African Aviation Series

The continent of Africa is steeped in aviation history and stories of the personalities, the airlines and the aircraft involved abound, some already published and others still to come.

Winston Brent, aviation enthusiast, author and owner of Freeworld Publications is well known in the aviation world for his tireless pursuit of African Aviation History and for authoring and publishing many books on the subject. In 1987 he published his first book/booklet (46 pages), “Rhodesian Air Force 1947-80, A Brief History”. This sold so well he had to have it reprinted.

In 1994 he published his next title “African Military Aviation”, in A5 format, 288 pages. It is still regarded as a reference book on military aircraft in Africa. In 1995, the first of the present African Aviation Series, No 1, “AT-6 Harvard” was published. It was followed by many more so much so that by 2001 he was publishing three a year.

Winston found that he had others who shared his passion and were prepared to record their experiences, like Brig-Gen Monster Wilkins in “Chopper Pilot”, Maj-Gen Tom Cockbain who wrote “Sweeping Circles in the Sky” and in No 10, “Serve to Save”, Guy Ellis, a former Cape Town resident, shared his passion by recording the history of an area of the Service that has been neglected and that played an important role in the rescue of pilots, aircrew, sailors and passengers off the South African coast from 1940 onwards.

Winston’s favourite book is titled Cheetah, he lives in White River, Mpumalanga and apart from aviation, his other passions include hiking and nature. Winston encourages all those interested in publishing stories of African Aviation to make use of his extensive publishing knowledge. He is willing to assist wherever he can in order to capture African Aviation History in book form.

For more information of Winston and his African Aviation series, visit Freeworld Publications or send an email to Winston at afmil@global.co.za.