A very interesting and enjoyable read, the book covers many short stories of great escapes from aircraft that are going to crash, from the early days of prototypes of parachutes to more recent escapes using ejection seats.
The book covers many jumps by aircrew during the second world war which was fascinating, some jumping several times, others jumping without a parachute at all.
The book is written in a nice relaxed way which means its a pleasure to pickup and read, if only for ten minutes,
The only area where the book could be improved is in bringing the book up to date. The book doesn't really cover the Korean, Vietnam or more recent wars which is disappointing.
A good read but needs to be brought into the 21st century.

This is one wonderful book about real heroes. IT's m ore than just war stories, they are true stories of real men who bailed out.

My thanks to NetGalley and Sapere Publishers for a copy of “ Into The Silk “ for an honest review.

When I saw the title of this book it rung a bell with me , and as i had a few members of the family who were in the RAF ,during the war , I was drawn to read it.
On reading I realised why the title was so familiar, when I realised it was a re edition.I have a very well read and battered copy of the book , passed down to me by my parents.
Chapter 5 deals with a parachute ejection , and survival from the lowest height by Flight Lieutenant Dudley Davis. It tells of the other members of the crew perishing , my uncle Frederick “ Stan” Waltho , my mother’s 19 year old brother , the wireless operator , being one of them.
I understand from communication with Dudley Davis’ family it was something he found hard to talk about in later life as he felt so guilty about surviving when the others perished.
This book was very interesting and informative and full of acts of heroism.
A very worthwhile read

Into the Silk (2022) is a reedition of the 1956 title to better reflect advancements in technologies since then. The new edition includes chapters identifying and describing how parachuting has evolved in the last two decades.

This book goes through the history of parachutes and their invention, how they came to be used by aircraft personnel, and tells the stories of many whose lives were saved by a piece of fabric holding them up in the air.

I personally really enjoyed chapter V in which the author explains the speeds involved in falling and parachuting and explains how and why they work, and then goes through a step by step of someone ejecting from a plane and deploying their parachute.