Post-WWII

With a design lineage that stretches back to the legendary Avro Lancaster and its successor the Avro Lincoln, the Avro Shackleton has a distinguished parentage. 

Between 1945 and 1990 the Western Allies mounted some of the most audacious and successful intelligence collection operations of the Cold War. Conducted in great secrecy, aircrews flew specially modified transport and training aircraft along the Berlin Air Corridors and Control Zone to gather intelligence on Soviet and East German military targets in the German Democratic Republic and around Berlin.

Looking Down the Corridors provides a detailed account and analysis of these operations and their unique contribution to the Cold War.

First issued to airmen in 1952, this reprint of The Air Ministry's Sea Survival pamphlet includes emergency advice to crew operating over sea regions. 

With original illustrations and text, these survival guides provide an insight to military survival techniques from a by-gone era.

With original illustrations and text, these survival guides provide an insight to military survival techniques from a by-gone era.

With original illustrations and text, these survival guides provide an insight to military survival techniques from a by-gone era.

With original illustrations and text, these survival guides provide an insight to military survival techniques from a by-gone era.

What is sewn into a pilot’s uniform when they receive their wings?
In what year did the first female jet pilot join the RAF?
Why were former Lightning pilots called WIWOLS?

For the answers to all these questions and more, take off into this fascinating miscellany and become a true RAF aficionado.

Duncan Menzies flew with the RAF, the Aeroplane and Armament Evaluation Establishment, and Fairey Aviation in a twenty-five-year flying career, seeing the world of flying change from open cockpits and few rules to the jet age, with its complexities and crowded skies.

From the Fokker biplanes to World War II fighters like the Supermarine Spitfire and Messerschmitt Bf 109, and from heft bombers like the Boeing B-17 to Cold War classics such as the MiG-21 and on to stealth aircraft such as the SR-71 and Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, each entry in 'Top 50 Military Aircraft' tells you all you need to know about the best there has been.