American state banks prepare to fire old leader, getting high-flying duo (6,3,5)
I believe the answer is:
alcock and brown
'old leader getting high-flying duo' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot judge whether it can be defined by this definition.
'american state banks prepare to fire' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'american' could be 'a' (common abbreviation - e.g. in organisation names) and 'a' is found within the answer.
'state' could be 'nd' (abbreviation for North Dakota) and 'nd' is found within the answer.
'prepare to fire' could be 'cock' (as in cocking a gun) and 'cock' is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for alcock and brown that I've seen is " They flew".)