Born to Fly: From Hangar Floor to Chief Pilot

When five-year-old Bob Williams flew to Berlin with his family in a noisy, freezing Avro Tudor, his mother was in tears, but he thought it was the most exciting event of his young life. Having been bitten by the aviation bug, he found there was no cure and made up his mind he would always work with aircraft. Starting as an apprentice engineer with British Eagle, he experienced the first of several redundancies when they folded in 1968. Dan-Air sponsored him for his commercial pilot’s licence, and he gained his command on their Boeing 737s before being made redundant once more. Over the decades that followed he would fly for ten different airlines, only two of which have survived. He rose to the rank of Chief Pilot, and the story of his career is, in many ways, the story of a remarkable industry that flourished in the years following World War Two but experienced many failures and setbacks along the way. Born to Fly is essential reading for those who want to understand the remarkable growth and periodic failures of Britain’s airlines, or those who seek only a good read and the heartwarming story of a boy who lived his dreams.