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. 

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

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.

The West was stunned when the Soviet Union dropped its first atomic bomb in August 1949. In the wake of the Second World War, funding for the RAF had fallen away dramatically but now there was an urgent need for new jet fighters to meet the threat of Russian bombers head-on. 

Key drivers to a fifth destination for future world fighter forces In time, all fighters will have qualities that deceive, evade, confuse, lock-on to a target and kill it - without being seen, heard or detected There is no place to hide and when the fourth generation know they are under attack - they are already dead. 

The revolutionary Harrier took to the skies in December 1967, going on to become the star of the Royal Navy and Air Force during the Falkland Islands War in 1982.

Tales include the recollections of an aerobatic display pilot, an implausible yet true account of telepathic communication, and an extraordinary episode when a Lightning pilot on an exchange programme with the French air force became embroiled in a mid-air collision.

The sequel to the bestselling The Lightning Boys, Lightning Boys 2, now available in paperback for the the first time, is a must-have companion and continues the theme of tales from pilots and other crew connected with this iconic aircraft, giving a rare insight into post-war fighter operations.