"Despite everything I felt very lucky to have flown Corsairs, they were the best you know even though it took me sometime to realise this when so many friends died flying them." (Colin Facer, Corsair pilot, HMS Illustrious) The Vought-Sikorsky Corsair was one of the most potent fighters of the Second World War. It was also one of the most ......
The RAF Halton Apprenticeship Scheme has a deserved reputation for excellence. The brainchild of MRAF Hugh Trenchard, the founder of the Royal Air Force, it took the traditional idea of an apprenticeship and interpreted it in a novel way. It allowed teenage boys from any social background or geography to learn a technical trade that would equip ......
The Vickers Wellington was one of very few aircraft types to have been in production and frontline service throughout World War II, and more than 10,000 Wellingtons were built in the period. They took part in the first RAF bombing mission of the conflict when, on 4 September 1939, 14 examples from Nos 9 and 149 Sqns undertook a daring daylight ......
It is difficult to overestimate the excitement that accompanied the birth of the Spitfire. An aircraft imbued with balletic grace and extraordinary versatility, it was powered by a piston engine and a propeller, yet came tantalisingly close to breaking the sound barrier. First flown in 1936, the Spitfire soon came to symbolise Britains defiance ......
Although New Guineas Thunderbolt pilots faced several different types of enemy aircraft in capricious tropical conditions, by far their most common adversary was the Nakajima Ki-43-II Hayabusa, codenamed Oscar by the Allies. These two opposing fighters were the products of two radically different design philosophies. The Thunderbolt was heavy, ......
This is the story of Lincolnshire farmer David Cundalls quixotic quest to unearth dozens of Spitfire fighters he believes were buried at the end of WWII. Armed with a high-tech survey showing mysterious shapes under the sunbaked surface of Yangon Airport, Davids expedition is equipped with state of the art JCB excavators, supported by a crack ......
The MiG 21 jet aircraft began life as an official request from the Soviet authorities in 1954 for a light, high-performance (Mach 2 at 20,000 metres) frontline fighter to protect military and production installations from potential raids by American bombers. The MF variant (M = Modernizirovannyy (Modernised), F = Forsirovannyy (Uprated engine)) ......
This is the story of Polands most famous fighter aircraft. The plane, built at Panstwowe Zaklady Lotnicze (PZL - the Polish State aeronautical factory), represented one of the key stages of transition between the biplane and the monoplane. The first P11 flew in 1931, and the P11c went into service with the new Polish Air Force in 1934.
Australias Greatest Escapes is a collection of stories about the most hazardous aspect of the prisoner of war experience - escape. Here is all the adventure, suspense and courage of ordinary Australians who defied their captors; men who tunnelled to freedom, crawled through stinking drains, or clawed a passage beneath barbed wire in a ......
Colditz Castle was Nazi Germanys infamous escape-proof wartime prison, where hundreds of the most determined and resourceful Allied prisoners were sent. Despite having more guards than inmates, Australian Lieutenant Jack Champ and other prisoners tirelessly carried out their campaign to escape from the massive floodlit stronghold . . . by any ......
$6.95 flat rate Australia wide