Teach Yourself to Fly was first published on the eve of the Second World War in 1938. Its main purpose was to prepare thousands of volunteers and conscripts for service in the Royal Air Force.

For he may have overlooked the direction in which you push the rudder-bar, as I did, or some equally important item. And no aeroplane-owner exactly welcomes the man who cracks his aeroplane up for him. In 2008 Teach Yourself will celebrate its 70th anniversary. As part of our plans to commemorate this publishing phenomenon, we will publish four facsimiles of some of our quirkiest and classic titles. Each of these facsimiles will look and feel exactly like the originals; hardback, dust-jacket, end papers. They will be beautiful (and very competitively priced) little books.