TY  - BOOK
AU  - Sharp,Derek J.
TI  - A Cold War fighter pilot in peacetime and war
SN  - 9781781557242
PY  - 2019///
CY  - [Stroud, Gloucestershire]
PB  - Fonthill Media Limited
KW  - Sharp, Derek J.
KW  - Great Britain
KW  - Royal Air Force
KW  - Biography
KW  - Squadron, No. 151
KW  - Fighter pilots
KW  - Air pilots, Military
KW  - Personal narratives
KW  - lcgft
KW  - Autobiographies
N2  - This is the remarkable and true story of Squadron Leader Derek J. Sharp and his incredible adventures. Nothing perhaps was more astonishing than his survival after striking a mallard duck at 500 mph and his subsequent return to pilot in command. That he survived to the age of thirty was astonishing; that he continued unashamedly on to a ripe old age was nothing short of a miracle. Conceivably, he followed the advice written on a fridge magnet in his kitchen: ‘Never drive faster than your guardian angel can fly’. This fascinating book follows the adventures of Sharp from schoolboy to highly respected aviator. He flew fighters and nuclear bombers, finally seeing action in the first Gulf War flying defenceless transport jets close to the Iraq border. Sharp consequently survived Saddam Hussein’s Scuds and American Patriot missiles – ‘friendly fire’ aimed directly at the author. He flew Her Majesty The Queen and lived in a time long before political correctness, the breathalyser and motorcar safety checks. He achieved all that he set out to do, and more. That would undoubtedly be his epitaph…
ER  -