Author : Francis Mason
Publisher :
Page : 264 pages
File Size : 23,76 MB
Release : 2010-08
Category : History
ISBN : 9780947554965
The Hawker Hurricane matched the best aircraft of Britain's enemies at the moment of greatest crisis and went in to fight in more campaigns, on more fronts, and in more theaters and countries than any other Allied airplane in World War II.
Author : KS Nair
Publisher : Harper Collins
Page : 439 pages
File Size : 12,38 MB
Release : 2019-09-30
Category : History
ISBN : 9353570689
The Forgotten Few is the first contemporary attempt to produce a historical narrative of the nation's contribution, specifically to the Air Force component, of World War II, which was an important part of our journey to Independence and national identity. Close to three million Indians served in uniform during the War. And yet, the Indian chapter of this globe-straddling story, reverberations of which still echo today, are barely known - a symptom of which was the recent controversy over the absence of Indians in the Christopher Nolan film Dunkirk. This book brings to light some of the lost stories of Indian aviators who built the very foundations of human and physical infrastructure for what is now the world's fourth largest air force. It benefits from several first-person interviews with some of the last Indian survivors of World War II, enabling a level of fidelity that is quite rare among Indian histories.
Author : Peter Townsend
Publisher : Booksales
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 37,4 MB
Release : 2008-05-15
Category : Britain, Battle of, Great Britain, 1940
ISBN : 9780785815686
Former RAF ace chronicles the growth of the Royal Air Force and the Luftwaffe and their decisive engagements during the Battle of Britain in 1940.
Author : Gordon Riley
Publisher : Grub Street Publishing
Page : 225 pages
File Size : 46,41 MB
Release : 2015-10-19
Category : History
ISBN : 1910690791
A comprehensive catalog of the remaining World War II fighter planes, including anecdotes and photos. With 2015 being the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain—arguably the Hawker Hurricane’s “finest hour”—it is appropriate to tell the story of the surviving Hurricanes from around the world. Building on research originally started thirty years ago, Gordon Riley has delved into the archives to amass new information—and in the process managed to identify positively one Hurricane that had proved elusive for more than forty years. Today a number of Hurricanes are being privately restored globally. However, the oldest in existence, a veteran of both the British Expeditionary Force to France in 1939 and the Battle of Britain, is displayed in the Science Museum in London, and the youngest—the very last Hurricane ever built—is still flying with the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. This book documents each aircraft by country of origin and mark by mark from the day it left the factory up to the present day. Some have incredible histories whereas others served in very mundane, but still essential, second-line roles until they were disposed of. Where possible each aircraft is illustrated with a present-day photograph along with others taken throughout its life. From the serious enthusiast to the casual museum or air show visitor, if you have an interest in the Hurricane, this is the book for you. “Heavily illustrated and well produced and will serve as an excellent guide not only for historians but also warbird enthusiasts.” —Air Classics
Author : Mantelli - Brown - Kittel - Graf
Publisher : Edizioni R.E.I.
Page : 156 pages
File Size : 10,28 MB
Release : 2017-03-06
Category : History
ISBN : 2372973312
The Hawker Hurricane was the first modern British fighter before the outbreak of World War II. Until 1941 the Hurricane was the most widely used combat aircraft from the Royal Air Force and the one that bore the brunt of the first clashes with aircraft of the Luftwaffe in the skies of France and Britain. Almost 3,000 aircraft of this type were delivered to the USSR, for the law Rentals & Loans, but the Soviet pilots were generally very critical of the fighter Hawker, considered inferior, not only to the German fighters, but also its. First fighter monoplane of the RAF, the first aircraft equipped with eight machine guns, was the plane means available in greater numbers to counter the waves of attack by the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain. Available in twenty-six departments in the early summer of 1940, to August, there were thirty-two against nineteen Spitfire. Piloted by aces like Douglas Bader that made him a legend, the Hawker Hurricane Mk I, although less than the Bf 109-E, however, he proved to be a horse race, and especially at high altitudes could be more maneuverable and thus, to this, more suitable bomber hunter. "His majesty the Spitfire". This airplane is an air legend, a real brand, and his image is inextricably linked to the British victory in the Battle of Britain. It is one of the few, perhaps the only one, whose name evokes some images even in a profane things of historical aviation. Excellent defensive machine, heavily armed, very agile, climbing fast, but the lack of range and of sufficient load capacity has not helped in the war below. The Spitfire name was suggested by Sir Robert MacLean, director of Vickers-Armstrongs at the time, who called his daughter Ann "a little spitfire," a saying Elizabethan to indicate a person impetuous.
Author : Alasdair Cross
Publisher : Headline
Page : 368 pages
File Size : 39,90 MB
Release : 2021-05-13
Category : History
ISBN : 1472281977
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'An inspirational read celebrating the incredible young people who gave so much for this iconic British aircraft'. John Nichol, bestselling author of Spitfire: A Very British Love Story Despite the many films and television programmes over the decades since the end of the Second World War that portrays our allied heroes as grown-up men and women, the Battle of Britain was in the main actually fought and won by teenagers. The average age of an RAF fighter pilot was just twenty years old. Many of the men and women who designed and built their planes were even younger. Based on the hit BBC World Service podcast Spitfire: The People's Story, we use contemporary diaries and memoirs, many of them previously unpublished, to tell the story of the Spitfire through the voices of the teenagers who risked everything to design, build and fly her. This isn't a story of stiff-upper lips, stoical moustaches and aerial heroics; it's a story of love and loss, a story of young people tested to the very limits of their endurance. Young people who won a battle that turned a war.
Author : Melvyn Hiscock
Publisher : Crowood Press UK
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 48,1 MB
Release : 2003-12-18
Category : History
ISBN : 9781861266309
Directly descended from some of the fastest, most beautiful and most effective military aircraft of the 1930s, the Hawker Hurricane was the RAF's first monoplane fighter, and the hero of the Battle of Britain. Melvyn Hiscock's photographic study takes us under the skin of the aircraft, to the very first principles of the design and construction of this beautiful fighter. Using archive and specially taken photographs, many shot behind the scenes at AJD Engineering - Hurricane restoration experts - the author shows in detail how the Hurricane is put together, revealing details rarely seen and providing an invaluable resource for the modeler and the aviation enthusiast.
Author : Adrian Stewart
Publisher : Canelo
Page : 423 pages
File Size : 37,75 MB
Release : 2021-08-05
Category : History
ISBN : 1800325312
The riveting exploits of a fighter aircraft – and an underrated aerial hero of the Second World War The Hawker Hurricane was flying on the outbreak of war in 1939. Six years later, having saved Britain, it was still playing a major part in the war effort. Widely remembered in its fighter role and unjustly left in the shade of the Spitfire, the Hurricane’s role was varied and pivotal: as a fighter, fighter-bomber, anti-tank aircraft and used at sea. Nor was its theatre of operations any less wide: it saw action in France from the beginning of the Phoney War to the outbreak of the Blitzkrieg, in the Battle of Britain, and then as far afield as Russia, Sumatra and Madagascar. In this intensely readable, spirited and classic account, Adrian Stewart describes all the Hurricane’s roles, adventures and achievements. He recounts the exploits of the aircraft’s outstanding pilots who contributed so much towards mastery of the skies and eventual victory. Perfect for readers of John Nichol’s Spitfire and Lancaster.
Author : Tom Moulson
Publisher : Pen and Sword
Page : 367 pages
File Size : 47,36 MB
Release : 2014-07-08
Category : History
ISBN : 1473838479
Imagined by an aristocrat in White's Club, London in 1925, a part-time squadron of wealthy young men with their own private aircraft was incorporated into a newly-established combat-ready Auxiliary Air Force, first as bombers, then fighters. The pre-war years combined serious training with frivolity and mischief, but the outbreak of war in 1939 changed that. Despite their social rank the pilots were thrust into the heart of the action, with mortality proving to be the great social leveler. From privileged pre-war lifestyles to front line deployment the lives of those who survived underwent radical change. Through the battles of Britain, Malta, the African desert and Italy the squadron's composition was transformed, and by war's end only a minority were British and none were millionaires. Britain had changed too, and the re-formed squadron filled with a combination of veterans and young middle-class ex-service pilots. The pilots flew Hurricanes in the Battle of Britain, and Spitfires thereafter until the arrival of jets in the '50s; DH Vampires and Gloster Meteors. The one aircraft they could not master was the little-loved mid-engine P-39 Bell Airacobra in 1941. Disbandment in 1957 of the by-then 'Royal' Auxiliary Air Force was fiercely resisted, but inevitable.Originally published in 1964 to great acclaim, this second edition features a wealth of brand new content in the form of newly uncovered documentation and photo illustrations. It is set to bring the story of this eccentric and dynamic squadron to a whole new audience of aviation and military enthusiasts.As seen in the Western Morning News and Epping Forest Guardian.
Author : Lance Cole
Publisher : Pen and Sword Aviation
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 18,89 MB
Release : 2012
Category : Aeronautical engineers
ISBN : 9781848848962
This book tells the tale of the brilliant aerodynamicist Beverley Shenstone MASc, HonFRAes, FAIAA,AFIAS, FCASI, HonOSTIV. As R.J. Mitchell's chief aerodynamicist, it was Shenstone who designed the Spitfire's wing - the wing that gave the Spitfire it crucial advantage in the Battle of Britain and beyond. A quiet man, Shenstone never sought glory for his work, yet in recent years he has been credited as the man who persuaded Mitchell to adopt the ellipse - a modified ellipse that was unique in its shape and its combined use of two integrated aerofoil sections. Shenstone's knife-edge shape reached far back into early aeronautics for its inspiration. This book also names the other forgotten Spitfire design contributors who were Mitchell's men - Mr Faddy, Mr Fear, Mr Fenner, Mr Shirvall, a Prof Howland and others. Intriguingly, Shenstone had left his native Canada and early training as an RCAF pilot, to study at Junkers and then under the father of the delta wing - Alexander Lippisch in Germany in the early 1930s. There, he became immersed in delta wings and flying wings. He also became a glider pilot. The story of how Beverley came to be in the right place at the right time is revealed for the first time. So too are the enigmatic tales of his involvement with the military, the intelligence world, Lord Beaverbrook , the USAF, and Canadian aviation. During the war Shenstone worked at the top secret Wright Patterson air force base and was involved with the Air Ministry and the pro-British movement in America when Shenstone worked for Air Chief Marshal Sir Wilfrid Freeman, the unsung hero behind British defence procurement. Shenstone achieved high office - a President of the Royal Aeronautical Society, technical director at BOAC, chief engineer at BEA and a consultant to several aircraft makers. He was courted by Avro, de Havilland and Vickers, and was the force behind the renaissance of human-powered flight. Using exclusive access to his family documents, his unpublished autobiography and many notes and stories, as well as forensic research, this book details for the first time, a new twist to the Spitfire's story and the secrets of its advanced science. A tale of design and military intelligence reveals a story of a man whose name should be more widely known in the UK, Canada and the aviation world. SELLING POINTS: * Illustrated throughout * Evokes a golden age of aviation design and development * Relay's the story of one of History's most overlooked heroes of aviation design ILLUSTRATIONS: 20 mono photos
