The Dangerous Skies.

Clouston, A. E.; Air Commodore; D.S.O., D.F.C., A.F.C. and Bar. London: Cassell & Company Limited,. First Edition- 3rd. Imp, 1954. Octavo, x + 187 pp. Very Good+

“…..It was Clouston who broke Amy Johnson's London to the Cape record and lowered the time for the round trip by five days. It was Clouston who broke all existing records for the London to Australia flight and London to hs native New Zealand and back.

These magnificent flights in a borrowed private plane hit the headlines in the thirties, but they were only the public manifestation of his adventurous spirit (which, incidentally, led to an offer of 1,000,000 by a Jewish syndicate if he would bomb Hitler on a ceremonial parade).

But his day-to-day work as a test pilot was also continuous adventure. His early research into ice formation on aircraft involved repeatedly flying in thunder clouds until the plane was enveloped in ice and the engine stopped, sending the plane dropping to earth like a stone. Research into the use of barrage balloons as a means of defence involved flying into suspended wire, experiments which produced the most hair-raising results.

When, later, the Luftwaffe began night bombing it was Clouston who tested out methods of lighting up bombers from the sky, tests which involved flying with 2,000,000-candle-power magnesium flares burning under each wing.

Clouston can tell such stories by the hour with a delightful sense of humour and will happily turn the joke against himself -- like the story of his wartime demonstration of remote control by radio when, from a Spitfire 10,000 feet up, he inadvertently sank a boatload of VIPs in sixty feet of water!....”

S=R

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