In April 1972, after six gruelling years of design and development, the then Lockheed California Company (now Lockheed Martin) delivered the most technologically advanced commercial jet of its era, the L-1011 TriStar, to its first client, Eastern Airlines. To mark the moment, Lockheed decided to make an impressive statement about the ......

The first half of the 20th century saw the birth of the airplane and its development as an instrument of war and commerce. Within five decades, contraptions barely able to take to the air had given way to jet-powered aircraft flying near the "sound barrier," a rate of technological advance unparalleled in any other field. It was the period when ......

With the Soviet Unions launch of the first Sputnik satellite in 1957, the Cold War soared to new heights as Americans feared losing the race into space. The X-15 Rocket Plane tells the enthralling yet little-known story of the hypersonic X-15, the winged rocket ship that met this challenge and opened the way into human-controlled ......

When the Soviet Union fell in December 1991, there were close to 3,500 assorted Soviet-built airliners that could be deemed operational - more than there had ever been before. The vast majority of these Antonovs, Ilyushins, Tupolevs, and Yaks flew for Aeroflot, and were scattered far and wide at bases across the Soviet Union. Thirty years ......

While large numbers of aeroplanes had been produced In America for the war effort overseas at the Western Front, it was found that that the British, French and Germans were far ahead of them when it came to flight technology, which led to a huge surplus of aeroplanes in the United States. The governments solution to recover some of the money ......

How the American airship came within a hairs breadth of replacing planes, trains, and ocean liners as dominant long-distance transport. Nearly everything people know about airships is wrong. Few realise that prior to the Hindenburg disaster airships transported passengers without a single casualty for more than 20 years, a record unmatched by ......

The birth and history of what is often described as the most beautiful and graceful airliner of the piston-engine age. The instantly recognisable and unique Connie is one of the most loved of all airliners. Alexander Clifton first crossed the Atlantic aboard a Lockheed Constellation in the 1950s. He never lost his love for this graceful, ......

By producing the A300 - the first twin-jet, wide-body airliner in the world - the European Airbus consortium succeeded in joining the league of leading aircraft makers. The path was both rocky and exciting. Filled with detailed text, including historical, technological, and flight information, as well as colorful photos, this volume provides a ......

The DC-10 was a three-engine wide-body jetliner created by McDonnell Douglas, born from a lineage that included the most popular and important propliners of all time, including the DC-3 Dakota and the DC-8 jet (Douglas answer to the Boeing 707). It entered service in 1971 and was supposed to be a smash hit, but a series of accidents that were a ......

The McDonnell Douglas DC-10 three-engine jet is one of the most distinctive wide-bodied aircraft and since the early 1970s has been operated by many airlines on medium- and long-distance routes throughout the world. Successfully flying passenger service for over 40 years, the DC-10 currently still flies for FedEx in an airfreight delivery role. ......

Walk into any of the myriad aircraft museums dotted across the world and you can appreciate the wonderfully restored and preserved exhibits on display. But what about the many gems lovingly brought back to life and hiding away in peoples garages, sheds, barns and gardens? With Gavin Hoffens book you become a privileged spectator into a ......

Artist Ronny Bar, a member of director Sir Peter Jacksons New Zealand-based Wingnut Wings team, presents the first collection of his astonishingly detailed First World War aircraft profiles - British Two-Seaters of the Great War. Two-seater aircraft were the workhorses of the Royal Flying Corps and from 1918 the Royal Air Force, operated in a ......

The letters painted on an aircrafts tail are equivalent to its number plate. They reveal their aircrafts stories and fates, and the vastly different roles they had across their lives. Inspired by this new way of looking at aviation history, Guy Halford-McLeod follows the chequered, multi-faceted careers of a number of post-war aircraft to ......

Great Britains aircraft industry started in 1908, with the first formally registered organisation in the world to offer to design and build an aeroplane for commercial gain. This was when the Short brothers, Oswald, Eustace and Horace, decided that aeroplanes would overtake balloons as a business opportunity in the aeronautical world and formed ......

Now remarkably in its 27th edition, ever since it was first published in the 1960s every edition of Wrecks & Relics has been eagerly sought after by aviation enthusiasts, restorers and curators alike. It is renowned as the go-to source charting the highlights, changes and trends in the preservation of the aviation heritage of the British Isles. ......

An aircraft- and flight-themed puzzle book compiled by Dr Gareth Moore, author of the bestselling Mindfulness Puzzle Books among many others, done with the support of The RAF Association, a membership organisation and registered charity that has been providing welfare support to the RAF family for over 90 years. Their membership of 74,000 ......

Founded in 1961 as Euravia by British businessman Ted Langton and aviation consultant J.E.D. Walker, at a time of considerable turmoil for the independent sector of the British air operators industry, Britannia Airways went on to become the worlds largest holiday airline.

Just as Court Line evolved from Autair, so Britannia ......

Royal Air Force: The Official Story is the most up-to-date official history of the Royal Air Force - the oldest airforce in the world. From its genesis in the horrors of the First World War when pilots were open to the elements in craft made of little more than wood and fabric, to the iconic air battles of the Second World War, through to the ......

Having been classified by the Air Ministry as a Master Diversion airfield, RAF Manston was for many years open twenty-four hours a day and available to both civil and military aircraft 365 days a year. It was also later equipped with the Pyrene foam system, which both civil and military aircraft could use when they had problems with their ......

Why did the British, then the leading nation in science and technology, fall far behind in the race to develop the aeroplane before the First World War? Despite their initial advantage, they were overtaken by the Wright brothers in America, by the French and the Germans. Peter Reese, in this highly readable and highly illustrated account, ......

From as early as the beginning of the nineteenth century, Britain was at the forefront of powered flight. Across the country many places became centres of innovation and experimentation, as increasing numbers of daring men took to the skies. It was in 1799, at Brompton Hall, that Sir George Cayley Bart put forward ideas which formed the basis ......

The Tiger Moth is one of the major aviation success stories in the history of British aviation. Developed by Geoffrey de Havilland and flown for the first time on October 26 1931, the biplane became the most important elementary trainer used by Commonwealth forces. More than 1,000 Tiger Moths were delivered before WWII, and subsequently around ......