Distant Early Warning

Words on Wings Press is pleased to announce new editions of ALL NINE of Don McVicar’s exciting aviation memoirs as sleek and easy-to-read Kindle e-books.

This is the FIRST TIME these volumes are all available in the same format, known as the Streamlined Edition.

Fun fact about e-books; they are also searchable databases! Better than an index, simply type in the name of an airplane, person or place for the full value of the content to be revealed. This is a real boon to aviation historians and other aficionados of the numerous types of now-iconic aircraft McVicar flew and wrote of so brilliantly.

Distant Early Warning was Don McVicar’s second original book to be entirely self-published and printed upon demand.

McVicar was deeply disappointed when his publisher, Airlife in England, declined to accept his book A Railroad from the Sky, saying it was “too Canadian.” They had also refused to run a second edition of his 1981 book, Ferry Command, after the first edition sold out. Showing the same determination and perseverance that had kept him and his aircrews alive during his many thousands of miles in the air as a Captain/Navigator in the Royal Air Force Ferry Command, he figured out a way to self-publish his books on demand. This was quite a feat considering this was 1990 and self-publishing was simply not an option for authors. He began by dividing Ferry Command into its two logical halves, adding new material to both, and having a Montreal printing company comb-bind the photocopies of the master pages he’d printed out on his dot-matrix printer into Ferry Command Pilot or South Atlantic Safari as soon as an order came in.

Particularly with Distant Early Warning, his master pages were a complex assortment of paperwork he felt added to the value of the manuscript. Not just photos that he’d tape into place, but maps, newspaper clippings, letters and any other ephemera, almost like a scrapbook effect. Unfortunately, the photocopying process was not kind to the quality of the images (scanning not being an option in the early 1990s). Sadly, a great deal of this original material could not be located when his archives were collected a few months after his passing in 1997. But it’s his words that matter, and they’re all within this easy-to-read edition.

Such was McVicar’s zeal to get World-Wide into the DEW Line project, he had no other option but to pay 100% interest on his first C-46! The Lure of the Arctic can be powerful, and he’d experienced it more than most during the war. But it’s not just his story; the men who flew heavily-loaded aircraft into almost-invisible ice strips for the defense of North America against the Soviet threat of bombers laden with atomic bombs flying over the pole deserve to remembered and appreciated. Keeping those airplanes flying in subzero Arctic temperatures was an insanely challenging task, as was repairing the inevitable crashes hundreds of miles away from home base. There were triumphs, and there were tragedies, and all are told with McVicar’s trademark gusto and attention to detail.

Distant Early Warning went out of print with the passing of Don McVicar in 1997; and now it’s back for all to enjoy!