The jets. The crews. The stories only they can tell.
Large-format photographic books on Britain’s Cold War fast jets — shot and written by the aircrew who flew them.
Lightning Logbook
Volume One
A pilot’s-eye return to the English Electric Lightning — the interceptor that could stand on its tail and climb to 40,000 feet in under three minutes. Unseen cockpit and air-to-air photography, first-hand from the men who strapped in.
Ten titles for the enthusiast’s shelf
Every book is a large-format hardback, printed in strictly limited runs. When a volume sells out, it’s gone.
Ian Black — flight line, English Electric Lightning
Shot from the cockpit, not the crowd line
Firestreak Books exists for one reason: to put the real story of Britain’s fast-jet era into print, told by the people who lived it. No stock libraries, no recycled captions — original photography and first-hand accounts from the aircrew who flew.
Founder Ian Black is a former RAF fast-jet pilot who flew the Lightning and the Mirage 2000, and one of Britain’s foremost aviation photographers. Each title is designed as an object to keep: heavyweight paper, museum-grade reproduction, and the detail only someone who flew the aircraft would think to include.
— From the flight line to your bookshelf.
Not another coffee-table reprint
Large Format
Oversized hardbacks that do the photography justice — built to sit open on the table.
Unseen Archive
Air-to-air and cockpit images published for the first time, straight from the aircrew’s own collections.
Limited Runs
Printed in short runs. When a volume sells out it’s gone — no on-demand reprints.
Funds the Restoration
100% of book profits help fund the restoration of Lightning prototype XA847.
“Stunning! A must for a fan of the Phantom in British service. The pictures as usual for Ian are fantastic and the author shows his knowledge of the subject so well.”
Buy a book, save a Lightning
Ian and the Callsign Collective are restoring XA847 — the original English Electric P.1B that became the Lightning — after decades in a barn. Every book you buy helps get it flying again. Follow the restoration and be first to hear when the next volume lands.