Author: CHRIS. SANDHAM-BAILEY
Publisher: HarperTempest
ISBN: 9781911658115
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Detailed profile artworks and descriptions of 14 different RAF jet aircraft types.

Author: CHRIS. SANDHAM-BAILEY
Publisher: HarperTempest
ISBN: 9781911658061
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Detailed profile artworks and descriptions of 15 different RAF WW2 fighter types.

Author: Jim Winchester
Publisher: Aviation Factfile
ISBN: 9781908696717
Category : Airplanes, Military
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
This is a fact-packed guide to more than 100 of the finest aircraft in service between 1945 and 1980. Providing hours of entertaining reading for nostalgic enthusiasts and general readers, each aircraft is covered in fantastic detail.

Author: Nigel Walpole
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780953793327
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
'Thinking the Unthinkable' is the result of ten years of sporadic research, involving many visits to the former German Democratic Republic by a small Anglo/German team of military specialists. Their purpose was to explore the lives of RAF and East German fighter and fighter-bomber pilots, in the air and on the ground, at work and play, during the Cold War in North Germany. The book is based largely on personal testimony from these pilots, coupled with facts drawn from official archives and comment from other historical sources. Where possible, political considerations have been avoided and no outright criticism has been intended, readers being left to draw their own conclusions on the thinking, strategies, equipment and tactics discussed. Far from being an intellectual polemic on the Cold War, the text and photographs merely record a slice of history as seen through the eyes of a select few who took up arms in the defence of their respective homelands - and faced each other daily across the Iron Curtain. Nigel Walpole passed out from the Royal Air Force College Cranwell in 1954, and joined No.26 (Day Fighter) Squadron, flying Hunter F.4s on the front line in Germany at RAF Oldenburg. In 1957 he converted to the Swift FR.5, on No.79 (Fighter Reconnaissance) Squadron, and in 1959 began an exchange posting with the USAF at Shaw AFB, South Carolina, flying RF-101 Voodoos in the tactical reconnaissance role. On return to the UK in 1961, he was posted to the Central Fighter Establishment, where he was promoted to squadron leader and given command of No.234 Squadron, equipped with Hunter F.6 and Hunter DFGA 9 aircraft. He returned to Germany in 1965, to command No.2 Squadron, flying Hunter FR.10s committed to armed reconnaissance. This was followed by two years on the Fighter Command Tactical Evaluation team, before promotion to wing commander and an appointment to 16 Parachute Brigade, as the Brigade Air Support Officer (BASO) - this giving him a good perspective of the British Army's use of air power. Staff training at the National Defence College followed a short spell in command of No.12 Squadron, operating overland and maritime strike/attack Buccaneers, followed by a staff appointment at the MOD in London, before he returned to the front line in Germany as Officer Commanding Strike Wing, flying Jaguar GR.1s at RAF Bruggen. Promoted to group captain, he ended his military career in 1988 with four years as Assistant Chief of Staff (Offensive) in the NATO HQ at Rheindahlen, Germany. He then joined British Aerospace as its air weapons advisor, before retiring to take a university degree, and thereafter to write a series of books and articles on the Cold War - as seen from the flight line. He now lives with his Dutch-born wife in Suffolk, UK.

Author: Nigel Walpole
Publisher: Air World
ISBN: 1526758393
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 512

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Book Description
“You’ll learn what these pilots went through knowing that their actions or reactions could trigger a global nuclear war.” —Historic Aviation RAF and East German Fast-Jet Pilots in the Cold War is the result of ten years of research, involving many visits to the former German Democratic Republic by a small Anglo/German team of military specialists. Their purpose was to explore the lives of RAF and East German fighter and ?ghter-bomber pilots, in the air and on the ground, at work and play, during the Cold War in North Germany. The book is based largely on personal testimony from these pilots, coupled with facts drawn from official archives and comment from other historical sources. Where possible, political considerations have been avoided and no outright criticism has been intended, readers being left to draw their own conclusions on the thinking, strategies, equipment and tactics discussed. Far from being an intellectual polemic on the Cold War, the text and photographs merely record a slice of history as seen through the eyes of a select few who took up arms in the defense of their respective homelands—and faced each other daily across the Iron Curtain. In an insightful conclusion, Nigel Walpole reassess the threat that both sides believed was genuine during those tense decades of the Cold War and examines the possible course and nature of a conflict which neither NATO nor the Warsaw Pact wanted but both actively planned for. “The writer has avoided politics where possible, and in doing so reassesses the threat and uncertainty—and ultimately the fears—both air forces faced. It’s truly fascinatingl.” —Flypast

Author: Graham Williams (Fighter pilot)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Air pilots, Military
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description

Author: Tim McLelland
Publisher: Fonthill Media
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
Britain’s Cold War Fighters explores the creation and development of the jet fighter, tracing the emergence of the first jet designs (the Meteor and Vampire) through to the first-generation jets which entered service with the RAF and Fleet Air Arm. Each aircraft type will be examined, looking at how the design was created and how this translated into an operational aircraft. The basic development and service history of each type will be examined, with a narrative that links the linear appearance of each new design, leading to the present day and the latest generation of Typhoon aircraft. Other aircraft types explored will include Hunter, Lightning, Phantom, Javelin and Tornado F2/3. A beautiful and comprehensive study of the UK’s design and manufacture of its fighter programme from the end of the Second World War to present, Britain’s Cold War Fighters is of much importance to aviation and military historians, modellers as well as those interested in the growing popularity of the Cold War. Highly illustrated with many unpublished photos, interviews and eyewitness accounts, this an ideal companion piece to Fonthill Media’s Britain’s Cold War Bombers and is the subject of a BBC documentary currently in commission.

Author: Mike Brooke RAF
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0752476998
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
A Bucket of Sunshine - a term used for the use of a nuclear bomb - is a firsthand insight into life in the mid-1960s on a RAF Canberra nuclear-armed squadron in West Germany on the frontline in the Cold War. Mike Brookes describes not only the technical aspect of the aircraft and its nuclear and conventional roles and weapons, but also majors on the low-level flying that went with the job of being ready to go to war at less than three minutes notice. Brooke tells his story warts and all, with many amusing overtones, in what was an extremely serious business when the world was standing on the brink of nuclear conflict. The English-Electric Canberra was a first-generation jet-powered light bomber manufactured in large numbers in the 1950s. The Canberra could fly at a higher altitude than any other bomber through the 1950s and set a world altitude record of 70,310 feet. Due to its ability to evade early interceptors and providing a significant performance advancement over piston-engine bombers, the Canberra was a popular export product and served with many nations. Although jet powered, the Canberra design philosophy was very much in the Mosquito mould, providing room for a substantial bomb load, fitting two of the most powerful engines available, and wrapping it in the most compant and aerodynamic package possible. Rather than devote space and weight to defensive armament, the Canberra was designed to fly fast and high enough to avoid air-to-air combat entirely.

Author: David Gledhill
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 1526704102
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 504

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Book Description
An RAF veteran presents an in-depth study of one of the Cold War’s most effective fighter, defense, and reconnaissance planes. The McDonnell Douglas F4 Phantom was a true multi-role combat aircraft. Introduced into the Royal Air Force in 1968, it was employed in ground attack, air reconnaissance and air defense roles. Even after the arrival of the Jaguar in the early 1970s, it continued to play a significant role in air defense. In its heyday, the Phantom was Britain’s principal Cold War fighter. There were seven UK-based squadrons, two Germany-based squadrons, and a further Squadron deployed to the Falkland Islands. Phantom in the Cold War focuses on the aircraft’s role as an air defense fighter, exploring its contribution to the Second Allied Tactical Air Force at RAF Wildenrath during the Cold War. Author David Gledhill, who flew the Phantom operationally, also recounts the thrills, challenges, and consequences of operating this temperamental jet at extreme low-level over the West German countryside, preparing for a war which everyone hoped would never happen.

Author: Andrew Brookes
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472822498
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 83

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Book Description
The TSR2 is one of the greatest 'what-if' aircraft of the Cold War, whose cancellation still generates anger and controversy among aviation fans. It was a magnificent, cutting-edge aircraft, one of the most striking of the Cold War, but fell victim to cost overruns, overambitious requirements, and politics. Its scrapping marked the point when Britain's aerospace industry could no longer build world-class aircraft independently. After the demise of TSR2 the RAF's future jets would be modified US aircraft like the Phantom and pan-European collaborations like Tornado and Typhoon. In this book the eminent air power analyst and ex-Vulcan bomber pilot Andrew Brookes takes a fresh, hard-headed look at the TSR2 project, telling the story of its development, short career and cancellation, and evaluating how it would have performed in Cold War strike roles as well as in the recent wars in the Middle East.