FROM BIPLANES TO FAST JETS
A PILOT’S LIFE IN THE ROYAL AIR FORCE 1942 1973 DISCOVER THE FLYING CAREER OF AN RAF PILOT WHO SERVED FROM THE DARKEST DAYS OF WWII UP TO THE EARLY 1970S
Author: Ken Aedy Publisher: Whitefox Publishing Price: £20 (Hardback) Released: Out now
This book is based on the unfinished memoirs of Ken Aedy, who sadly died in 2001. Written for his grandchildren, it contains many family references, and like any memoir is based on personal recollections, sometimes unverified by outside documents. For all that, it is a book that will be of interest to the wider enthusiast and researcher.
Aedy joined the RAF in 1942, training in Oklahoma. He joined No 149 Squadron as a Lancaster bomber pilot in early March 1945, taking part in some of the last day and night raids over Germany. As the war ended, he flew on Operation Manna (dropping food to the starving Dutch) and Operation Exodus (repatriating liberated prisoners of war). In 1948 he was posted to RAF Little Rissington to train as a flying instructor. His tour as a qualified flying Instructor had hardly begun before a chance encounter saw him ‘headhunted’ as personal assistant to the new commander of the Far East Air Force. For three years, from 1949-52, Aedy travelled the Far East, and he provides some interesting insight on the political and operational challenges faced by the RAF in this turbulent region.
Aedy then retrained on Gloster Meteor night fighters, flying operationally in Germany and the UK, until converting to the new Gloster Javelin in 1957. He isstill in training, as a squadron leader, in 1958 when his memoir ends, although notes from his family briefly cover his career up to his retirement in 1973. Although relatively short, the book is lavishly illustrated, and contains much of interest.