This is the story of retired pilot Brian Trubshaw, the man who flew the first supersonic passenger aircraft. Brian describes his early days as an RAF bomber pilot in World War II, followed by service with Transport Command and the prestigious King's Flight. It was after he had left the RAF in 1950 to join the staff of Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) at Weybridge as a test pilot that his career really took off. In the years that followed he was closely involved with the flight test programmes for the Vickers Valiant nuclear bomber, and the BAC 1-11 and VC10 airliners. In 1965 he became Chief Test Pilot for BAC/BAe and later piloted Concorde on its maiden flight in 1969. Trubshaw's descriptions are interwoven with insights into the manoeuverings of politicians, industrialists and trade unions which led ultimately to the decline of the British aircraft industry in the 1970s.