Biographies

The story of Douglas Bader, the RAF fighter pilot who shot down twenty enemy fighters during the Second World War despite having lost both his legs, defies fiction.

A graphic illustration of the realities of the air war in the Western Desert, Shark Squadron Pilot describes Bert Horden’s service with 112 ‘Shark’ Squadron and the ground attack role of the ‘Kittys’. 

The long way home from Canada The final book of the trilogy. Ulrich is back in custody and describes life behind barbed wire culminating in his fifth and final bid to get back to Germany.

A pioneering aviator and advocate of women’s equality, Amelia Earhart was, and continues to be, an inspiration to people the world over. 

Britain has a wealth of museums of all sizes, all with incredible exhibits, yet only the 'big' collections tend to get the limelight. All over the UK are amazing aircraft collections, containing aircraft of world, national or regional importance, many of which the curators of the national institutions would love to have.

With region-by-region coverage, the backgrounds of the formative museums of Great Britain are highlighted along with the pedigrees of their most significant exhibits. Included are such icons as the de Havilland Aircraft Museum - home of the Mosquito; the Brooklands, Museum - headquarters of Sopwith, Hawker and Vickers; the Helicopter Museum - the world's largest rotorcraft collection and Solent Sky - shrine to flying-boats and the Spitfire.

The dizzying pace of technological change in the early 20th century meant that it took only a little over ten years from the first flight by the Wright Brothers to the clash of fighter planes in the Great War. A period of terrible, rapid experiment followed to gain a brief technological edge. By the end of the war the British had lost an extraordinary 36,000 aircraft and 16,600 airmen.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Johns was commissioned at the RAF College Cranwell in 1959 after completing flying training on Piston Provost and Meteor aircraft. Following nine years service as an operational fast-jet pilot flying Javelins and Hunters he became a qualified flying instructor during which time he taught The Prince of Wales to wings standard.