Aviation Beaty was initially rejected by the
RAF pilot selection panel. Thanks largely to the support of his university tutors, he eventually passed selection and completed flying training, receiving a pilot grading of 'exceptional'. Following flying training, Beaty joined
RAF Coastal Command flying the
Consolidated Liberator. He completed four tours with
206 Squadron and won a
Distinguished Flying Cross and bar. Beaty brought the aircraft back to base for a successful landing. Upon inspection, over 600 holes were counted in the aircraft. After the war, Beaty was offered a regular commission with the RAF. However, he turned down the opportunity and joined
BOAC where he was posted to the carrier's flagship route across the
North Atlantic. and Robert Stanton, starting at the end of his commercial flying career and continuing almost until his death. Flying has an important place in many of them. In 1960,
Alfred Hitchcock bought the rights to Beaty's novel
Village of Stars but never produced the film. Another novel of Beaty's was produced as the film
Cone of Silence (1960) starring
George Sanders. •
The Take Off (1949) (US title:
The Donnington Legend) •
The Heart of the Storm (1954) (US title:
The Four Winds) •
The Proving Flight (1956) •
Cone of Silence (1959) •
Call Me Captain (1959) •
Village of Stars (1960) (writing as Paul Stanton) •
The Wind Off The Sea (1962) •
The Siren Song (1964) •
Milk and Honey (1964) •
Sword of Honour (1965) •
The Gun Garden (1965) •
The Temple Tree (1971) •
Electric Train (1975) •
Excellency (1977) •
The White Sea Bird (1979) •
Wings of the Morning (1982) (with Betty Beaty) •
The Stick (1984) •
The Blood Brothers (1987) •
Eagles (1990) •
The Ghosts of the Eighth Attack (1998)
Non-fiction writing, flight safety, and human factors Already an accomplished novelist, Beaty turned his attention to identifying the possible causes behind aviation accidents attributed to
pilot error, enrolling at
University College London to read psychology. Having completed the degree course in a single year, rather than the traditional three years, Beaty became a civil servant in 1967 before publishing his first non-fiction work,
The Human Factor in Aircraft Accidents in 1969. This was followed by
The Water Jump: The Story of Transatlantic Flight (1976),
The Complete Skytraveller (1979) and
Strange Encounters: Mysteries of the Air (1982), before he returned to the subject of his first non-fiction book in
The Naked Pilot - The Human Factor in Aircraft Accidents (1991). Finally ''Light Perpetual: Aviators' Memorial Windows'' appeared in 1995. His first book was met with considerable resistance, not least from a number of aviators, because it portrayed pilots as ordinary human beings, susceptible to errors and mistakes. However, Beaty's work resulted in further interest in the subject, which has now become an accepted part of flying training and is a compulsory module on many private and professional flying courses.
Radio On 10 June 1972, a 90-minute adaptation of Beaty's novel
The Temple Tree, scripted by Betty Davies and Michael Spice, was transmitted in
BBC Radio 4's
Saturday Night Theatre slot. Beaty himself subsequently wrote a drama serial for Radio 4 entitled
The Magic Carpet. The story of the doomed airship
R101, it was transmitted from 27 November 1983 to 8 January 1984 in seven 30-minute episodes. ==Death==