James Allan is already a well known writer on technical aviation subjects, navigation and air touring. However, in Flights of Fancy he presents another side of his writing, a collection of compelling short stories with an aeronautical theme. While Flights of Fancy is largely a work of the imagination, the stories reveal the author"s fascination with the thin line that drives fact from fiction. Inspired by the scarcely credible tales sometimes told by pilots, James Allen lures the reader into a world where the subtle distinction between reality and unreality becomes indefinable, whether in the form of the grandiose imaginings of a vengeful General Galteri, or the nightmarish apparition of an unmarked Harvard intent on wreaking destruction on an unsuspecting pilot. The stories, told with great skill and not a little humour, make for a highly entertaining read, and comprise a book that no collector of aviation literature will want to miss. --- from book"s dustjacket