Valiant Boys is a collection of personal accounts by Valiant operators, aircrew and ground crew, describing operations throughout the twelve year life of the aircraft.

   The book starts at the home of its manufacturers, Vickers, at Weybridge and Brooklands. From there we have a trip to New Zealand followed by the dropping of the UK's first atom bomb. The Suez war was happening almost at the same time and then we go into the middle of the Pacific for the dropping of the first H Bombs.

    After that we read about the Valiant's key job as the first nuclear deterrent before the other V Bombers were ready. We learn how the aircraft became the RAF's first tanker,  first breaking point to point  records developing the expertise and reliability so that the aircraft were able to transport fighter aircraft to the Mediterranean and the Far East.

   Unfortunately the life of the aircraft came to a rather abrupt end as the metal alloy used to make the wing spars was found to have an unexpectedly  short life.

   The final chapter of the book discusses the fatigue issues of the aircraft and there is an appendix discussing the down side of the atom bomb development.

TONY BLACKMAN

AND

ANTHONY WRIGHT

Foreword by Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Michael Beetham GCB, CBE, DFC, AFC, FRAeS

The book can be purchased from Grub Street or from any bookshop

ISBN : 978-1-909808-21-8