Hillary joined the Royal Air Force at the start of the Second World War as a university undergraduate.

Its text details his experiences as a Spitfire pilot during the Battle of Britain, during which he was shot down in action, sustaining severe injuries.

[1] He wrote the book in New York City whilst still recuperating from his wounds during a propaganda publicity tour in the United States in 1941 organized by the British Government to attempt to raise support for the Allied cause and the U.S.A.'s entry into the war.

The book was first published in 1942 under the US title Falling Through Space, with a cover showing an airman plummeting through the sky.

The value of this book lies in the fact that it is a statement of a fully articulate young man about life in a Service which is generally inarticulate.