Venom Flight

On his return from Vietnam, John Clarkson goes badly astray in his life for a while. But all that changes when he’s on a job in South America and receives a nearly lethal bite from a spider. That’s when he meets a Chilean mystic who not only saves his life; he helps John develop unsuspected abilities that transform him from a going-to-seed, middle-aged guy, to a magnetic, powerful figure, whose life becomes a thrilling action-adventure. On his return from Chile, John finds himself flying high-tech planes, romancing beautiful women, travelling the world, and building a financial portfolio that brings him untold riches. But nothing comes without a price, and John’s fortune soon attracts the interest of a range of dirty-dealers, who would like nothing better than to get their hands on his money and see him dead. Fast-paced, humorous, and jam-packed with surprising adventures, Venom Flight explores what happens when a man discovers astonishing talents in himself and makes the very most of them.

While it is true to say that the Venom carried out more operational ground attack sorties than any other RAF aircraft since the Second World War, its history has hitherto been sadly neglected or misreported. With the co-operation and assistance of many former Service and civilian pilots, the record can finally be set straight in what is the definitive history of this ground-attack, all weather and naval strike fighter. David Watkins discusses the problems of the trials and development programme and takes a detailed look at the aircraft's operational service with the air arms of Australia, France, Sweden, Switzerland, Iraq and Venezuela. Of particular interest is new information relating to the Sea Venom's career with the Fleet Air Arm and the catastrophic wing failures and engine fires that plagued the early Second Tactical Air Force Venoms. It also contains a comprehensive account of Venom sorties during the Suez campaign, the 'Firedog' operations in Malaya and the protracted anti-terrorist offensive in Aden and Oman. These accounts throw new light on the conflicts and have been compiled from interviews, private papers and personal accounts. Accompanying the text is a wealth of photographs, line drawings and maps, a number of which are from private collections and are previously unpublished.

Mid-flight noncombat mishaps and blunders occur frequently in the USAF during training and utility flights—sometimes with the loss of life and regularly with the destruction of expensive aircraft. In one extreme case, a $2.2 billion B-2 Spirit bomber crashed soon after takeoff and was destroyed. The events surrounding such accidents are gathered by USAF investigators and a report is published for each case. The author has collected these reports, including some made available following FOI (Freedom of Information) requests to U.S. air bases, and rewritten them in language accessible to the general public. The causes—bird-strikes, joy-riding, unauthorized maneuvers, pilot disorientation, an unseen binoculars-case blocking the plane’s joystick, unexpected moisture in an air-pressure gauge—are often surprising and, at times, horrifying.

In the seven decades since the Second World War, 14 Squadron has operated a wide array of aircraft types (Mosquitoes, Vampires, Venoms, Hunters, Canberras, Phantoms, Jaguars and Tornados) in a fascinating variety of roles. For much of this time, the Squadron was based in Germany at the front line of the Cold War, but it also participated in the Gulf War in 1991, in operations over Iraq from 1991-2009, in the Kosovo conflict in 2000 and latterly during the war in Afghanistan, firstly with the Tornado GR4 and then with the Shadow R1. Today the Squadron operates in great secrecy in an Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance role.Having had access to log-books, contemporary diaries, maps and photographs, as well as oral and written accounts from a large number of ex-Squadron members, the author has been able to produce as complete an account as is presently possible of the operational history of 14 Squadron in the second half of the twentieth century and the opening years of the twenty-first.