AGAINST THE SUN: THE STORY OF WING COMMANDER ROLAND BEAMONT (PILOT OF THE CANBERRA AND THE P.1.

AGAINST THE SUN: THE STORY OF WING COMMANDER ROLAND BEAMONT (PILOT OF THE CANBERRA AND THE P.1. BY EDWARD LANCHBERRY, FOREWORD BY AIR CHIEF MARSHAL SIR HUGH SAUNDERS. FIRST EDITION 1955 PUBLISHED BY CASSELLAND COMPANY LIMITED. A bright blue cloth bound hardback book, with silver coloured titles on the spine. Comes with nice, clean, not price clipped dust jacket. This wonderful book is a First Edition, published in 1955 by Cassell and Company Limited. The book is in very good condition and as its a used book, normal wear, marks and tear apply consistent with use and age. 270 pages, all intact and in nice, clean, readable order. Tight binding. Please note for overseas buyers, postage may increase from listed postage price, depending on final destination. English Electric's P.1, first truly supersonic fighter, took the air for the first time on August 4th 1954. The official announcement credited the P.1, with exceeding the speed of sound in straight and level flight. Foreign reports attributed to it a speed under the same conditions, of well over 1,000 miles per hour. And the man who flew it was Wing Commander Roland Beamont, who in his flying career has been awarded the D.S.O. and the bar, O.B.E. and D.F.C. has been mentioned in despatches and was also awarded the American D.F.C. Before the P.1, Beamont had put the Canberra jet bomber through its paces. Taken on as English Electric's chief test pilot in 1947, he watched the Canberra grow, stole the 1949 Farnborough Air Show, with an amazing display of its capabilities, and finally used it to turn the Atlantic crossing into a day return excursion, a flight which won for Beamont and his crew the Royal Aero Club's Britannia trophy for the year's best performance in the air. A truly fascinating and insightful book that deserves to be treasured for future generations to come.…