From its introduction in the mid-1960s, when the first aircraft were delivered, through the various humanitarian missions, the Falkland Islands conflict and operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, right up to the introduction of the J version, the Lockheed C-130 Hercules continues to give outstanding service with the RAF and with an expected retirement date of 2030, this would total a service career lasting for a staggering sixty-four years of continuous operations. Designed with an internal hold the same size and dimensions as the American railroad boxcar, the Lockheed C-130 Hercules could carry a wide variety of cargo over distances of up to 2,950 miles. It offered a great improvement over the eclectic mix of its predecessors, the Blackburn Beverley, Handley Page Hastings and Armstrong Whitworth Argosy, all of which continued to provide support, albeit in a secondary role, within RAF Transport Command once the Hercules was introduced to service. This gave an advanced leap in transport capabilities that the RAF had never had at its disposal until the Hercules joined the active inventory. This book tells the full story of one of the most important aircraft in RAF service over the last fifty years. A workhorse that is also astonishingly adaptable for a range of specialised operations, the Hercules is capable of carrying troops as well as vehicles, moving men from one location to another in peacetime training or inserting special forces teams on clandestine operations in time of war.

When he was growing up, Andrea Bocelli recalls finding inspiration in a favorite recording of sacred music performed by tenor legend Franco Corelli. Bocelli--who in the meantime has come to inspire millions of fiercely loyal fans himself--returns to the genre as the guiding theme of Sacred Arias, the release of which coincides with the first English-language biography of the singer. These performances are filled with the singer's phenomenally well-known vocal signature: his flair for long, sweetly floating high notes and the gentle sense of cadence he brings to a melody. It's a mistake to compartmentalize Bocelli into a singer of "operatic" versus "popular" styles: in truth his approach is at heart the same. Lack of color and control in his phrasing remains a drawback, but the emotional empathy Bocelli evokes is never in doubt. The arias collected here sample some of the most famous devotional pieces: Schubert's "Ave Maria" and Mozart's transporting "Ave Verum," as well as an arrangement of "Silent Night" in which Bocelli tries out his English. There's also a decidedly odd choice of bedfellows for a program of "sacred" music, such as a song from Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder (whose "angel" is the object of an overpoweringly erotic attraction) and Handel's figurative ode to a tree, "Ombra mai fu." Still, Bocelli sings with an unfeigned directness that is sure to expand his already enormous following even further. --Thomas May