Jim Hazelton was a legendary figure in aviation, known for being the first Australian to fly a single-engine aircraft solo across the Pacific Ocean.

Over the course of his remarkable life, he logged more than 50,000 flight hours in over 130 different aircraft types and ferried more than 200 aircraft internationally.

Co-founder of Hazleton Airlines with his brother Max, Jim earned admiration from his peers and global recognition for his fearless spirit and contributions to aviation.

The remarkable tales of Jim’s career and his extraordinary legacy are being brought to life thanks to the release of a new updated edition of Born to Fly, a biography written and now updated by author Mark Nelson.

The new chapter of the updated edition reads like something out of a spy thriller, recounting an incident in 1981 when Jim was tasked with assembling a crew to retrieve four Fletcher Agricultural aircraft that had been left languishing on a Bangladeshi Airfield. When negotiations with corrupt local officials to release the purchased aircraft broke down, Jim and the team pulled off a daring 3am escape and flew the liberated planes back home to Australia.

“There's no shortage of stories and I think we could have done a second book, but you have to cut it off somewhere,” said Jim’s daughter, Jillian Hazleton.

“But the added story, of the Bangladeshi ferry, which is quite crazy... I think it gives a bit of an idea of the type of guy Dad was – fearless! Only he could have pulled the mission off.”

The new edition of Born to Fly has been created in response to demand, said Jillian, although the initial idea for writing the book was simply to preserve these stories in the historical record.

“We were tossing up whether we should do it again or not, because for us, the biggest part was actually having it put into print and in libraries,” she said.

“We as a family published it because we felt that these stories shouldn’t be lost. It's part of the history of aviation, of what was achieved in Australia in the early days.

"These guys were the ground-breakers; they pushed things in terms of devising different techniques for Ag flying – techniques which are still being used today.

“But I think with this new print of the book and the wonderful new stories added, we have got a bit of another round of enthusiasm about seeing Dad get the recognition he deserves.”

The new updated edition of Born to Fly is available at Collins Booksellers, Orange.