Hazard Spectrum

Life in the Danger Zone by the Fleet Air Arm’s Top Gun

By: Nathan Gray

Narrated by: Nathan Gray

On 5 December 2002, trainee pilot Nathan Gray walked away from an 'unsurvivable' crash at RAF Wittering in Cambridgeshire. His instructor, seated behind him, was killed instantly. Despite the physical pain and mental scars, he found the strength and resilience to continue his flying career. Today Commander Nathan Gray is one of the UK's elite test pilots - the best of the best.

Hazard Spectrum allows us to share Nathan's dizzying journey to the top of the Fleet Air Arm. With over 140 combat missions to his name, he is among the most decorated pilots in the British armed forces - our very own Maverick. In an exhilarating first-person narrative, Nathan takes us inside the cockpit as he holds Taliban fighters at bay in Afghanistan, and leads a top-secret mission to seek out Osama Bin Laden in the mountains of the Hindu Kush.

In 2018, Nathan was chosen to complete the first take-off and landing of the world's most advanced fighter aircraft - the F35 stealth jet - on the flight deck of the flagship HMS Queen Elizabeth. A television audience of millions held its collective breath as he geared up for the task.

This is the inspiring and unforgettable story of a man with a supreme ability to fly the most sophisticated and deadly planes ever created, who overcomes his personal demons to push the hazard spectrum to the limit - and beyond.

©2023 Nathan Gray (P)2023 Headline Publishing Group Limited

Critic reviews

Nerve-shattering, enlightening and deeply moving, Hazard Spectrum tells the story of a boy from the Potteries who ignored the so-called experts telling him that his aim to be a fighter pilot was just a dream. Nathan Gray scaled the highest reaches of military aviation and now, with this riveting account of fighting the war against terror, and his determination to confront the demons threatening to ground him, he pushes the flight envelope to the limit, and beyond (John Nichol, former RAF navigator and bestselling author of Spitfire, Lancaster and Tornado)

Hazard Spectrum is so packed with incident that it's hard to know where to begin. Flying the Harrier in combat, Nathan Gray took the fight to the enemy in ways the jump jet's designers could scarcely have imagined and, as a test pilot pushing the envelope of the fifth generation F-35 stealth fighter, overcame dire emergencies that could have killed him. But it's the human story that makes Gray's memoir so special. His remarkable career as a naval aviator seems both inspired by, and to pay tribute to, a fallen comrade who, in a terrible crash that Gray somehow walked away from, tragically lost his life. It all makes for a powerful and compelling read (Rowland White, bestselling author of Vulcan 607 and Harrier 809)

Nathan Gray's persistence, emotional intelligence, and self doubt.

Nathan Gray put me in his emotional head, his humanitarian heart, his empathic compass, and his pilot canopy. He wove a compelling 23-year tapestry.

Loved hearing your story!

Nath,

Very well written and read! I’m sure you’ll hear from Bran with his normal banter, but from me you’ll only hear how excellent it was to hear your story!! All or love to Lucy and the little (not so little) one!

Love,
Rach and Bethan

Respect

Amazing humble presentation of a remarkable man with a remarkable flying career. Thanks for your service Nathan.