Air-route development in Africa was a result of Sir Alan Cobham's 1929 flight through and round Africa in a flying-boat. Lady Cobham accompanied her husband throughout the journey. This work features Sir Alan Cobham's account of his journey. First published in 1930, it is illustrated with over 50 photographs from the trip, from the family archive.

In 1911, Larkhill, near Durrington Down on Salisbury Plain, became Britain's first military airfield. Along with similar flying training bases constructed at nearby Upavon and Netheravon, it was to occupy a cornerstone position in Wiltshire's early aviation history. It was these establishments, in addition to those at Gosport, Eastchurch, Farnborough and Montrose, that formed the only Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service aerodromes in the British Isles when war was declared in August 1914. During a century of powered flight (1903-2003), some forty airfields and landing grounds have provided a useful, indeed significant, service within the county boundaries. Several are still in operation today and one need look no further than Boscombe Down to find a site which, though first occupied in 1917, is currently home to a testing establishment (QinetiQ) which serves at the forefront of the aerospace industry. In Wiltshire's Skies throws a wide net over the locations, events and many colourful personalities which have shaped the county's aeronautical heritage. It now joins the author's previously published volumes on neighbouring counties, Dorset and Hampshire, to complete a personal trilogy in the History Press Images of Aviation series.

Flying in the years between the two world wars was the preserve of the powerful and the wealthy, or so it was until Sir Alan Cobham's 'Flying Circus' began to tour Britain. A former pilot with the Royal Flying Corps in the First World War, Alan Cobham continued to fly, establishing air routes to the Empire countries. He also involved himself in aerial photography and survey work, undertook charter flights and pioneered the 'Air to Air' refuelling technique still in use today. Yet it was his National Aviation Day displays for which Sir Alan Cobham's name is best remembered. Affectionally known as 'Cobham's Flying Circus', his team of up to fourteen aircraft toured the United Kingdom, visiting hundreds of municipal locations, allowing 'ordinary' people to have their first taste of flying. So extensively did Cobham travel with his displays, and so popular did they become, that after war broke out in 1939, some 75 per cent of Britain's young men volunteering for aircrew duties claimed that their first experience of flying had been with 'the Circus'. Sir Alan's name still lives on in the aviation world. The creation of Flight Refuelling Limited in 1934 eventually led to the formation of what is today a major international aerospace and defence organisation-Cobham PLC.

Many books have been produced which detail the lives and thoughts of famous individuals. A View from the Wings is unique, recalling a wartime boyhood in which aircraft flying constantly overhead played a large part. This experience led to a lifetime career in the aviation industry both in the UK and overseas such as the US and South Africa. Mixed with events of a more personal nature often coated with whimsical humour, the author has evocatively captured the rise and demise of Britain's aircraft industry in the post-war period. In setting out to be non-technical, A View from the Wings will appeal to those whose memories embrace the sound barrier-breaking years and the leap of faith and technology that saw Concorde defeat the Americans in the race to produce a practical supersonic airliner. All too often political procurement and technical failures have made for dramatic headlines and these too are subjected to much critical comments. Think of the critically acclaimed Empire of the Clouds (Faber and Faber, 2010), but instead of a boyhood observer, the author was an active part of the British aviation industry in its former prime and eventual implosion.

Hampshire is a county unsurpassed in aviation history and reputation. From the relocation of the Army balloon factory to Aldershot at the end of the nineteenth century to the present day development of the Farnborough F1 air-taxi, Hampshire has witnessed many innovations in British aeronautical research. 'Colonel' Samuel Franklin Cody made the first manned powered flight in Britain from Farnborough; Geoffrey de Havilland, later to become one of the most famous names in aviation, also made his first flight in Hampshire. The county hosted the Schneider Trophy races in 1929 and 1931, and is still home to the Society of British Aerospace Companies air spectacular, held every two years. In Hampshire's Skies is a resourceful and knowledgeable account of the county's aviation record, complemented by over 200 photographs, many previously unpublished.

Dorset, a county of outstanding natural beauty, can rightly lay claim to another exceptional feature - its aeronautical heritage. Some purists would say that such a claim owes much to the county boundary changes that, in 1974, brought significant parts of Hampshire into Dorset's fold. To a new generation however this distinction borders on the academic and a look at the broader course of history reveals that such changes always have and presumably always will take place. There is no doubt that Bournemouth and its immediate environs have contributed greatly to the county's aviation history and the many previously unpublished images of this major centre and of other locations throughout the region within In Dorset's Skies provide a fascinating overview of Dorset's aerial heritage.