This fully illustrated volume looks at the classic jet fighter, the Hawker Hunter. The type's development, entry into service and operations are examined in detail.

Although first designed as a fighter, during the fighting in and over Europe during 1944 and 1945 the Hawker Typhoon gained a tremendous reputation and true fame as a ground-attack aircraft and tank-buster. This was a remarkable achievement because, during its development and early career, the Typhoon had experienced severe problems with its Napier Sabre engine and catastrophic failures of its airframe. The Typhoon's offensive ground-attack work is well known, but that tends to overshadow the type's successes operating from 1942 as a true fighter based in the UK. Nevertheless, during the final year of World War Two, following the D-Day landings in June 1944, the Typhoon performed a crucial role in the European theatre. After May 1945 it disappeared from RAF squadrons very quickly, so to leave such a record of success over such a short time is nothing short of outstanding! It was not a world-beater, but the Typhoon was perfect for the job that was required of it. Many books that document the Typhoon cover it in conjunction with its successor, the Hawker Tempest. However, this work, fully illustrated with over 180 photographs, gives this heavyweight machine a well-deserved volume of its own.

Many books have been written about the Hawker Hunter, one of the world's great jet fighters. The majority, however, have tended to concentrate on the aircraft's extensive service career. Superbly illustrated with both colour and black-and-white photographs of the Hawker Hunter - which has always been one of the most photogenic of all aeroplanes - this new title is the first devoted specifically to the Hunter's design and development: how and why the aircraft came into being, the troubles it experienced on the way, its flight test programme and what it was like to pilot. Drawing on many original Air Staff and Ministry documents and also the Hawker aircraft day-to-day diaries, it tells the story of one-off modifications and trials projects, aerodynamic modifications and tests with various weapons, along with proposed developments, including supersonic versions.

During the late 1940s and into the 1950s, a number of British jet fighter and bomber aircraft were fitted with new, different or additional engines, both jet and rocket, to enable them to serve as test beds for those specific powerplants. These aircraft types included fighters such as the de Havilland Vampire, Gloster Meteor and Javelin, and Hawker Hunter, the one-off Hawker P.1072 and the English Electric Canberra, Short Sperrin, Vickers Valiant and Avro Vulcan bombers. This book brings together these specific aircraft, and the engines they tested, in a single volume. Accompanied by over 200 images, some of which are published here for the first time, it is an invaluable reference tool for both aviation enthusiasts interested in experimental and trails aircraft and modellers specialising in jet aircraft.

At the dawn of the supersonic jet age, aircraft designers were forced to devise radical new planforms that suited the new power of the jet engine. One of the most successful was the delta wing. Although Gloster produced the delta wing Javelin, and Boulton Paul -its P.111 research aircraft - Fairey and Avro were the champions of the delta in Britain. Meanwhile in America, with the exception of Douglas's Navy jet fighter programmes, Convair largely had the delta wing to itself. These development lines, one on each side of the Atlantic, had essentially the same objective - to produce high- speed fighter aircraft. In Britain, the Fairey Delta 2 went on to break the World Air Speed Record in spectacular fashion, but it failed to win a production order. In contrast Convair received major orders for two jet fighter types and one jet bomber. At the same time, the British Avro company built the 707 family of research aircraft, which led to the famous Vulcan, to show how the delta wing could be adopted for a highly successful subsonic bomber. This book examines the development of the delta wing in Britain and America, and the way in which experimental aircraft like the Fairey Deltas proved their potential and versatility. In Britain it covers the Fairey Delta 1 and Fairey Delta 2, the proposed Fairey Delta Rocket Fighter and huge Delta 3 long range interceptor, and the Avro 707. On the American side, it examines the Convair XF-92 and XF-92A, the development of the Delta Dagger/Delta Dart family, and the Convair Sea Dart - the world's only supersonic seaplane.

Exotic research aircraft designed, built, and flown in Europe in the two decades following World War II were the foreign equivalent of the legendary American X?Planes. Many of these advanced aircraft flown by test pilots such as Peter Twiss and Andre Turcat captured speed and altitude records previously held by their American counterparts.

While World War II raged, pioneering aircraft and engine designers were busy developing the world's first practical jet-powered research aircraft to test and prove the new technology. This book examines the aircraft that paved the way for Germany's Me 262 and Britain's Meteor - the world's first jet fighters. Throughout the war, Germany, Italy and Britain engaged in top-secret jet programmes as they raced to develop the airpower of the future. Various experimental aircraft were trialled in order to achieve the goal of producing an effective engine and fighter that could harness the potential of the jet power. These included the German Heinkel He 178 research aircraft and Heinkel He 280 jet fighter prototype, the famed British E.28/39 research aircraft built by Gloster Aircraft as well as the stillborn E.5/42 fighter and E.1/44 Ace fighter prototype, and finally the remarkable Italian Caproni-Campini N.1/CC 2 research aircraft.

Illustrated throughout with full-colour artwork and rare photographs, this fascinating study examines the fore-runners to the military jet age.