The Wandering Years
Affleck, Arthur H.
First Edition.
This factual and human account of the beginnings of commercial aviation in Australia, and its development during a period of over 40 years, presents a fascinating and little known picture.
By portraying it in the form of a partial autobiography enlivened with anecdotes of characters and incidents encountered during the course of his aviation career, the author has succeeded in covering an historical skeleton with the living flesh and blood of personality and humour. As a prologue he has told the story surrounding one of the early flights of the world's first aerial medical service. He then tells how he came to be the pilot of the aeroplane concerned in this flight and, in the telling, shows how, from a haphazard beginning with surplus military aircraft from World War I and pilots completely inexperienced in the Job of flying these aeroplanes commercially and, in many instances, even lacking experience in the ways of the air, Australian civil aviation has come to occupy the proud Position of first amongst the nations of the world with its record of air safety. As he moves from one operating company to another and from the role of active airline pilot to that of flying administration and the formulation of aviation policy, the author takes the reader from Victoria to Queensland, the Northern Territory, early New Guinea, Western Australia, back to Victoria and on to New South Wales, finishing the story in the New Guinea of today.
Of special interest are the chapters covering the first four years of the world-famous Flying Doctor Service - told, for the first time, from the pilot's viewpoint.
Hardcover with dust jacket, wrapped in mylar cover
211 Seiten / pages
with photos
very good condition
Croydon, Victoria, Australia - 1964 - Longmans, Green and Co Ltd
Art.Nr. 15850
