Aviation

Revised and vastly improved edition of a book first published in 1991. It remains the most authoritative work on Darwin air war, and has been compiled from a wide range of sources worldwide, including Japan. This edition contains many new photos, most of them from private collections. The entire scope of Darwin air war is covered, beginning with the pre-war defence build-up. After the Pacific War began, Darwin was a key staging post in attempts to reinforce and defend Java, but this ended with t...

This book is the latest in a new reference series for aircraft modellers called 'Spotlight On' and presents detailed illustrations of the aircraft that defended the UK skies during the Battle of Britain: the Hawker Hurricane Mk.I and the Supermarine Spitfire Mk.I. The book contains 40 colour plan and profile views of the camouflage, colours and markings with a very high level of detail.

This new book in the popular Polish Wings series tells the story of Spitfire Vs used by Polish pilots in Britain during the war period 1941-1945. Volume One covers Polish 302-308 Squadrons includes listings of losses and of officially credited victories. The core of the Polish air units fighting alongside the Allies were experienced veterans of the 1939 invasion of Poland. They contributed to the UK victory in the Battle of Britain and to RAF air operations throughout the war. A total of 145 Po...

The towers stand alone derelict in the fields, in use as a pig sty, club house, museum, office, still active as a Control Tower, or converted into a house. They form part of the English landscape and are mostly to be found in the Eastern counties. Some of them are listed buildings, cultural heritage. The photographic survey is also supported by the stories of the situation in which they are found. Together with geographical co-ordinates and OS reference they are easy to find or visited.

The towers stand alone derelict in the fields, in use as a pig sty, club house, museum, office, still active as a Control Tower, or converted into a house. They form part of the English landscape and are mostly to be found in the Eastern counties. Some of them are listed buildings, cultural heritage. The photographic survey is also supported by the stories of the situation in which they are found. Together with geographical co-ordinates and OS reference they are easy to find or visited.

The Red Air Force versus the Luftwaffe in the skies over Eastern Europe. June 1941, having conquered most of Western Europe, Adolf Hitler turned his attention to the vast Soviet Union. Disregarding his Non-Aggression Pact with Joseph Stalin, Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa, a full-scale invasion of the Soviet homeland, aimed squarely at Moscow. In the skies over Russia, the battle-hardened airmen of the Luftwaffe made short work of the Red Air Force during opening days of Barbarossa. To mak...

The Vickers Wellington was one of very few aircraft types to have been in production and frontline service throughout World War II, and more than 10,000 Wellingtons were built in the period. They took part in the first RAF bombing mission of the conflict when, on 4 September 1939, 14 examples from Nos 9 and 149 Sqns undertook a daring daylight attack on the Kiel Canal. However, after suffering high losses on follow-up raids, Wellingtons were withdrawn from daytime missions and began to operate a...

At the opening of its war for independence in 1948, Israel needed weapons, aircraft in particular and with a US ban on arms sales, it needed a creative solution. Enter Al Schwimmer, who feared a repeat of the Holocaust, and Charlie Winters, the Boston son of Irish immigrants two Americans with experience of purchasing and flying planes in World War II and with sympathy to the Jewish state. Connected to both the aviation industry and the Jewish underground, they arranged to smuggle weapons to Isr...

The air force of Tito Yugoslavia has had many different peculiarities - from a unique Cold War position of having operated a mix of US, Soviet, and indigenous aircraft and equipment, to the changeable strategies in case of war. One such feature was an entire underground air base constructed inside a hill near the town of Bihac, in western Bosnia. The Object was the core, the heart, of this air base it housed four MiG-21 squadrons for nearly 25 years, until the civil war tore Yugoslavia apart. Th...

Looking at the development of the piston engine and the implementation within the Second World War.

The early 1930s was a time of great change in the field of military fighter aviation. At the beginning of the decade, the state-of-the-art in fighter manufacture was the use of traditional construction techniques of welded tube fuselages and fabric covered surfaces. Fixed landing gear and open cockpits were standard equipment. By mid-decade, the state-of-the-art was changing. Lightweight aluminum alloys were being developed that offered high strength and light weight. External bracing gave way t...

Designed and manufactured by the men who would make Concorde, the Rolls-Royce powered Vickers VC10, and its larger variant, the Super VC10, represented the ultimate in 1960s subsonic airliners. The VC10 was Britain's answer to the Boeing 707 and the Douglas DC-8. The VC10 was a second-generation jetliner designed in the 1960s and manufactured into the 1970s. It incorporated advanced engineering, new aerodynamics, and design features, to produce a swept, sculpted machine easily identifiable by it...