A successor to the publisher's Spirit of Dan-Air (1993), this is an insider's account of what was once the UK's largest independent airline. As such, it offers a lot of insight into this scrappy airline that managed to survive on crumbs during the postwar lean years to operate wide-body equipment, but plunged from profitability to become a takeover target for British Airways in 1992. The author, who joined Dan-Air in 1956 as a pilot and eventually became operations director, covers his 31 years of experiences in 22 chapters, with a 23~(rd) devoted to the destruction of the airline.Dan-Air Douglas DC-3s and Avro Yorks hauling cargo and passengers around Europe were gradually complemented and succeeded by Bristol 170 Freighters, Airspeed Ambassadors, DC-7s, DC-4s, de Havilland Comets (the airline became the largest operator of the type), Boeing 707s, 727s, and 737s, HS 748s, BAC One-Elevens, BAe 146s, and Airbus A300s. IT (inclusive tour) charters carrying holiday makers formed the backbone of Dan-Air's success, but it also flew extensively on behalf of the Ministry of Defence, operated scheduled UK domestic flights, and ran a profitable engineering business. All this activity and progress is well covered, along with many of the people involved.
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