The Flight of the Mew Gull

by Alex Henshaw

Overview

Alex Henshaw had the luck to grow up in the '20s and '30s during the golden age of flying. The Blue Riband of flying in the British Isles between the two World Wars was the King's Cup: Henshaw set his heart on it, developing a technique of racing which extracted the very maximum from his aircraft: firs the Comper Swift and then the DH Leopard Moth. Parallel with his search for speed was an obsession with making accurate landfalls, and he developed this blind-flying taken deliberately in a flying partnership with his father on many carefully planned long-distance survery flights. His exciting apprenticeship in these two skills was crowned by the acquisition of the Percival Mew Gull G-AEXF in 1937. His amazing solo flight to Cape Town and back in February 1939 established several solo records that still stand today, almost 60 years later. This feat of navigation and airmanship must surely be one of man's greatest flights - 12,754 miles over desert, sea and jungle in a single-engined light aircraft.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781840370218
Publisher:	Crowood Press, The
Publication date:	05/15/2008
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Awarded Siddeley Trophy 1933. Parachuted from blazing aircraft 1935. Crashed into Irish Sea 1935 King's Cup race. Won 1938 King's Cup race at fastest speed ever recorded. Broke all records to Cape Town and back 1939 which remain unbroken today. Awarded Brittania Trophy 1940. Chief Test Pilot Castle Bromwich factory 1940. Awarded MBE 1944. Queen's Award for Bravery 1953. HRH Duke of Edinburgh awarded Gold Medallion for contribution made to youth of this country 1997. Alex Henshaw lives in Suffolk, England.

Table of Contents

Part 1 Age of Innocence

1 First Wings 11

2 Dad Takes to the Air 24

3 Friday Flight 35

4 Flying a Spy 47

5 Active Aerobatics 53

6 A Leopard in Europe 63

7 Finding the Mew 72

8 Disappointments 80

9 Comet Rescue 90

Part 2 Trailblazing

10 Algiers Non-stop 101

11 Sahara 108

12 Down in the Bush 117

13 Two Narrow Shaves 125

14 Cape Town at Last 134

15 Confined in Khartoum 142

16 The Fastest Ever 149

17 Choosing the Route 162

18 To the Very Limits 169

Part 3 The Cape and Back

19 Off-But Only Just 177

20 Sand at Gao 186

21 A Line of Lamps 192

22 Night of Hell 199

23 Pitfalls 205

24 Breather Half-way 212

25 Fever 218

26 Home 225

27 Farewell to the Mew 233

Epilogue 240

Appendices

1 From Appendix One in the First Edition of This Book 252

2 Percival Mew Gull G-AEXF 254

3 The Cape Records 259

4 'What it feels like' 262

Index 265