Black Arrow Blue Diamond

A memoir of flying Hawker Hunters for the famed aerobatic display teams, and other adventures in aviation.
 
Brian Mercer is one of the most outstanding postwar RAF fighter pilots and in this eminently readable autobiography he recaptures life as it was in the days of transition from flying piston-powered aircraft to jet power. His flying and leadership skills resulted in a long association with what was then considered the finest aerobatic display team in the world—Treble One Squadron’s Black Arrows.
 
Flying the elegant black Hawker Hunters in large formation displays was no easy task, and Mercer explains in great detail how their legendary precision was achieved, revealing many exciting incidents en route. When Treble One’s Hunters were replaced with the supersonic Lightning fighter, it soon became clear that these superfast aircraft were not suited to close-up display flying. Brian was then asked to form a new RAF display team and continue with Hunters. This was to become the No. 92 Squadron’s Blue Diamonds, who inherited the star role.
 
Faced with the fact that future promotion within the RAF would move him from cockpit to desk, Brian elected to join the then-fledgling airline Cathay Pacific, and his story also includes many lively accounts of incidents that occurred while he was flying from the company’s home base at Kai Tak in Hong Kong.