MAA Member publishes “If It Had Wings” the story of his late father’s 10,797.25 hour flying career in war and peace

Here’s a slightly different announcement from one of our members:

In common with many MAA members, I’ve spent a lifetime in aviation and have been privileged to have met and worked with so many great people across the industry. As a member I’ve met many others who like me have an interest in the history of aviation which got me thinking that a book I have recently published “If It Had Wings” may be of interest to other members. The book tells the story of my late father’s lifetime as a pilot starting with training in Canada in 1943 and going on to cover his career – 10,797.25 hours on 63 different types of aircraft (I’ll bet there’s some that younger MAA members will not recognise!)

Bye way of some background as to how the book came about, it’s based around a manuscript that I persuaded Dad to write and which he left me on the understanding that I’d not do anything with it until after he passed away. In common with so many of his generation he didn’t talk about the war beyond saying that they had “done their job” which in Dad’s case (along with his crew) was flying a 55,000lb B24 Liberator bomber on 11 hour, 2,000 mile plus missions against Japanese targets in Burma and Thailand including the infamous Burma railway. Post war Dad re-joined the RAF flying extensively in Germany and Southeast Asia based in Singapore. Upon retirement he flew as an examiner with the CAA Flying Unit and finally flew what we would now call Business Aviation with Thurston Aviation at Stansted.

I’ve augmented the original manuscript with notes from Dad's log books, a bibliography of contemporary world events to put the narrative into context, and family history so hope it makes an interesting read, it’s one man’s story although he would have said he was just one of thousands.

The book is available on Amazon as a paperback or Kindle version just search for “If It Had Wings”. Having gone up the publishing learning curve I prefer the format of the paperback, it’s so much better than the proscriptive Kindle formatting allows so the book not only feels nicer it looks better (probably also something to do with my age)! All proceeds are going to the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund so a good cause.

If you would like further information the website www.ifithadwings.com which has reviews, contact and order forms (you can order through the site or directly from Amazon) which ever way, proceeds will go to the RAFBF as noted. My direct email is alan@mtsgb.com, if you read the book, I’d be delighted to hear from you please let me know what you think!

My thanks to Andrew and the MAA team for allowing me space to publish this slightly unusual promotion - Alan Markwell, Markwell Trading Services.