In 2022, yet another of Idriess' manuscripts, Our Flying Aces, has been rediscovered profiling some of the remarkable pilots who flew their 'string and ceiling wax' aircraft fearlessly against the Germans in World War I, not only bombing targets on the Western Front, but engaging in hair-raising aerial combats against German biplanes sent up to shoot them down. These are ripping yarns indeed profiling intrepid young Australians who risked their lives (and many were killed) in this war that was supposed to be the war to end all wars. - Tim Bowden, from his Introduction.
With the success of The Desert Column in 1932, Idriess wrote this series of mini-biographies on Australia's World War One Flying aces - John Duigan, Harry Cobby, Ross Smith, Oswald Watt, Gordon Taylor, Frank McNamara - our first V.C. aviator, and the post-war acrobatics of Macintosh and Paper. Introducing the lot with a background piece on Lawrence Hargraves, Idriess shows how innovative our early airmen were, and details acts of bravado and downright lunacy in these earliest machines. Fully illustrated, and glows with his unique style.