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The Man Who Saved Smithy: Fighter pilot, pioneer aviator, hero: the life of Sir Gordon Taylor GC, MC
Patrick Gordon 'Bill' Taylor was a pioneer of Australian aviation. As a fighter pilot during the First World War, he was awarded the Military Cross and discovered a life-long passion for flight and air navigation. Returning to Australia after the war, he became a close friend of Charles Kingsford Smith; they went on to form an incredible flying partnership, setting records around the globe.
It was on a flight across the Tasman in Smithy's famous Southern Cross that Taylor earned the Empire's highest award for civilian bravery, the George Cross. With one engine out of action and another fast running out of oil, Taylor repeatedly climbed out of the cockpit to transfer oil to the stricken engine and keep the Southern Cross flying - all this while suspended over the sea in a howling slipstream.
After the deaths of his friends Charles Ulm and Kingsford Smith in separate accidents, Taylor became Australia's greatest surviving aviator, pioneering vital new trans-oceanic air routes during the Second World War and receiving a knighthood in honour of his services to flight. The Man Who Saved Smithy is the enthralling account of his remarkable life and achievements.
It was on a flight across the Tasman in Smithy's famous Southern Cross that Taylor earned the Empire's highest award for civilian bravery, the George Cross. With one engine out of action and another fast running out of oil, Taylor repeatedly climbed out of the cockpit to transfer oil to the stricken engine and keep the Southern Cross flying - all this while suspended over the sea in a howling slipstream.
After the deaths of his friends Charles Ulm and Kingsford Smith in separate accidents, Taylor became Australia's greatest surviving aviator, pioneering vital new trans-oceanic air routes during the Second World War and receiving a knighthood in honour of his services to flight. The Man Who Saved Smithy is the enthralling account of his remarkable life and achievements.
- GenresBiography
416 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 1, 2015
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
May 18, 2019
An interesting story of an interesting man during an interesting time in history. The book covere the life an times of one Sir Gordon Taylor, 'Bill', as he preferred to be known. Bill was one of those characters in Australian aviation history that is lost behind the Tall Poppy, namely Sir Kingsford Smith, but who story is every bit as interesting and exciting.
The story is obviously well researched and well written, maybe too much so: I came not to like Bill Taylor, the man, immensely. Self-centred, egotistical, autocratic, pig-headed man who lived out his flying dreams at everyone else's expense.
The story is obviously well researched and well written, maybe too much so: I came not to like Bill Taylor, the man, immensely. Self-centred, egotistical, autocratic, pig-headed man who lived out his flying dreams at everyone else's expense.
Displaying 1 of 1 review