LIGHTNINGS TO SPITFIRES
Memoirs of an RAF fighter pilot and former officer commanding the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight
For 45 years, Clive Rowley flew with the Royal Air Force and for 31 of those years, he specialized as an air defense fighter pilot. Such was his love of fast fighter aircraft that, in order to stay flying, he transferred to Specialist Aircrew terms of service, relinquishing any chance of further promotion above his rank of squadron leader. During those years Clive flew Lightnings, Hawks, and Tornado F.3s but, perhaps more intriguingly, for 11 years he flew Hurricanes and Spitfires with the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF), the RAF’s—if not the world’s—most famous “warbird” display team, which he ultimately led and commanded. Many readers will have watched him, perhaps unknowingly, as he flew these iconic aircraft, often alongside the Lancaster, at air shows and large-scale commemorations around the UK and Europe.
During the Cold War, Clive flew the BAC Lightning from Gutersloh in Germany and in the UK, becoming an expert in the art of air combat in the process. Then for 16 years he flew the Tornado F.3 as the RAF moved into expeditionary operations. During his long career as a fighter pilot, he witnessed quantum jumps in the development of aircraft, equipment, and weapon systems, and the subsequent and parallel evolution of fighter tactics.
Packed with humorous and often hair-raising anecdotes, but also revealing the shock and sorrow he felt at the deaths of friends and colleagues, this book is a highly detailed account of life as a fighter pilot in the RAF in the last three decades of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. Clive is open about the fears he sometimes felt in this dangerous world and how he allayed them to continue flying for more than four decades. This book is illustrated with wonderful photographs from his time on the front line as well as with the BBMF, many of which have never been published before.
If you have ever wondered what it is like to fly supersonic jet fighters, like the Lightning and the Tornado F.3, or iconic warbirds, such as the Hurricane and Spitfire, Clive Rowley brings you into those cockpits and shares his experiences.
“Lightnings to Spitfires” is published by Air World and is available from Amazon and other online outlets. (ISBN-13:978-1399015622)