Australian Aviator by Sir Norman Brearley

Book Description

Secondhand. Very good condition. Minor wear to book edges and corners. Interior and binding are excellent. Dust jackat is in good condition with creasing at top edge. Inscribed by Sir Norman Brearley.

Young Norman Brearley was an engineering apprentice in the fledgling days of aviation, and when WWI broke out it was his chance to learn to fly. He worked his way from Australia to London to join the Royal Flying Corps. and soon found that he had a flair for flying. By June 1915, he was patrolling over the Western Front, and after various adventures was shot down and badly wounded.

Wartime flying however was a prelude to his main achievement, that of founding Australia's first airline. Before leaving England, he bought two war surplus aircraft, which he used to introduce commercial flying to Western Australia, and in 1921 he won the first airmail contract.

With teams of pilots who like himself had been trained during WWI, he kept the line running despite primitive flying conditions and outback difficulties. They landed on strips scratched out of the bush and flew by the seat of their pants.

The air service was soon in demand for various jobs besides carrying the mail and Australia's first paying air passengers. Brearley and his pilots searched for Kingsword Smith and Ulm when the famous fliers were lost on an attempted record flight to London, and for two German airmen lost for six weeks in coastal jungles. They carried out the earliest of Australia's aerial surveys and even tried to find Lasseter's lost reef.

But barnstorming days gave way to more formal flying, and Norman Brearly opened the first airline between Perth and Adelaide. Flights to New Guinea and a projected Australia-England air service followed the problems of the depression days, but he was able to sell his airline in 1936. He retired from regular flying until joining the RAAF in WWII.

Thrilling, fast-paced and authentic, Sir Norman Brearley's narrative is packed with the drama of the pioneering days of the airways of Australia.