A bonus episode to accompany our podcast about the 1969 Daily Mail Great Transatlantic Air Race.

Rolf Richardson flew one of the winning civilian entries in the air race in a BOAC Super VC10. Here he tells us what was involved, and how, although he was operating a scheduled commercial flight from New York to London, they really pushed the limits, and even got special treatment from air traffic control. Some of the most amazing stories are what happened on the ground, but it’s all scarcely believable in this day and age.

Rolf also talks about his time on some of the earlier airliners such as the Argonaut, and completely shatters our illusions about the Bristol Britannia which he says ‘must have been designed by a team of mad professors’. He also flew Britain’s first ever jet fighter, the Gloster Meteor, at a time when it had a disturbingly high attrition rate.  

Since leaving aviation Rolf has been a noted photographer and is a successful thriller writer, always with a bit of aviation in the storyline, much of it based on his experiences in the early years, but entirely fictional, and with a good dollop of sex and murder. Look out for his books on Amazon, available both on Kindle and in paperback.

Books by Rolf Richardson: 

'THE LAST WEISS', set during the final stages of WW2 in two of his favourite countries, Germany and Norway.

In COFFIN CORNER we move to a fictional airline in 1960s Singapore, with excursions to Australia.

With BEAR BUGGER CRUISE it's off to the Caribbean and the mystery disappearance of a cruise ship passenger.

In NIGHT WATCHMAN we stay in Britain, where disaster strikes the political establishment.

ROAD TO MANDALAY starts in the French Alps, but finishes on the Road to Mandalay. Reason: the strange new world of cyber power.

In STASILAND we're again in Germany, now united but with echoes of the past when death stalks the River Elbe.

LETTER FROM GALAPAGOS is a mystery set in the South Seas with the disappearance of a yacht.

TEA WITH RASPUTIN starts in Alaska, but ends in the mafia world of St.Petersburg