Captain de Havilland's Moth: Tales of High Adventure from the Golden Age of Aviation

The DH60 Moth, the most iconic of all light aircraft, celebrates its centenary in this vivid and entertaining book by Alexander Norman. It was the brainchild of Geoffrey de Havilland, son of a Victorian clergyman, and marked the beginning of an important but neglected episode in British social history. The Moth was the most successful aircraft of its era, showing that flying was safe, practical, and open to all. Many early Mothists were privileged, but Laura Ingalls, Aspy Engineer, the Indian schoolboy who won the Aga Khan Trophy in his, and Amy Johnson, the typist from Hull who flew hers to Australia, showed that you didn't need to be a superhero or super wealthy to be a pilot.

Format: Hardback
Length: 336 pages
Publication date: 06 February 2025
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group

A nostalgic celebration of the golden age of aviation - and the iconic DH60 Moth in its centenary year - TLS - A wonderfully affecting, highly entertaining, at times elegiac account of a legendary aircraft - JOHN NICHOL - A joy... Alexander Norman brings to life a golden era in aviation history in such a vivid and entertaining way - ROWLAND WHITE - The most iconic of all light aircraft, the DH60 Moth was the brain-child of Geoffrey de Havilland, visionary son of an angry and disappointed Victorian clergyman. A successful designer of military aircraft, Geoffrey dreamed of doing for aircraft what Ford had done for cars. - The emergence of his Moth in February 1925 marked the beginning of an important but neglected episode in British social history - the craze for flying which gripped a war-weary world for more than a decade. The most successful aircraft of its era, the Moth was the one in which people had the greatest adventures. And it was the Moth which showed that flying was safe, practical and, potentially, open to all. - True, many early Mothists were uber-privileged. The Prince of Wales had one, as did his brother, the Duke of Gloucester. Beryl Markham, who had affairs with both, learned to fly in a Moth. But Laura Ingalls, who did 980 successive loops in hers, Aspy Engineer, the Indian schoolboy who won the Aga Khan Trophy in his and Amy Johnson, the typist from Hull who flew hers to Australia showed that, to be a pilot, you didn't need to be a superhero or super wealthy. Just a little mad, perhaps. - Captain de Havilland's Moth brings to life a golden age in aviation and an astonishing cast of characters whose courage, determination and epic eccentricity is shown in the light of what it is actually like to fly these remarkable aeroplanes.

Weight: 586g
Dimension: 240 x 166 x 31 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780349146447