num_pages: 238
description: A stone cold classic. One of the best military aviaton memoirs ever written Rowland White author of Vulcan 607 I only have to think Speed and I am at 600 knots in seconds. Think Height and I am gazing down from a eight-mile-high perch within one minute. Think Freedom and I am wrested away from a dank cold world cloudbase at 300 feet through a brief shock of cloud to emerge into a golden blue world another dimension crystal clear for miles and miles Fighter Pilot. Robert Prest had never wanted to be anything else. And even as a boy he had set his sights on flying the awesome McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom. The big twin-engined interceptor offered an irresistible combination of charisma power and performance. Air combat strike gunnery bombing and rocketry the F-4 was jack-of-all-trades master of most. From the lonely pursuit of Soviet intruders out over the North Sea and strength-sapping high-g dogfights to maintaining Quick Reaction Alert on Germanys Eastern border ready to scramble Battle Flight at a moments notice Prest and his fellow aviators stood toe-to-toe with a powerful opponent. But the defence of the West came at a cost and comrades in arms would pay with their lives. No other book so vividly brings to life the high-pressure high stakes high-speed world of an RAF fighter pilot on the Cold War frontline. But its more than that. In capturing a sense of the wonder and magic of flying Prests book ranks aviation classics from writers like Saint-Exupry Richard Bach Cecil Lewis and Ernest Gann. The best book Ive ever read about flying fast jets for the Cold War RAF. Both thrilling and elegaic F-4 Phantom makes poetry of complex exacting world of the fighter pilot. This is as close as youll ever get to flying the Phantom yourself. Rowland White author of Vulcan 607 What First Light does for Spitfires and the Battle of Britain Robert Prest does for the F-4 Phantom in RAF service  Superbly written. Royal Aeronautical Society Insight Perfect for fans of books like Skyfaring Apache First Light Tornado Down Fate is the Hunter or Sagittarius Rising
language: None
title: F-4 Phantom: A Pilot's Story
publisher: Silvertail Books