SKY FEVER

With a letter dated 1954 signed by

Sir Geoffrey de Havilland

Hamish Hamilton First edition, second impression 1961.  240 pages and well illustrated with photos.

A Near Fine condition hardback book in a Very Good condition, unclipped dustjacket. Clean, tight and bright. A decent example of this important autobiography.  The letter, dated January 14 1954, is in Fine condition and is addressed to the noted aviation author John WR Taylor who was seeking Sir Geoffrey’s contribution to one of his books.

Geoffrey de Havilland (1882 -1965) was one of the world’s true pioneers of powered flight, building his own first flying machine and the engine to power it in 1909. By painstaking trial and error he then taught himself to fly in it.

He was responsible for the first and many of the finest aeroplanes of the First World War, created the company that bore his name and built such widely different and momentous machines as the light Moths, the Rapide, the Mosquito fighter-bomber and the first jet airliner, the Comet. He tested all his early planes himself, becoming a highly skilled pilot.

This autobiography is concerned with much more than the story of his aircraft and company. The people he knew span the whole history of flying and the author contrives to tell the story of British aviation through these people and the events with which he was associated, while revealing his own diversified personality.

An important memoir from one of the most influential and talented British pioneer aviators together with a very nice autograph on the letter.