From the First World War to the Korean War, Canada has produced "knights of the air" whose remarkable achievements are registered in their tally of aerial combat "kills". Billy Bishop was the most famous, but there were others who were just as skilled and ruthless.
In Air Aces, Dan McCaffery tells the stories of a dozen Canadian "aces." These men, drawn from very different backgrounds, had much in common: each was immensely brave, had a powerful killer instinct, and was very, very good at his "profession." Many were also extraordinary characters, colourful swashbucklers whose skills as pilots were matched only by their flair for the dramatic.
A thoughtful account of the nature of war and wartime heroism, Air Aces examines the popular figure of the fighter ace as it emerges in the First World War, and wanes before the carnage of later conflicts.

DAN McCAFFERY is one of Canada's most successful military aviation history writers. He was born in Sarnia, Ontario, where he graduated from the the Journalism Program at Lambton College of Applied Arts and Technology. He worked for the Sarnia Gazette, a weekly newspaper, from 1974 to 1989 as a reporter and later as editor. Since 1989 he has worked at the daily newspaper the Sarnia Observer where he is currently the assignment editor. He has won three Canadian News Awards, two Ontario News Awards and a Western Ontario News Award.

He is the author of Hell Island: Canadian Pilots and the 1942 Air Battle for Malta, Billy Bishop: Canadian Hero, Air Aces, Battlefields in the Air, Canadian Warplanes and Bush Planes and Bush Pilots. McCaffery and his wife Val have been married for 28 years.

Dan McCaffery's profile page