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Reliable and rugged with enough firepower to get the job done, Fairey's Fulmar fighter and reconnaissance aircraft was an essential weapon in the Fleet Air Arm's arsenal during the Second World War.The long-range Merlin-powered type carrier-borne type entered service in May 1940 and was well liked by pilots - its broad-track undercarriage offered good handling on deck, its fuel tanks were capacious and its armament of eight Browning machine guns was effective. Most Fleet Air Arm aces scored at least some of their victories while flying a Fulmar and there were at least two Fulmar aces.Fulmars served with distinction during the pursuit of the Bismarck, the North Africa campaign and over Malta before finally meeting their match in the Far East against the Mitsubishi A6M Zero. Even then, with its fighter role inherited by Seafires and Marlets, the Fulmar continued to serve as a trainer and reconnaissance type.Today there is only one known surviving example of this remarkable aircraft - N1854, housed at the Fleet Air Arm Museum in Yeovilton.In this fully illustrated third volume of the Fleet Air Arm Legends series, naval aviation specialist Matthew Willis details the Fulmar's development, its entry into service and its operational history from start to finish.

Aerial mining by RAF Bomber Command was a vital part of the Allied war effort - claiming far more tonnage of Axis shipping destroyed than direct attack by either Coastal or Bomber Command itself. Minelaying operations commenced in April 1940 and expanded dramatically as the war progressed, yet today this vital campaign and its wide-ranging achievements against Axis merchant vessels, Kriegsmarine ships and U-boats are virtually unknown.Invisible Campaigns, based on Air Ministry and Admiralty archival material, together with squadron records, veteran accounts and logbooks as well as contemporary publications and press releases, provides the most detailed account of Bomber Command's minelaying operations and their effects ever written.Historian Jane Gulliford Lowes looks at the aims of the campaign and how it was implemented, together with the measure of its success and how it compared against the mining operations implemented by the Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine. The role of Arthur 'Bomber' Harris in overseeing minelaying operations is assessed and the experiences of the men who delivered the campaign, particularly the hazards they faced, are explored.Invisible Campaigns sheds new light on a little-discussed but important and ultimately highly successful aspect of Bomber Command and is a must-read for anyone interested the RAF's in wartime bombing operations.

This collection of more than 150 high-quality images offers a unique perspective on the historic aircraft and hard-working personnel of the unique Battle of Britain Memorial Flight based at RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire.Photographer Lisa Harding has spent many years photographing the flight and now presents some of her finest work - chronicling winter maintenance, when the aircraft undergo extensive checks and repairs if required; out-of-season practice displays and some spectacular 'hot starts'. Ground crew can be seen performing their duties both indoors and out while pilot training provides views rarely seen by the public.A collection of notable displays showcases memorable moments from the past decade, including the gathering of three Lancaster bombers at East Kirkby, the last two airworthy Lancasters flying together down the Derwent Valley, the RAF100 Buckingham Palace flypast and the Dambusters 80th anniversary.The images are presented with commentary from the author, providing both background and technical details on how the shots were taken.The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight in Photos offers a wealth of previously unseen views of the flight in incredible color, detail and clarity - a must for any warbird enthusiast.

When it came to daring raids, Germany's airborne troops had a secret weapon during the Second World War: the DFS 230 combat and assault glider. Successful German attacks at Eben Emael, Corinth, Crete and Gran Sasso are synonymous with the type - which could carry nine fully-equipped troops, dive towards its target at an angle of 80 degrees and land within 20m of it.It was also frequently used for freight and could quietly deliver up to 1,200kg of cargo, even into areas considered too difficult and hazardous for successful supply drops by conventional means. For particularly difficult landing areas, it could optionally be fitted with up to three machine guns.Designed during the mid-1930s, the DFS 230 entered service in 1939 and was operated throughout the war in every theater where German forces were involved in the fighting. A DFS 230 was probably the last aircraft type to put down in the inferno of Hitler's encircled capital city just days prior to the dictator's suicide on April 30, 1945.The type could be towed into the air by almost any powered combat aircraft - from an He 111 bomber to a Bf 109 fighter - dropping its wheeled landing gear on take-off and touching down on a skid.More than 1,600 DFS 230s were built from 1939 to 1943 and up to a dozen are thought to survive today.In Eagles of the Luftwaffe: DFS 230, Luftwaffe historian Neil Page, author of the two-part Luftwaffe Fighters series from Tempest Books, explores and explains both the type's development and its service history.

Hot on the heels of Half Century, Baby! Fifty Years of the Grumman F-14 Tomcat, authors David Parsons and Mads Bangsø present a second collection of stunning photographs, beautiful profiles, evocative artworks and recollections from a host of Tomcat pilots and RIOs.The spectacular variable-geometry F-14 enjoyed the longest operational career of any US Navy fighter to date and notoriously still serves with the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force. Navy Tomcats saw action over the Gulf of Sidra, over Lebanon, during Desert Storm, in Bosnia and later in Afghanistan and during Operation Iraqi Freedom.The last American F-14 combat mission took place on February 8, 2006, when two Tomcats dropped bombs over Iraq before landing on the USS Theodore Roosevelt and since then many have been scrapped - though a number survive today as museum and display pieces.As with volume 1, this new book presents unparalleled insights on one of the world's most famous, successful and beloved combat aircraft. Don't miss out on this second treasure trove of F-14 goodness!

Conceived as a multirole combat aircraft based on promising early data from pulsejet tests, the Me 328 was arguably Messerschmitt's most controversial wartime project. Early projects imagined the compact machine as a fighter, a bomber, a reconnaissance platform or even a parasite aircraft - detaching from large bombers in mid-air to conduct operations before returning to the mothership. Enthusiasm was high, prototypes were built and extensively flight tested, with and without pulsejets, but it soon became clear that the airframe, the pulsejets and even the operational procedures mapped out for the Me 328 were proving far more troublesome than anticipated.The type was canceled - but then revived with a darker purpose: as a suicide bomber. Famous test pilot Hanna Reitsch and her cadre of fanatics chose the Me 328 as their vehicle for 'self-sacrifice' missions, where idealistic young pilots, plied with drugs to remove their inhibitions, would fly the aircraft, laden with bombs, directly into high-value Allied targets such as warships, bridges or command posts.In Secret Projects of the Luftwaffe: Messerschmitt Me 328, German WW2 aircraft development specialist Dan Sharp presents the first ever book dedicated to the type and explores its history and purpose as far as surviving documentation allows.

With a top speed approaching Mach 3 and equipped with both powerful sensors and air-to-air weaponry, the two-seater MiG-31 interceptor has proven to be one of the Cold War's most formidable survivors - finally coming into its own during the Ukraine War. Development began in 1975 with a design based on that of the MiG-25 Foxbat and progressed to the point where, although it bore a superficial similarly to its forebear, it was largely a new aircraft. The MiG-31, NATO reporting name Foxhound, entered service in 1981 and more than 500 were built.Several dozen examples remain in service today with both the Russian and Kazakh air forces - and throughout 2022 and 2023 Foxhounds using R-37M long-range AAMs operated virtually unopposed against Ukrainian fighters, which lacked the speed, range, altitude and firepower to engage them. MiG-31s have also provided a valuable platform from which to launch Kh-47M2 Kinzhal hypersonic missiles against Ukraine while remaining within Russian airspace.Author Sergio Santana details the aircraft's early development, its long operational history and its most recent operations in this all-new look at one of the world's deadliest combat aircraft.

The Avro Vulcan is one of the most striking aircraft ever made - its enormous wing stretching back from an improbably thick leading edge marked by cavernous wing root engine intakes. Perhaps even more incredible, its first flight was made just over ten years after the introduction of the piston-engined Lancaster during the Second World War. Within a decade, technology had taken a giant leap from straight-winged slow-moving conventional bombers to this vast delta designed to carry a nuclear payload.But what led to such a radical configuration and what was the technology that enabled such an ambitious design? What possessed Avro to offer the Air Ministry such a futuristic aircraft and what prompted the Ministry to approve its development and entry into service?Formula 1 racing team aerodynamicist and Vulcan to the Sky trustee Stephen Liddle presents a full history of the Vulcan's development and assesses the technological and engineering breakthroughs which underpinned the construction of this unparalleled aircraft.