Items related to Valiant Boys Signed Edition
Following on from the success of Victor Boys and Vulcan Boys, Tony Blackman, in collaboration with Anthony Wright, brings you Valiant Boys to complete the V Force set. This is a fascinating collection of personal accounts of operating Britain's first V bomber by aircrew and ground crew. The book tells the story from the aircraft's birth taking off from Vickers' tiny airfield at Brooklands to its premature death from fatigue. There are tales of testing atom bombs in the Australian desert, dropping hydrogen bombs in the middle of the Pacific and, as a complete contrast, attacking airfields with conventional bombs in Egypt during the very brief and abortive Suez campaign. We are reminded of how the Valiant provided the UK s first nuclear deterrent by always having some armed aircraft on stand-by twenty-four hours a day, supported by their air and ground crews, ready to be flown at a moment s notice on a one-way trip to launch an atomic war. Some Valiants were given a photographic role providing accurate images from high altitude and were used not only to gather military intelligence but also to survey the UK and countries overseas. Others were developed into flight refuelling tankers breaking point to point records before enabling Britain s fighter aircraft to be refuelled and fly anywhere in the world. This book completes Tony Blackman's trilogy of the three V bombers. As Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Michael Beetham makes it clear in his foreword: 'It is good to have a book written by aircrew and ground crew telling their stories and how they operated the aircraft so that all these things are recorded and not forgotten.' Not as well known as the Vulcan and Victor, the Valiant is often overlooked; this book will go a long way to redress the balance.
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Review:
Valiant Boys is a fascinating collection of personal accounts of operating Britain's first V bomber by aircrew and ground crew. --RAF news
Following on from the success of Victor Boys and Vulcan Boys, Tony Blackman in collaboration with Anthony Wright has completed his V-Bomber book series with this fascinating collection of personal accounts. It's an interesting reflection on the UK's first four-jet bomber. --Flypast
This is a fascinating collection of personal accounts of operating Britain's first V bomber by aircrew and ground crew. -- Scale Aviation Model
The latest in the excellent Boys series from Grub Street. It is an enjoyable read that is also valuable to the historian and an ideal gift to a father, grandfather or favourite uncle that may have serviced or flown it.
This is an excellent book, into which one can dip at random and always find something of interest. Aeroplane Magazine
--Airmail
From the outset, in which the dramatic crash of Valiant prototype WB210 (at the hands of test pilot Jock Bryce in 1952) is described by the man himself to the book s dénouement whereby it explores the alleged effects of nuclear testing on service personnel, Valiant Boys is hugely revealing. The authors, both V-bomber crew members in the civilian testing and RAF arenas respectively, have compiled a fascinating collection of personal accounts from Valiant air and ground crew (as well as their own)...and many serve to confirm the usefulness of the aeroplane, until its untimely demise to due cracks in the wing spars. Indeed, this fatal problem is investigated by the book and it does appear that blind eyes were turned during the manufacture of Valiants, but the mind-boggling fact is that when it was discovered that the metal for the spars used was inferior, not much was done to mitigate the issue (and yet the humble HP Hastings transport was re-worked after the same metal was employed initially in its airframe). Many facets of the Valiant s operations are retold here; easily the most interesting for this reviewer are the nuclear tests in Australia and Christmas Island (Operations Buffalo and Grapple), but the fact that the Valiant was the first operational air-to-air refueller has not been lost, and there s a full description of the pioneering sorties on that front. The type s fleeting participation in the Suez campaign of 1956 is also covered, as is the late-service low-level mission profile change that lead, ultimately, to the cracks in those wings spars to reveal themselves. This is a splendid book, which supports the Valiants groundbreaking place in aviation history. --Airfix Model World
About the Author:
Following on from the success of Victor Boys and Vulcan Boys, Tony Blackman in collaboration with Anthony Wright has completed his V-Bomber book series with this fascinating collection of personal accounts. It's an interesting reflection on the UK's first four-jet bomber. --Flypast
This is a fascinating collection of personal accounts of operating Britain's first V bomber by aircrew and ground crew. -- Scale Aviation Model
The latest in the excellent Boys series from Grub Street. It is an enjoyable read that is also valuable to the historian and an ideal gift to a father, grandfather or favourite uncle that may have serviced or flown it.
This is an excellent book, into which one can dip at random and always find something of interest. Aeroplane Magazine
--Airmail
From the outset, in which the dramatic crash of Valiant prototype WB210 (at the hands of test pilot Jock Bryce in 1952) is described by the man himself to the book s dénouement whereby it explores the alleged effects of nuclear testing on service personnel, Valiant Boys is hugely revealing. The authors, both V-bomber crew members in the civilian testing and RAF arenas respectively, have compiled a fascinating collection of personal accounts from Valiant air and ground crew (as well as their own)...and many serve to confirm the usefulness of the aeroplane, until its untimely demise to due cracks in the wing spars. Indeed, this fatal problem is investigated by the book and it does appear that blind eyes were turned during the manufacture of Valiants, but the mind-boggling fact is that when it was discovered that the metal for the spars used was inferior, not much was done to mitigate the issue (and yet the humble HP Hastings transport was re-worked after the same metal was employed initially in its airframe). Many facets of the Valiant s operations are retold here; easily the most interesting for this reviewer are the nuclear tests in Australia and Christmas Island (Operations Buffalo and Grapple), but the fact that the Valiant was the first operational air-to-air refueller has not been lost, and there s a full description of the pioneering sorties on that front. The type s fleeting participation in the Suez campaign of 1956 is also covered, as is the late-service low-level mission profile change that lead, ultimately, to the cracks in those wings spars to reveal themselves. This is a splendid book, which supports the Valiants groundbreaking place in aviation history. --Airfix Model World
Tony Blackman OBE, MA FRAes obtained an honours degree in Physics at Trinity College Cambridge. He learnt to fly in the RAF, trained as a test pilot, and then joined A V Roe to become chief test pilot. As an expert in aviation electronics he was subsequently invited by Smiths Industries to join their Aerospace Board, initially as technical operations director. On leaving Smiths he joined the board of the UK Civil Aviation Authority. He is a fellow of the American Society of Experimental Test Pilots, a fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation and a liveryman of the Guild of Air Pilots and Navigators. Squadron Leader Anthony Wright BA joined the RAF in 1960. After navigator training he entered the V Force as a navigator radar flying Valiants and then Vulcans. After a tour in Singapore and completion of the Staff Navigation Course he was posted to Cranwell. He returned to Vulcans as an instructor, followed by wing weapons and then radar leader on 50 Squadron. After an appointment at MOD he became OC Training Squadron at RAFASUPU thus completing his RAF career. Finally, he served at HQ Air Cadets before retiring in 2003.
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- ISBN 10 147261786X
- ISBN 13 9781472617866
- BindingHardcover
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