The Flight of the Mew Gull

by Alex Henshaw

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 Henshaw set his heart on it, developing a technique of racing which extracted the very maximum from his 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.

Genres: Aviation

272 pages, Paperback

First published May 15, 2008

Reviews

[Michael Maddams · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a “one stop shop” for anyone interested in pre-war air racing. It is without a doubt, one of the most thrillingly well written and emotional accounts of flying during this era. Honest and factual, Henshaw writes in a way which makes you feel like you’re his closest friend and he is confiding in you exactly how he achieved these astonishing feats of skill, bravery, luck and speed.

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent account of aircraft racing in the late 30's. Some of it quite terrifying.