A pioneering flight from England to Australia in the 1920s earned Bill Lancaster and Jessie Miller international fame, but their lives unravelled a few years later when Lancaster was tried for murder. Their sensational story describes the financial and personal troubles that led to the death of Miller's lover and the desperate attempt by Lancaster to rebuild his reputation with a long-distance flight that resulted in disaster over the Sahara Desert.

In 1945 Britain was the world's leading builder of jet aircraft, and in the decade that followed produced planes such as the Comet, Vulcan, Hawker Hunter and Lightning; but by the early 1960s aviation companies such as Avro and Vickers were either gone or struggling. This book fuses the author's memories of British aviation's heyday with tales of the legendary aircraft and test pilots and a rueful history of Britain's loss of self-confidence and power. Special illustrated edition.

Designed in the early 1930s, the Swordfish torpedo bomber was considered obsolete in 1939 but remained in service throughout the Second World War, proving itself versatile and durable. Focusing on the Royal Navy Historic Flight's preserved Swordfish Mark II, LS326, one of only two still flying, this guide explores the aircraft's construction and operation and tells the story of its design and active service.

The Douglas DC-3 Dakota revolutionized air transport in the 1930s and played a crucial role in the Second World War, transporting men and equipment in every major theatre. With technical diagrams, photographs and contributions from the pilot and engineer of the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight’s Dakota, ZA947, the Haynes ‘Owners’ Workshop Manual’ gives an insight into owning, flying and maintaining this revolutionary aircraft.

This large-format illustrated volume tells the stories of 22 enterprising female aviators who pushed the boundaries of flight, from the record breakers of the 1920s and wartime flyers such as Hanna Reitsch, to commercial pilots of the post-war era and 21st-century astronauts. The historian Bernard Marck describes the challenges faced by each woman, examines their contribution to the history of aviation, and celebrates their skill, courage and determination to succeed.

Biggin Hill and Duxford are famous today thanks mainly to events of the Second World War but owe their origins to the First – the rapid development of military aviation resulting in the establishment of over 500 sites in Britain by the end of the conflict. Organized by country and county, this illustrated gazetteer identifies every location, including aerodromes, aircraft factories, airship, seaplane and kite balloon stations, describing each base, its operational history and what remains today.

Scott Addington uses infographics, fact boxes and photographs to present this concise overview of RAF history, which includes the first military balloon, the design of the roundel insignia, leading aces of the world wars and a list of pilots’ slang. Each entry has played its part in shaping the service, and the selection reflects the innovation, courage and heritage of the world’s first independent air force.

The Short Empire flying boat was primarily intended to carry mail to the far corners of the British Empire but, with room for about 20 paying customers, it also pioneered international passenger aviation in the 1930s, flying regular routes to Egypt, South Africa, Australia and America. This Haynes Manual-style review of the aircraft examines its design and operation as well as the experiences of passengers and crew, and is illustrated with technical drawings, cutaway diagrams and archive photographs.

British aviation posters in the early 20th century embraced contemporary art styles such as Modernism and Art Deco, employing leading graphic artists to create images of an exciting new world of air travel. Drawing on British Airways' poster collection, this volume traces advertising design for aviation, from Edwardian air shows, through Imperial Airways in the 1930s, to BEA and BOAC in the 1950s; with reproductions of over 150 examples by artists including Frank Newbould, John Piper and Ben Nicholson.

This photographic history of the Dassault Aviation company, famous for the Mirage, records the evolution of the family-owned French aircraft manufacturer founded by Marcel Dassault in 1929. Dassault began designing in 1916, creating his innovative Éclair propeller for the French military. A century later, his legacy includes the Mirage and Rafale fighter jets, the Neuron drone and the Falcon 7X business jet, presented here along with many Dassault prototypes, demonstrators and production aircraft, both civil and military, created over 100 years of manufacturing.

The Douglas DC-3 revolutionized air travel after the war and this volume focuses on examples still flying today as well as floating and amphibious planes working in remote regions, and propeller airliners in museum collections.

The highly specialized task of dousing forest fires is the job of the water bomber aircraft examined in this book, which also reviews propeller planes operating in South America, and Russian- and Chinese-built aircraft.

The new British European Airways began in 1946 by taking over the regular services that had been operated by RAF Transport Command from Croydon. The main terminus moved to Northolt shortly after and then to its permanent home at Heathrow in 1954. This book looks at how the company developed up to its merger to form British Airways in 1974, exploring its services and all the aircraft flown, and including the recollections of former employees.

Milestones in aviation have always provided a good story and a good photograph, from the daredevil pioneers of powered flight and airship disasters of the early 20th century to the first flight of Concorde in 1969 and Richard Branson's contemporary space plane programme. This selection of 300 images from the Press Association archive mixes war aces, record-breakers and flying firsts to tell the story of aviation.

The Schneider Trophy, a seaplane speed contest held between 1913 and 1931, played an important role in the development of aviation technology between the wars. Manufacturers from rival powers learnt from each other’s innovations and designers developed concepts that would shape the iconic fighters of the Second World War. This book examines each of the competitions and the aircraft entered for them and also assesses how Supermarine’s race-winning planes were developed into the Spitfire.

The United States relied on British and French aircraft designs during the First World War, but during and after the Second World War developed a pre-eminence in military aircraft design and manufacture that has continued up to today's cutting-edge models, such as the bat-winged B-2 stealth bomber. This volume is a succinct and highly illustrated guide to the most notable aircraft deployed, including classics such as the P-51 Mustang and B-52 Stratofortress.

The Russian MiG aircraft company was set up in 1939 and produced some of the world's most advanced and capable military planes during its heyday in the 1950s and 1960s, including the long-serving and widely exported MiG-21. This concise handbook provides descriptions of all MiG aircraft, including prototypes, up to the MiG-35 of 2011, with tables of key data and additional information about model variants.