caption id="attachment_7490" align="alignnone" width="163" caption="Evocative passages in First Light could have been written yesterday."] [/caption] Only published in 2002 this gripping account from an RAF Spitfire pilot of fighting in the Battle of Britain reads as fresh as if was written yesterday. Wellum, who joined 92 Squadron in 1940, was one of the youngest pilots in the Battle and eloquently describes how, to him, one year he was at school, the next he was engaged in a desperate fight with the Luftwaffe above Kent. West with the Night – Beryl Markham This book examines the technology and strategy that defined the outcome of the battles between the Spad VII and the Albatros D III. Author:

Contents: Introduction - Design and Development - Technical Specifications and Variants - Operational History - Conclusion - Bibliography and Further Reading. Author: But for all its myriad accomplishments, it was the audacious low-level daylight raids against heavily defended pinpoint Showcases particularly celebrated aircraft - such as the Supermarine Spitfire and Concorde - in beautifully photographed "virtual tour" features Each made very different and often contradictory demands of an aircraft, but the Mosquito was, perhaps uniquely, successful in all four roles.

In Mosquito, Rowland White uses the history of these operations to weave stories of courage and fortitude into the story of a great machine. As readers of his previous aviation histories will know, White can convey his great knowledge of, and enthusiasm for, aeroplanes without smothering the reader in technicalities. As a kindred spirit, he can convey the “press on” ethos that drove the men who flew the Wooden Wonder – an enduring characteristic, judging by the recent headlines about 102-year-old former Mossie pilot Colin Bell, who has just abseiled 17 stories down a London hospital to raise money for charity.

caption id="attachment_7491" align="alignnone" width="166" caption="West with the Night reminds us that flying is not just a man's world."] [/caption] ‘Poetry in flight’ best describes this 1942 memoir from aviatrix Beryl Markham of bush flying in Africa and long-distance flight, which includes her solo flight across the Atlantic. Lyrical and expressive her descriptions of the adventure of flying continue to inspire others, including Boeing test pilot Captain Suzanna Darcy-Hennemann, who said Markham's book was 'closest to her heart' in a RAeS lecture. Biggles Pioneer Air Fighter W.E. Johns targets across occupied Europe that would come to define de Havilland’s Wooden Wonder in the mind of the public. In 1916 German aerial domination, once held sway by rotary-engined Fokker and Pfalz E-type wing-warping monoplanes, had been lost to the more nimble French Nieuports and British DH 2s which not only out-flew the German fighters but were present in greater numbers.They were fortunate that despite the Air Ministry’s scepticism, their efforts enjoyed determined and far-sighted support from Comprehensive catalogues highlighting the most important aircraft of each period along with their specifications and unique features The “Tommy gun” the Air Marshal kept in the corner of his office was, it was said, only half in jest, to be used on Beaverbrook if there was any further attempt to pull the plug on the project. In dropping a total of nearly 27,000 tons of bombs on the enemy, Mosquitos suffered fewer losses per thousand sorties than any other aircraft in Bomber Command.

David and Margaret White, a husband and wife team, tell the story of this little plane beautifully, from its gestation in the mind of a German immigrant in California, to the wartime corruption and shortsightedness that delayed the introduction of the Mustang after its successful test flights, to its final triumph in the skies over Europe in 1944 and 1945. Such was the fear that they created within the Luftwaffe in the latter stages of the war as they loitered around German airfields after dark, ready to pounce on anything coming in or out, that the term Moskitopanik was coined.

Albatros Aces of World War 1 (Part 2)

In the end the Germans would regain air superiority, and hold it into the following summer with the employment of their new Jagdgeschwader (larger fighter groupings), but the FE 2 remained a tenacious foe that inflicted many casualties - some of whom were Germany's best aces (including 'The Red Baron'). The Mossie was not only beautiful but fast and extraordinarily versatile. Nonetheless, it was the looks that everyone noticed first. It seemed like a thing of nature, sculpted by the wind like a Saharan sand dune, proving the truth of the old aviation adage: “If it looks good, it flies good.” Most variants could manage at least 400mph; some had a range of more than 1,500 miles. This performance made it ideal for a multitude of wartime roles, all of which it performed triumphantly. Contents: The Biplane Takes Over (Debut of the Albatros D I, D II and introduction of the Jagdstaffeln) - Bloody April (the supremacy of the Albatros D III in April 1917 and beyond) - Maximum Effort (the summer - autumn of 1917 saw the maximum percentage of Albatros D V and D Va at the front) - Kaiserschlacht and beyond (aces who flew Albatros fighters in the March 1918 Offensive and afterwards). Author: