contextualize the events. Holland also takes the Lieutenant-Colonel Doug Moulton, a Sea King pilot, is currently the Canadian Forces Liaison Officer to time to provide orders of battle and the disposi- the Air Warfare Centre, Royal Air tion of Allied and German air forces prior to the Force, Waddington. battle. The introduction of Luftwaffe terminol- ogy in the “Note on the Text” introduces the reader to the German equivalents of terms. The use of these terms is intended Abbreviation to avoid confusion between Allied and German WWII Second World War units within the text of the book. The Battle of Britain: Five Months that Changed Note History, May–October 1940 is a well-researched 1. Royal United Services Institute, and well-written book that will prove an enjoy- http://www.rusi.org/ (accessed January 20, 2011). able and easy read for the air power enthusiast. n

EMPIRE OF THE CLOUDS: WHEN BRITAIN’S AIRCRAFT RULED THE WORLD BY JAMES HAMILTON-PATERSON UNITED KINGDOM: FABER AND FABER, 2010 376 PAGES Review by Sean M. Maloney, PhD ISBN 9780571247943

f one word can be used to encapsulate this type designs were flown for the public work, it would be “zeitgeist.” Capturing every year and not hidden away because doing so I a generalized social feeling is incred- was considered vital to national security? ibly difficult for any historian, but Hamilton- Paterson has successfully conveyed to those of The zeitgeist surrounding 1950s British and us from a different generation what it was like Commonwealth aviation was one of intense to be part of the cutting edge of not only Brit- optimism, the pushing of physical limits and ish but also world-class aviation. On this side of technological boundaries, particularly by the the Atlantic, we are inundated with American young. The limits of design were pushed as well— popular culture in the form of “The Right Stuff,” what sculptor created such amazingly graceful with Chuck Yaeger breaking the sound barrier, machines as the Vulcan, or the Handley- yet how many have heard of the Miles M.52, an Page Victor? Or the science fiction-like Avro almost identical British aircraft that pre-dated 730? And what kid in the 1950s did not flock to and even influenced the Bell X-1? Or the Fairey watch silver jet fighters like the Delta-2, a stunningly beautiful delta-winged or the British Aircraft Corporation Lightning machine that captured the world air speed record whip by at Mach 1+ over the moors and dream in 1956? Who now remembers Peter Twiss? Or about joining the Royal Air Force (RAF)? The Geoffrey DeHavilland? Or the fact that proto- sky was, quite literally, the limit.

44 EMPIRE OF THE CLOUDS: WHEN BRITAIN'S AIRCRAFT RULED THE WORLD SUMMER 2011 • VOL. 4, NO. 3 Hamilton-Paterson takes the reader on a TSR-2, though not broken up at the end, was in chronological journey through this period, al- the same category. We were not alone. most aircraft by aircraft type. One of the strands that holds the narrative together is the story of Equally compelling is how Empire of the Bill Waterton, a Canadian test pilot who was a Clouds examines the virtual collapse of the Brit- member of the High Speed Flight unit set up by ish aircraft industry in the 1960s. It would have the RAF at the end of the Second World War been easy to play J’accuse, but the book presents and eventual bête noir of the British aviation in- in sober language how hide-bound and in many dustry in the 1950s. Lost in time, Bill Waterton cases greedy aircraft companies, together with was one of a legion of forgotten heroes whose bureaucrats and politicians crippled by an as- sacrifices have ensured that all of us can fly com- tounding lack of vision, threw it all away. To read mercially at greatly reduced risk. Hamilton-Paterson’s depiction of the Fairey Delta (FD) 2 visit to France, and to know that Hamilton-Paterson and other young men Dassault (a French aircraft manufacturing com- of his generation idolized test pilots when they pany) sold Mirages based on the FD-2 layout were growing up. They were celebrities in their to all and sundry for 30 years, employing thou- own right at the dawn of the Jet Age, and their sands of workers, while those in power in the exploits, including Waterton’s, were front-page United Kingdom dithered and chose a handful news on a regular basis. Waterton, an intensely of problematic air defence missiles over an array principled and blunt man, publicly took on of manned aircraft, is nothing short of astound- British aircraft corporations whom he felt were ing. The bureaucratic delays over a plethora of pushing the boundaries for the wrong reasons. British jet airliners are nearly heart-rending, a And people were getting killed: the deadly Farn- whole series of “what ifs.” borough air crash of 1952, the various Comet airliner disasters, let alone the deaths of several The only real issue with the book is that there hundred pilot trainees. As a Canadian in class- are not enough illustrations for those of us not conscious England, Waterton learned (as did au fait with some of the more esoteric designs Canada) the limits of what a mere “colonial” (penny-pinching publishers take note). Derek could accomplish in the larger scheme of Em- Wood’s now-out-of-print Project Cancelled: The pire. He returned to obscurity in Canada while Disaster of Britain’s Abandoned Aircraft Projects is his rival Jan Zurakowski test flew the CF105 fully illustrated, and it is useful to read the two Arrow for . Waterton could break books in tandem, or to have concurrent access the sound barrier, but not the class barrier. to the net. Neither supplement can, however, provide us with the zeitgeist found in Empire What is striking about Empire of the Clouds of the Clouds. Hamilton-Paterson has given us is how it inadvertently contextualizes the whole a book that requires reflection on several fronts. Arrow affair without actively discussing it. In One day a Canadian should write an equivalent Canada, we have an extensive literature (mostly work on our parallel national experiences before anti-American and conspiracy-based) on the those vital spirits are lost to time. n collapse and obliteration of a single aircraft programme. Hamilton-Paterson describes mul- tiple British “Avro Arrows,” where the schema Dr. Sean Maloney serves as the Historical Advisor is the same. A project dies; the government to the Chief of the Land Staff and is an Associate moves in and destroys everything related to the Professor of History at Royal Military College of aircraft, including the prototypes themselves. Canada. He is the author of Learning to Love the The Miles M.52, a jet aircraft that would have Bomb: Canada’s Nuclear Weapons and the . outperformed the rocket-propelled Bell X-1 if it had been allowed to, is one example. The Avro List of Abbreviations 720 Viper delta-winged supersonic interceptor, cut up and destroyed the day it was completed, FD Fairey Delta is another. The Saunders-Roe P.177 suffered a RAF Royal Air Force similar fate. The advanced strike aircraft, the

SUMMER 2011 • VOL. 4, NO. 3 EMPIRE OF THE CLOUDS: WHEN BRITAIN'S AIRCRAFT RULED THE WORLD 45