Croix

Winged Peace.

1944 · 4829bd — New York: The Viking Press 1944. Octavo blue cloth hardcover gilt letters gilt illustration to upper cover xiv vi 175 pp. Very Good with sunning to edges and former-owner bookplate; in a Good dust jacket with edgewear with includes light chipping. From dust jacket: The great story of aviation and the direction in which it is going is the story of our future -- a future which will be written in terms of either winged peace or winged death. It’s a story which few men could tell with the authority and conviction of ‘Billy’ Bishop. Bishop learned aviation the hard way. In the cockpit of a World War I flying crate he became the greatest Allied ace by destroying 72 German aircraft. In the years between the wars he remained actively interested in aviation -- both military and commercial -- and kept a wary eye on the growing air might of Germany which he was sure we would have to fight again. When World War II broke Canada became the heart of Britain’s air-training and air-transport system and ‘Billy’ Bishop has played a vital role in this great program. Now at the climax of his career he has undertaken a new job and rendered what may well be his greatest service to aviation. He has poured into an utterly fascinating book the past the present and -- most of all -- the future of flight. He has told the story of aviation from Kitty Hawk to the B-29 Superfortresses much of it in terms of his personal experiences. He shows us how our world has already been changed geographically socially economically politically; how these changes will be either for great good or for desperate evil. He makes us aware of the new world map with its limitless directions and its textbook-shattering implications. He shows us the new routes over which we will either trade or fight find peace or destruction. Through all of Bishop’s stirring account written with burning urgency runs a zeal to make us understand the realities of world aviation today. The proved possibilities of stratospheric flight rocket and jet-propulsion have already rendered every plane now in the air obsolete. New York to London in three hours is assured. Tomorrow’s air age is here! The Viking Press, 1944. hardcover books