Why Not?: The Story of the Honourable Charles Stuart Rolls

Charles Rolls was the first Englishman to be killed in an air crash. He was thirty years old. Rolls' death shocked the country and made headlines across the world. His relative youth at the time is perhaps the reason that he is a forgotten hero: a man who today receives little credit for his legacy, even though at the time of his death on July 12, 1910, he was one of the most famous men in the country. His loss was regarded as a national tragedy. Today, he is most famous for the partnership that he forged with Henry Royce to form Rolls-Royce, a name that today is as synonymous with excellence as it is was then. Yet, Rolls was a national hero long before he met Royce in Manchester in 1904. The son of a peer, Rolls was one of the first, and certainly the youngest of Britain's pioneer motorists. He was a successful racing driver and achieved what many believe impossible - selling the motor car in Britain. He made his first ascent in a balloon in 1898 and was experimenting with the possibilites of powered flight as early as 1901. With the reliability of the car achieved, Rolls immersed himself in conquering the next great frontier, the air. One of the first Britons to fly, he made the first return crossing of the Channel in 1909 in a Wright Flyer and was acclaimed across the world. Charles Rolls was an enigma, a man of great paradox, and yet he was a great patriot, racing driver, record breaker, aviator, one of the UK's greatest industialists, a pioneer in the true sense of the workd and he had a prophetic ability to see the way of the future. "Some men see things as they could be and say why not."

Table of Contents:
Introduction, An Englishman to be Proud Of, The Llangattocks of Monmouthshire, Destiny, The Dawn of a New Era, Going Racing, A Growing Fame, Selling the Car to the Royal Family, From Motor Racing to Kindness to Animals, C.S. Rolls & Co., Ballooning, The World Land Speed Record, The Race of Death, Back to Business, Meeting Royce, The Gordon Bennett, The Tourist Trophy, Towards Powered Flight, Return from America, Rolls-Royce from Strength to Strength, First Flight, Prophesy, C.S. Rolls Photography Album Excerpts, Appendices, Epilogue, Bibliography, Index.

About the Author :
David Baines was born in 1965 in London and was educated at Kingsbrook College in Northamptonshire. He began racing Karts at the age of fourteen having raised sponsorship from the Parish Rector. Super Karts and then Formula Ford followed but tests in Formula Three and Touring Cars led nowhere. Subsequently he instructed extensively at racing schools across the country and has raced historic cars.David's formative years were spent working in the family hotel business; while his father, the great Rolls-Royce influence on his life, continued his career as an airline pilot. Very close to Silverstone, the hotel was used by some of the best drivers of the day including Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, Alan Jones and Ayrton Senna.He has contributed to the Daily Telegraph and many motoring magazines as well as writing copy for some major companies, many within the motorsport industry.