Search results for ""author brian milton""

The New Aviation began with a hang-gliding meeting on a sand-dune in southern California on 23 May 1971. The longest flight that day was 196 feet, the longest time in the air just 11 seconds. But it was a start – the start of a movement that has grown exponentially world-wide with every passing year. The essence of the New Aviation is to stand on a hill, spread your wings, and climb into the sky by your own skill. It is the fundamentals of flight as it is meant to be, and this is the story of the development of this exhilarating sport, and of its largely unknown pioneers. The first of these was German pioneer aviator, Otto Lilienthal. Despite dozens of deaths before him, Lilienthal was the first to establish that manned flight was actually possible; before him, flight was just a dream. His tragic death in 1896 inspired the American Wright Brothers, Orville and Wilbur, to their own experiments on a wind-swept beach in Kittyhawk, North Carolina, where the first powered flight there on 17 December 1903. The book begins and ends with two significant tales, opening with the life and death of Englishman Alvin Russell, and ending with the fabled Swiss flyer Didier Favre, who traversed the length of the Alps ‘by foot or by flight’. It is full of terrific stories, often repeating exploits of the mainstream aviators but flying just a kite and a trapeze bar, flying with eagles and teaching orphaned geese to migrate. It has exclusive accounts of record-breaking distances, on adding engines to ‘rag wings’, on how women broke into the machismo world and an English girl led a team in which every other competitor was a man, and beat them all. A History of the New Aviation is the first in-depth ‘narrative’ to stitch together the history and evolution of a pastime which is enjoyed by hundreds of thousands around the world. It is told by Brian Milton, the man who formed the British Hang Gliding League and led the first two British teams to beat the mighty Americans, for which he won the Prince of Wales Cup from Prince Charles, now King Charles III. Brian went on to make the first flight around the world by a powered hang glider. Two men set off on this flight; Brian returned alone.

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The RAF's Battle of Britain Memorial Flight comprises three main aircraft - the Spitfire, the Lancaster and the Hurricane. The Lancaster played no part in the Battle of Britain and the Spitfire is the aeroplane many people most associate with the RAF during World War II, but the Hurricane is the hero that won the Battle of Britain. The RAF's first monoplane fighter aircraft, the Hurricane, entered service before the Spitfire and was responsible for destroying more enemy aircraft during the Battle of Britain than any other type. Around 60 per cent of claimed 'kills' fell to the guns of Hurricane pilots and the only Battle of Britain Victoria Cross. In a dogfight on 16th August 1940 Nicolson was badly wounded, his Hurricane damaged and engulfed in flames. While attempting to leave the cockpit, Nicolson spotted one of the enemy Messerschmitts ahead. He returned to the cockpit, which by now was a blazing inferno, and engaged the enemy. The stories of the Hurricane pilots form the basis of Brian Milton's riveting new book. Having tracked down the few surviving former Hurricane pilots who flew the aircraft during the Second World War, Brian has brought together a unique series of personal experiences from his 'Last Witnesses' to tell the story of what it was like to fly and fight in this iconic aircraft not only over the white cliffs of Dover during the Battle of Britain, but also during the Battle of France, the defence of Malta, in the intense heat of the North African desert, in the freezing temperatures of the Arctic wastes and in the suffocating humidity of the Far East. The Hurricane served in every theatre during the Second World War as a fighter, night fighter, ground attack aircraft and even on board ship guarding vital convoys. The fascinating first-hand accounts of these gallant pilots form not only a history of the aircraft, but also a tribute to the many friends they lost in combat.

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Soaring over forest fires, a moonlight New Year's Eve flight over the Pennines, bungee-jumping from a paraglider as a birthday celebration, jumping off Mount Everest, or numerous several-hundred-mile flights over open country and on different continents. This book covering many exhilarating and enthralling stories from New Aviation including paragliding, hang-gliding, paramotoring and micro-lighting has them all. There is even the story of a pilot using flexwings to teach geese how to migrate and of a marriage proposal at 500 feet. The challenges explored by the renowned New Aviation expert Brian Milton includes Rich Pfieffer's legal charges of assault with a deadly weapon for flying a hang-glider over California's Rose Bowl American College Football competition, or Judy Leden's balloon drop from 40,000 feet over Jordan, with Israel on one side and Saudi on the other, despite her eyes being frozen shut. Along with this latter story, the author also discusses how women overcame pre

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