cocks as gas taps." This book describes the aeroplanes, their advantages, faults and quirks. It draws heavily upon the memories of those first RAF jet pilots - the jet jockeys. We are taken aboard the first British jets to become operational, such as the Gloster Meteor and de Havilland Vampire and then through the late 1940s into the 1950s, including the experiences of pilots who flew the de Havilland Venom, North American Sabre and the controversial Supermarine Swift. The RAF's first delta-wing fighter is described as "inspiing affection rather than confidence, it was built like a tank and flew like one!" by a No 46 Squadron pilot flying the Gloster Javelin in 1956. A pilot in No 222 Squadron, the second unit to fly the legendary Hawker Hunter, describes the early model as "one of the most delightful aircraft to fly" - but "gun firing did have another effect ...the vibration would cause the withholding bolt on the nose-wheel door to shear so that on selecting undercarriage down on landing the door remained firmly in place ...slightly embarassing."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #804337 in Books
• Published on: 2002-02-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Customer Reviews

Anecdotes, but with lots of padding
I hoped this title would be full of anecdotes of daring do from the good old days. While there are many to enjoy, there also seemed to be quite alot of padding. Most of the padding appeared to have been drawn either from an aircraft's pilots' notes or from a sqn's F540 (the official sqn history).

If tables of figures put into words (ie comparing times to various heights of the different Mks of Javelin) is your cup of tea, or endless comparisons of flying hours achieved by a particular sqn month after month then you may find interest in the padding. I'm afraid I didn't.

That said, there are still enough quotes from former pilots to make the book worth reading. Once only. Just.

Perhaps a little technical but...
Its certainly a little bit technical (a guide to some of the more obscure acronyms would have helpful), and the tables of performance, etc. could have been left out (or placed in an appendix). However, where it does score is to see flying the new jets from the aircrews point of view, which is often seemly quite scary!

Accident rates seem quite amazingly high to modern eyes, and its very surprising that even in the mid 50's, Vampires/Venoms were not fitted with ejector seats, which resulted in a poor reputation for surviving a bailout.

The author also corrects the perhaps rosy view you get of British aviation in the 1940's and 50's from leafing through old editions of 'Flight' or 'The Aeroplane' from the period. Even the Hunter had plenty of early problems (some never entirely corrected), and the Venom NF3 is described by one pilot as the 'most unpleasant aircraft that I have ever flown'. On the other hand, the Javelin is revealed to not only be a better aircraft than commonly thought, but also a better combat aircraft.

There are some hair-raising stories of near-disasters, as well as some truly bizarre situations, such as the time that a low level night exercise involving Vampire NF.10 basically ruined the BBC's 'Any Questions' programme, or when two pilots in a Meteor T.7 flying low-level over the Egyptian desert each thought the other was control!

The general impression is of a series of aircraft whose combat (and sometimes flying) qualities were never quite as impressive as they should have been, when compared with their American or Russian counterparts, and its a tribute to those who flew them that they served as well as they did. The one aircraft that seems to get pretty much universal praise (even perhaps above the Hunter) is the Sabre, a US design.

Certainly worth a read, and I would be interested if the author produced another volume about early jet bombers. perhaps a second edition would include the early jets flown by the navy. It would be interesting to see what they thought of the Attacker!

A bit of a tecchie book but a good read
There is little written about experiences of flying the early RAF jets from a pilot's point of view. This book goes some way to addressing that deficiency. The planes covered are Meteor, Vampire, Venom, Javelin, Hunter, RAF Sabre and Swift. The trials and tribulations of flying these aircraft are covered in some detail although some of the material is a bit dry, especially some of the bits from Pilots' notes.

That said, there are enough anecdotes and stores of hair raising moments to keep most interested to some extent. Some of the comparison tables are a bit tedious and could have been left out without spoiling the book, that much is true. Being interested in that era of flying, I found the material on the rare and unsuccessful Supermarine Swift and numerous but oft ignored Gloster Javelin very interesting. Although the latter was slated for it's lack of manoeuverability, it was never intended to mix it with other fighters but was specifically designed to knock down Soviet bombers flying at altitude, something at which it was judged successful in practice missions. It was also well liked by it's pilots, something that is often not explained.

If you have any interest in early RAF jets then this book will make a good read. Some of the material is dry but this is made up for by the technical content - I doubt that many of us will ever have seen the pilots' notes for a Vampire etc and so from that point, it's interesting material. More anecdotes and less figures would have been nice but it's still a good read.

I found the trials of altitude flying particularly interesting, the balance between speed, altitude and controllability meaning that a small error could result in the plane falling completely out of control for 10-20,000 feet.

This book won't be for everyone but I enjoyed it. Technophiles will enjoy it as will pilots real and frustrated.