{"product_id":"empire-of-the-clouds-when-britains-aircraft-ruled-the-world-1","title":"Empire of the Clouds: When Britain's Aircraft Ruled the World","description":"In 1945 Britain was the world's leading designer and builder of aircraft - a world-class  achievement that was not mere rhetoric. And what aircraft they were. The sleek Comet, the first  jet airliner. The awesome delta-winged Vulcan, an intercontinental bomber that could be thrown  about the sky like a fighter. The Hawker Hunter, the most beautiful fighter-jet ever built and  the Lightning, which could zoom ten miles above the clouds in a couple of minutes and whose  pilots rated flying it as better than sex.  How did Britain so lose the plot that today there is not a single aircraft manufacturer of any  significance in the country? What became of the great industry of de Havilland or Handley Page?  And what was it like to be alive in that marvellous post-war moment when innovative new British  aircraft made their debut, and pilots were the rock stars of the age? James Hamilton-Paterson  captures that season of glory in a compelling book that fuses his own memories of being a  schoolboy plane spotter with a ruefully realistic history of British decline - its loss of self  confidence and power.\nIt is the story of great and charismatic machines and the men who flew  them: heroes such as Bill Waterton, Neville Duke, John Derry and Bill Beaumont who took  inconceivable risks, so that we could fly without a second thought.","brand":"Faber \u0026 Faber","offers":[{"title":"New - Paperback","offer_id":32911172370517,"sku":"9780571247950N","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2481\/5790\/products\/9780571247950.jpg?v=1606553681","url":"https:\/\/smeikalbooks.co.uk\/en-us\/products\/empire-of-the-clouds-when-britains-aircraft-ruled-the-world-1","provider":"smeikalbooks","version":"1.0","type":"link"}