Skies of Fire : Dramatic Air Combat

by Price, Alfred

• ISBN13: 9780304359479
• ISBN10: 0304359475
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-05-01
• Publisher: Octopus Pub Group

Summary

The pilot who faces the unknown, who by chance flies higher or faster than his aircraft allows, or hurtles into combat against overwhelmingly better armed opponents, or is lost over enemy territory in a crippled and burning plane, is every aviation reader's hero. In this book of sixteen such true tales, that master of aviation history Alfred Price recalls events from both World Wars and on through peacetime to Vietnam, the Falklands and Kuwait. Events include carrier-hopping Spitfires to Malta in the grim days of 1942; a dogfight between a Ju86R and a Spitfire at 43,ooo feet, both pilots interviewed by the author; low altitude Phantom reconnaissance to Hanoi, 1972; high speed air action between Sea Harriers and Argentine jets, 1 May 1982 - and much more. These are fast-moving, always exciting episodes, written by one of the best-known aviation authors and certain to please aviation enthusiasts and readers of adventure non-fiction.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	9	(2)
Introduction	11	(10)
Warfare Enters the Third Dimension	21	(9)
Geoffrey De Havilland's Multi-role Masterpiece	30	(10)
The First Successful Carrier Air Strike	40	(10)
Thirteen Days in August	50	(8)
One Way to Down a Dornier	58	(6)
Spitfires to Malta	64	(14)
High-altitude Combat	78	(6)
The Twenty-fifth Mission	84	(8)
The D-Day Spoofs	92	(13)
Corking the English Channel	105	(12)
The Flight of the Doodlebug	117	(11)
The Superfortresses' First Strike on Japan	128	(7)
No Place for a Beginner	135	(9)
Act of Desperation	144	(9)
Defeating the SAMs	153	(12)
Reconnaissance to Hanoi	165	(9)
Combat Rescue	174	(13)
Ground Attack Harriers over the Falklands	187	(9)
The Vulcan's Impromptu Visit to Rio	196	(8)
Desert Storm Warthogs	204	(10)
Multiple MiG Shoot-down	214	(7)
The Unmanned Air Vehicle: A Pointer to the Future	221	(8)
Finale	229	(2)
Glossary	231	(4)
Index	235