Fighting over the beaches of Dunkirk and in the Battle of Britain, guarding the night skies during the perilous months of the Blitz, pioneering electronic countermeasures, and serving air-sea rescue roles all around our coasts, the Boulton Paul Defiant played a vital part through most of the Second World War, finishing it in the important target-tug role. The Defiant is rightly considered Wolverhampton's highest profile contribution to the war, and the most important product of Boulton Paul Aircraft. This book celebrates the contribution of the Defiant to the war in over 200 illustrations, most from Boulton Paul's own archives, and many never published before. It exposes some of the false myths attached to an aircraft held in great affection by many of its crews.

The Aerospatiale/Westland Gazelle is one of the longest serving and most successful reconnaissance and light attack elicopters. The Gazelle soon made an impression with its high speed, smooth looks and design innovations such as the Fenestron ducted tail rotor and composite main rotor blades. In this readable book, aviation expert David Oliver tells the full story of the development of the Gazelle as well as its various air force, military and naval roles and deployments. Once Westland had joined the French helicopter project, the Gazelle was soon adopted as a trainer by the RAF, as a battlefield reconnaissance and attack helicopter by the Army Air Corps and Royal Marines and as a training helicopter by the Royal Navy. It carried out similar roles in the French armed forces and those of other nations. As this book shows, armed variants of the Gazelle have taken part in conflicts in the Falklands, Northern Ireland, Lebanon, the Gulf War, former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Mali and Syria. It has also been adapted for civilian roles. As a testament to its success, Gazelle helicopters will continue in service with the British and French armed forces beyond 2020. Illustrated with lavish colour photographs, this book is an essential guide to one of the world's most successful military and civilian helicopters.