Technical

The landing of Allied forces on the shores of Normandy on 6 June 1944 was the greatest amphibious invasion in history.

Witness the daring exploits and dangerous challenges that form the story of flight in this beautifully illustrated book, filled with rare photographs and historical documents. Celebrating 50 years since the first flight of the Boeing 747 and of Concorde, it describes the early pioneers, such as the Wright brothers and Alcock & Brown, as well as the highly skilled engineers developing aircraft today.

The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight is a standing reminder of the heroism and sacrifice of countless British and Commonwealth aircrew who flew and fought during the Second World War.

Born in the 1950s when the Cold War was rapidly escalating, the subsonic Blackburn Buccaneer was designed as a carrier-borne strike aircraft, which eventually went on to serve both the Royal Navy and the RAF.

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.

Featuring more than 200 highly detailed full colour profiles from world renowned artist Claes Sundin, Luftwaffe Fighters covers every major fighter type flown by the German air force during the Second World War.

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 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. 

In the years that followed Germany's crushing defeat in the First World War, German aviators took to flying gliders - a sport which led to rapid advances in the study of aerodynamics.