{"product_id":"no-parachute-a-classic-account-of-war-in-the-air-in-wwi-9781909166042","title":"No Parachute: A Classic Account of War in the Air in WWI","description":"\u003cp\u003eFrom the young airmen who took their frail machines high above the trenches of World War I and fought their foes in single combat there emerged a renowned company of brilliant aces  among them Ball  Bishop  McCudden  Collishaw and Mannock  whose legendary feats have echoed down half a century. But behind the elite there were  in the Royal Flying Corps  many hundreds of other airmen who flew their hazardous daily sorties in outdated planes without ever achieving fame. Here is the story of one of these unknown flyers  a story based on letters written on the day  hot on the event  which tells of a young pilots progress from fledgling to seasoned fighter. His descriptions of air fighting  sometimes against the Richtofen Circus  of breathless dogfights between Sopwith Pup and Albatros  are among the most vivid and immediate to come out of World War I. Gould Lee brilliantly conveys the immediacy of air war  the thrills and the terror  in this honest and timeless account. Rising to the rank of air vice-marshal  Gould Lee never forgot the RFCs needless sacrifices  and in a trio of trenchant appendices he examines  with the mature judgment of a senior officer of the RAF and a graduate of the Staff and Imperial Defense Colleges  the failure of the Army High Command to provide both efficient airplanes until mid-1917 and parachutes throughout the war  and General Trenchards persistence in a costly and largely ineffective conception of the air offensive.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45924534222901,"sku":"ByrdShop_1909166049","price":97.11,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9781909166042.jpg?v=1787675850","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/no-parachute-a-classic-account-of-war-in-the-air-in-wwi-9781909166042","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}