'The Flight of The Arctic Fox' tells the riveting story of the lives of thirty-one passengers and crew on board a BEA Vickers Viscount flying from London to Naples in October 1958. Following a mid-air collision with a jet fighter over Nettuno in Italy, everyone on board died, including the author's brother, who was a member of the crew.

The Pilots Information File (PIF) was the standard reference for any general information required of USAAF pilots and flight engineers. The PIF covered items of a general nature that a combat flyer must know in order to fight an air war and survive.

On 13 September 1931 the Schneider Trophy was won outright for Britain on Southampton Water by Flt Lt John Boothman flying Supermarine S6B, S1595, with a record-breaking average speed of 379.08mph. Ralph Pegram relates the story of the Schneider Trophy competitions and describes the development of British high-speed seaplane designs. He examines the anatomy of the S6B (including the Rolls-Royce R engine), as well as giving rare insights into its flying characteristics and how it was maintained, operated and - of course - raced in the final competition.

The British designed and built the Harrier, the most successful vertical take-off-and-landing aircraft ever made. Combining state-of-the-art fighter plane technology with a helicopter's ability to land vertically the Harrier has played an indispensable role for the RAF and Royal Navy in a number of conflicts, most famously the Falklands War. Jonathan Glancey's biography is a vividly enjoyable account of the invention of this remarkable aeroplane and a fitting tribute to the inspiration and determination of the men and women who created it, and the bravery of the men who flew it, often in the most dangerous conditions.

The book follows exactly the tried and tested format of the earlier "RAF Bomber Command Losses" series both in content and the way the book is organized and presented.
Each entry is set out in the same way with a sequence of entries for a single day. Losses are recorded by unit and then within each unit by the serial number of the aircraft involved. The entries are accompanied by commentaries, which are provided at appropriate points. The number of losses recorded in this volume will be somewhere in the region of 1,700. These will include aircraft from the RAF, the South African Air Force, the free French Air Force, and the U.S. Army Air Force, during the periods when these air arms were operating under direct RAF control.
This book is the first of two projected volumes covering the Bomber Commands losses in the Middle East and Mediterranean during the war. A further volume covering 1943-1945 is projected to follow this one.The distinction relating to the units included in these volumes is particularly important in relation to the USAAF, as its period under RAF was brief. This series will sell well to aviation historians, especially those interested in Bomber Command.

British Aircraft Manufacturers since 1909 traces one hundred years of the British aviation industry, its history, origins, mergers and takeovers. It details the evolution of the British aviation industry and is an epitaph to household famous names such as Armstrong-Whitworth, de Havilland, Chadwick, Claude-Graham White, Sopwith, A. V. Roe, Mitchell, Hawker, Handley Page, Petter and Fairey to name but a few. Of more recent times, the likes of Sidney Camm, Hooker and Hooper, all of whom, made VTOL more than just a dream, are also covered in astonishing and exhausting detail. Of the major firms, most at some time or other have been absorbed, merged or reorganised to form a single conglomerate, BAe Systems and Rolls-Royce are chronicled from the outset to the mighty companies they are today. Only PBN-Britten Norman - who on several occasions escaped extinction due to financial difficulties - and Westland, now part of AgustaWestland, and Short Bros of Northern Ireland remain independent, although even the latter, are part of Canadian, Bombardier Co. British Aircraft Manufacturers since 1909 tells the complete and enthralling story of how Britain ruled the world in terms of manufacturing and aircraft design from nimble but fragile biplanes and majestic airliners that united the world to the advanced bombers and fighters of today.

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 its high T-tail design and rear-engine configuration. The VC10 could take off in a very short distance, climb more steeply and land at slower speed than its rivals the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8\. These were vital safety benefits in the early years of the jet age. At one stage, the Super VC10 was the biggest airliner made in Europe and the fastest in the world. On entry into service, both the VC10 and the longer Super VC10 carved out a niche with passengers who enjoyed the speed, silence and elegance of the airliner. Pilots, meanwhile, loved its ease of flying and extra power. Yet the VC10 project was embroiled in political and corporate machinations across many years and more than one government. BOAC got what they asked for but went on to criticise the VC10 for not being a 707 - which was a different beast entirely. Questions were asked in parliament and the whole story was enmeshed in a political and corporate affair that signified the end of British big airliner production. Yet the men who made the VC10 also went on to design and build Concorde. Many VC10 pilots became Concorde pilots. In service until the 1980s with British Airways, and until 2013 with the RAF, the VC10 became a British icon and a national hero, one only eclipsed by Concorde. It remains an enthusiast's hero.

Handley Page began manufacturing aeroplanes in a small factory in Barking, Essex in 1909. Handley Page Limited was founded by Frederick Handley Page (later Sir Frederick) as the United Kingdom's first publicly traded aircraft manufacturing company. Sir Frederick declined to allow his company to be merged into the two large 'forced marriages' of aircraft manufacturing companies in the 1960s. It failed to survive alone, and went into voluntary liquidation and ceased to exist in 1970. During the First World War Handley Page produced a series of heavy bombers for the Royal Navy to bomb the German Zeppelin yards, with the ultimate intent of bombing Berlin in revenge for the Zeppelin attacks on London. Handley Page had been asked by the Admiralty to produce a "bloody paralyser of an aeroplane". These aircraft included the O/100 of 1915, the O/400 of 1918 and the four-engined V/1500 with the range to reach Berlin. The V/1500 only just reached operational service as the war ended in 1918. The real success of the Company came during the Second World War with the magnificent and robust Halifax bomber. In all, more than 6,000 of them were produced, or more than 40 per cent of Britain's total heavy-bomber power. In the bombing operations alone, approximately 76,000 sorties were flown and nearly a quarter of a million tons of bombs were dropped on to enemy targets. Bomber Command had no less than seventy-six Halifax squadrons in action at the time of its peak strength.

The Fairey Firefly two-seater strike-fighter emerged from troubled beginnings to become one of the most widely used and effective aircraft of the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm. It first saw service in 1944 during the attacks on the battleship Tirpitz as it lurked in the Norwegian fjords, then served in the Far East as the Fleet Air Arm tussled with the kamikaze threat. It went on to form an important part of several embryonic naval air arms in the early years of the Cold War and performed a vital combat role in Korea in the early 1950s. In this book, naval aviation historian Matthew Willis tells the story of this important aircraft using more than 160 photographs, many of them rare or unpublished, accompanied by a detailed commentary covering every aspect of the Firefly's varied career from fighter, to sub-hunter, to pilot-less target drone, in air forces all over the world.

Soon after entering the war in April 1917 American propaganda promised that she would `Darken the skies over Europe' by sending over `the Greatest Aerial Armada ever seen'. Encouraged by the French Government America promised to build no less than 22,000 aeroplanes within a year and to field, and to maintain, a force of 4,000 machines, all of the latest type, over the Western Front during 1918, not only to provide adequate air support for her own troops, but because she saw this as a way to use her industrial strength to bypass the squalor of the war in the trenches, and so bring an end to the stalemate of attrition into which the war had descended. However, by the time of the Armistice more than 18 months later just a few hundred American built aeroplanes had reached the war fronts and several investigations into the causes of the failure of the project were already in progress.

An illuminating profile of the San Francisco Bay Area, and its regional and global influence, as seen from the focal point of San Francisco International Airport (SFO). A People's History of SFO uses the history of San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to tell a multifaceted story of development, encounter, and power in the surrounding region from the eighteenth century to the present. In lively, engaging stories, Eric Porter reveals SFO's unique role in the San Francisco Bay Area's growth as a globally connected hub of commerce, technology innovation, and political, economic, and social influence. Starting with the very land SFO was built on, A People's History of SFO sees the airport as a microcosm of the forces at work in the Bay Area-from its colonial history and early role in trade, mining, and agriculture to the economic growth, social sanctuary, and environmental transformations of the twentieth century. In ways both material and symbolic, small human acts have overlapped with evolving systems of power to create this bustling metropolis. A People's History of SFO ends by addressing the climate crisis, as sea levels rise and threaten SFO itself on the edge of San Francisco Bay.

First launched in 1965, the Boeing 737, by many measures, is the most successful and long-standing jetliner in the history of aviation. This volume provides an in-depth look into the story of this extremely significant jetliner and the environment that has contributed to this amazing story. Many of the actual people who designed, marketed, and flew this airplane have contributed greatly to this book, with widespread quotes throughout. This study is rich with many photographs and drawings that are published for the first time and take the reader deeper into the story. Included in this book is a technical chapter that defines the systems and provides a detailed pilot's walk-around. For the hobbyist, a well detailed, pictorial chapter demonstrates the building of airliner models, and provides many techniques for new and experienced modelers alike.

This is a story that has never been told before, pulling back the Iron Curtain to reveal the lives of the jet airliners of the Soviet Union, full of previously unseen stories and previously unpublished information. The Tupolevs, Ilyushins and Yakovlevs, including the supersonic Tu-144, get a chapter each, lavishly illustrated with rare photos from the past and present. An introductory essay details the history of Aeroflot and the Soviet aerospace establishment. Tragedy and triumph, crushing defeats and stratospheric successes in the parallel world of the airline scene during the Cold War. This book tells the story of every jetliner produced by the Soviet Union, including the Tupolev Tu-104 (the world's first successful passenger jet), the Ilyushin Il-62 (Aeroflot's flagship) and the supersonic rival to Concorde, the Tu-144. Other chapters cover the Tu-154 workhorse, the Il-86/-96 jumbo jet and the world's first regional jet, the Yak-40 (and -42). The meltdown of political certainties coincided with the Tu-204, which was able to form a bridge out of the old Soviet era into the current age. The story of commercial aviation and aero engineering behind the Iron Curtain is told in fascinating detail accompanied by beautiful illustrations taken from Russian archives by Charles Kennedy, one of aviation's best-known writers. Not only for aviation fans but also a fascinating look Soviet history, European socialism and the evolution of technology. Additional info Chapter each on the Tu-104/-124, -134, -144, -154 & -204; Il-62 & -86/-96; Yak-40/-42; and an essay on the history of Aeroflot. Bonus feature: SU's epic winter 1985/86 timetable reproduced in full. 158 pages and over 250 classic pics.

On 10 May 1941, on a whim, Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess flew a Messerschmitt Bf 110 to Scotland in a bizarre effort to make peace with Britain; Goering sent fighters to stop him but he was long gone. Imprisoned and tried at Nuremberg, he would die by his own hand in 1987, aged 93. That's the accepted explanation. Ever since, conspiracy theories have swirled around the famous mission. How strong were Hess's connections with the British establishment, including royalty? Was the death of the king's brother, the Duke of Kent, associated with the Hess overture for peace? In the many books written about Hess, one obvious line of enquiry has been overlooked, until now: an analysis of the flight itself - the flight plan, equipment, data sheets, navigation system. Through their long investigation, authors John Harris and Richard Wilbourn have come to a startling conclusion: whilst the flight itself has been well recorded, the target destination has remained hidden. The implications are far reaching and lend credence to the theory that the British establishment has hidden the truth of the full extent of British/Nazi communications, in part to spare the reputations of senior members of the Royal Family. Using original photography, documentation and diagrams, Rudolf Hess sheds light on one of the most intriguing stories of the Second World War.