When on its first overseas flight R.101 crashed at Beauvais in northern France only a few hours out from Cardington, the nation was stunned. As Dr Noble Frankland, the official air historian, says in his foreword: "The impact was not less and the results far more decisive than what followed the sinking of the Titanic. Those who remember the loss of R.101 will never forget it and those who now hear of it can scarcely not be profoundly moved. Yet curiously until now no-one knew what happened, or to be more precise, exactly what happened.
"The riddle of this paradox has set the bit between the teeth of Sir Peter Masefield and, over a period of nearly forty years, his remorseless but sympathetic curiosity coupled with his enduring patience and his profound experience and knowledge of aviation, have enabled him to produce the solution. If it seems strange that such a disaster should wait so long for its concluding chapter, there are stranger aspects than that of this extraordinary episode, which not only signalled the end of an era in aviation history but left a scar upon the very heart of the nation.
'Sir Peter's book is important because it sets an historical record straight after it had wandered astray for so long and because it does so in a manner that is authoritative beyond doubt. It is fascinating in the same way as a well founded detective story and it is moving because of the powerful elements of human endeavour and romantic involvement which perished with the ship and the men at Beauvais.