Fighter pilots! Images of Baron Manfred von Richthofen and Eddie Rickenbacker in the Great War, Johnnie Johnson, Robert Stanford Tuck and Richard Bong in the Second World War, or Robin Olds in Vietnam, all spring to mind. Volumes have been written about them, past and present. Understandably, most of these revolve around the skill, cunning and ......

Space Race 2.0 is the only authoritative photographic history of the efforts of private companies-often alongside NASA-to accelerate humankinds exploration and understanding of the final frontier.

The private space sector is growing tremendously. The industrys consensus leader, SpaceX, ......

The Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor was conceived for peace but turned to a warlike purpose savaging convoys bringing vital supplies to Britain. The aircraft Churchill called "the scourge of the Atlantic" became synonymous with the struggle to supply the Allies by sea. As a truly long-range reconnaissance bomber, the Condor acted as the eyes and ears ......

Packed with never-before-seen photos and plans and meticulous new digital artwork, this is the first history of the USAAFs futuristic World War II prototype interceptor, the XP-67 "Moonbat". The series of X-planes that sprang from the US Armys Request for Data R40C, focused on high-altitude, high-speed, long-range bomber ......

From the terror and exhilaration of First World War dogfighting to the dark arts of modern air combat, here is an enthralling ode to that most brutally exciting of machines: the warplane.

The Hush-Kit Book of Warplanes is a beautifully designed, highly illustrated collection of the very best articles from Hush-Kit - ......

Volume 2 of our two-volume visual history of the North American B-25 Mitchell. This second of two volumes on the North American B-25 Mitchell covers the late-WWII G through J, F-10, and PBJ variants of the famed US medium bomber. Among the many topics discussed are the Mitchell versions used by the US Navy and Marine Corps, as well as ......

The recovery and renovation of a Second World War Spitfire to museum standards is always a special event. To then restore it to flying status is an even greater accomplishment. If that was the whole story of The Sliver Spitfire this would still be a worthy subject for a book - but this Spitfire, MJ271, or G-IRTY as she is also known, built more ......

Loved by most associated personnel and enthusiasts alike, the C-141 Starlifter, quite simply, looked right and was right. During the second half of the 1960s, it quickly became a commonplace visitor worldwide, and it was in service for more than forty years before the final examples were retired in favour of more capable airlifters. Such was ......

When the RAF was formed in 1918, Great Britain boasted the largest air force in the world, but it was not to last. As soon as the armistice was declared, a rapid disarmament began. After a period of austerity, the surplus military aircraft formed the basis for civil aviation as we know it today. More people learned to fly, and pioneering ......

As the climate changes it is even more vital to protect the worlds forests. They provide both the lungs of the world and the natural resources for many industries. This book looks at both the past and the current selection of fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters and support aircraft tasked with protecting our natural environment from fire. Covering ......

From their modest origins with BE.2c and Vickers Victoria biplanes delivering food and ammunition in the Mesopotamian deserts to the massive Globemasters delivering hardware in the same theatre a century later, transport aircraft have played a key role in Britains wars. It was the Cold War that saw transport aircraft become necessary ......

During the first half of the 1970s, two new fighter aircraft entered operational service in the United States: The Navys Grumman F-14 Tomcat and the Air Forces McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle. These two aircraft were part of the backbone of the tactical air power of the United States; their introduction was accompanied by comprehensive reforms in ......

The Great Air Race reclaims one of the most important moments in the history of American aviation: the transcontinental air race of October 1919 that saw scores of pilots compete for the fastest roundtrip time between New York and San Francisco in frail, open-cockpit biplanes. Riveting the nation, the aviators-most of them veterans of ......

This textbook is for anyone interested in pursuing and obtaining a Remote Pilot Certificate, which is required in order to operate drones for commercial use. With a friendly and readable style, the authors cover all of the details involved in becoming a competent, responsible, and safe remote pilot, opening up tremendous opportunities for ......

The KC-135A made its maiden flight on 31 August 1956 and was still in front line service some 60 years later. What began as a jet-powered replacement for the KC-97 to refuel Strategic Air Commands growing B-47 and B-52 bomber fleet soon evolved into Americas first military heavy jet transport, an airborne command post platform, a testbed that ......

From Henri Fabres first successful take off from water and landing near Marseilles, to the introduction of a hull rather than floats by American Glenn Curtiss, to the world-wide development of huge, ocean-crossing flying boats on both sides of the Atlantic - the passenger flying boat era continues to fascinate aviation enthusiasts and ......

At the very edge of the atmosphere, invisible against the deep indigo sky, lurks a spy plane so sophisticated that it replaced the SR-71 Blackbird some 30 years ago. Its flat black shark-like skin deflects and absorbs all but the most advanced radars, leaving it to roam undetected while silently gathering detailed intelligence. Considered a ......

The Ka-50 (NATO reporting name: Hokum A) helicopter made its maiden flight 40 years ago on 17 June 1982. After undergoing extensive tests and tweaks, the helicopter was ready for full-scale production almost 10 years later. However, by then Russia had entered an economic crisis, and the money had run out. Only in 2011, almost another 20 years ......

Noted for its exceptional performance, the Sukhoi Su-27 is not only one of the most capable fourth-generation fighters, but its development history is also remarkably rich. The Flanker story took on a new industrial and political dimension when the Su-27 was chosen by China to meet the Peoples Liberation Army Air Forces requirement for a new ......

The only English-language book in print on this active-duty Russian supersonic bomber. In the late 1960s, the patriarch of Soviet aircraft design, Andrey Tupolev, offered the Soviet air force a supersonic bomber to replace the 1950s-vintage Tu-22 Blinder with a less capable - but cheaper - alternative to the Sukhoi design bureaus proposed T-4 ......

As the war began to turn against Germany, the Luftwaffe was forced to defend the Reich against increasingly overwhelming numbers of Allied fighters and bombers. The Focke-Wulf Fw 190, together with the Bf 109G, was the mainstay of the Luftwaffes Reichsverteidigung (Defence of the Reich) fighter force, both by day and by night. As the war ......

The 1990s brought with it many important developments for the aviation world. The dissolution of the USSR and Yugoslavia led to a rise of new countries and airlines. The aircraft faced changes as well. The early jetliners found themselves hauling cargo in many cases, and the new wide-bodies became the normal mode of passenger transport for ......

The first half of the 20th century saw the birth of the airplane and its development as an instrument of war and commerce. Within five decades, contraptions barely able to take to the air had given way to jet-powered aircraft flying near the "sound barrier," a rate of technological advance unparalleled in any other field. It was the period when ......

When it appeared over the Western Front in the summer of 1944, the Arado Ar 234 was truly state-of-the-art in terms of aeronautical and technical development. As the worlds first operational jet reconnaissance aircraft, it undertook high-speed, high-altitude observation missions over the Allied beachheads in Normandy. In September 1944 and as ......

September 1940: In the midst of the Second World War, the Luftwaffe unleashed a series of devastating raids on Southampton, all but destroying its spitfire factories. But production didnt stop. Instead, manufacturing of this iconic fighter moved underground, to secret locations staffed by women, children and non-combatant men. With little ......

Sleek, futuristic and deadly - the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon was born from the crucible of the air war over Vietnam and the need for cheaper, simpler, and more maneuverable fighter aircraft with which to combat the many thousands of Soviet-bloc supplied aircraft sold around the world.

Back in the early 1970s the F-16 ......

The General Dynamics F-111 was a swing-wing tactical fighter, interdictor, nuclear bomber and electronic warfare aircraft developed in the early 1960s in the belief that requirements from the US Air Force and the Navy could be satisfied more economically and efficiently by a single design. The idea was flawed and the Navy never got its aircraft ......

The Soviet Unions first successful atomic bomb detonation in August 1949 was a wakeup call for US Navy planners. The possibility of a single Soviet aircraft wiping out an entire convoy of merchant ships with a nuclear weapon had suddenly become very real. With military budgets having shrunk prior to the Korean War, it was simply not possible to ......

The definitive history of Flak-Bait, the most accomplished American bomber of the Second World War. Battling flak and enemy fighters over the skies of Europe during World War II, the US Army Air Force Martin B-26 Marauder bomber named "Flak-Bait" completed a remarkable 201 combat missions, a feat that made it the highest mission scorer of any ......

This untold story of early jet development, surviving the collapse of the Reich, and starting over in America is recounted by Reiner Decher, whos father Siegfried was an engineer on the team that designed the engine for the Me 262. Germany built the first operational jet aircraft during World War II, the Messerschmitt Me 262. Siegfried Decher ......

This book describes and illustrates the development of the famous range of lightly-built and highly-manoeuverable Italian WWII fighters of the Reggiane factory, with their radial engines. These planes served with the Regia Aeronautica and other forces, including the Hungarian and Swedish air arms. This book describes the design, development and ......