Clydeside Aviation Volume Two: Between the Wars

Clydeside Aviation Volume Two Between the Wars ISBN: 9780957344372. Condition is New. Dispatched with Royal Mail 2nd Class Large Letter.

From Spitfires to Airships, Kangaroos to Moths, Autogiros to Helicopters. The second in the Clydeside Aviation series. It looks at aviation events in the Clydeside district from 1919 to 1939.

Explains the aeronautical events at Beardmore and Weir, the economic situation and Red Clydeside. Explores the regional airlines at Renfrew and the Scottish Flying Club with freshly researched material. 602 Squadron (City of Glasgow) Auxiliary Air Force is not neglected and starts at the DH9a with the squadron formation and ends in 1939 with the Hawker Hector, Gloster Gauntlet and Supermarine Spitfire.

Squadron accidents are pointed out such as at Bishopbriggs and over Renfrewshire. There are descriptions of 269 Squadron, 32 Squadron and 21 Squadrons at Abbotsinch. The founding of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve is explained as is the first flights of the first British helicopter.

The 344, A5 pages are supported by over 300 rare pictures and over 40000 words. (Copyright restrictions means pictures cannot be displayed on web sites) There are fresh details on Beardmore and Weir/Cierva. The chapter on Renfrew and Abbotsinch explores the airlines such as SMT, Northern and Scottish and Railway Air Services.

There are new details on air ambulances and the numerous crashes from the Beardmore Flying School and the Auxiliary Air Force. Blackburn is introduced in 1939 with the Blackburn Botha and the Blackburn Shark production at Dumbarton. The Bennie Railplane has fresh details never before published including dates and builders.

The appendix includes fresh information on H J Stieger and General Aircraft, more about Rohrbach and the Houston Everest Expedition of 1933. There is fresh detail on the Supermarine S6b with a rare description of its airframe and wings supported by photographs and drawings. There are lists of Gauntlet and Spitfire airframes of 602 Squadron.

The book ends with the Spitfire flight up the East Coast of Great Britain on Empire Air Day, 22nd May 1939 with Stainforth flying Spitfire K9895 from Netherhavon to Ross and Cromarty for a bottle of whisky and a haggis.(There is a mini biography of Stainforth and an account of his death in a Beaufighter.) Highly sought after and highly collectable. Any questions promptly answered. Recommend use offers.

POST FREE. The cover is of the first practical British helicopter, the Weir W5, flown by Raymond Pullin in Glasgow in 1938.