It has been 100 years since the first airfield was established in the country town of Yeovil. Since 1915, aircraft have been designed, manufactured and tested at Westland, including the Lysander, used to transport British agents to Europe during the Second World War. In 1948 the company focused solely on helicopters and its aircraft have been sent all over the world since then, used in lifesaving with Air Ambulance and Search and Rescue and deployed...

The Cold War drove military innovation and none more than the need to spy on Soviet Bloc countries in the 1950s. The best way to spy other than tap phones and have agents on the ground was from the air. For this several cutting edge aircraft were designed and built by the legendary Kelly Johnson and Lockheed Skunk works - which pushed the boundaries of technology. At the same time a secret airbase to test these revolutionary aircraft in the form of...

The Harrier has a unique place in aviation history as the most successful VTOL aircraft to date. Born from the need during the Cold War for an aircraft that could operate even if airfields had been destroyed. The Harrier has become yet another British aviation icon alongside the Spitfire and Concord. Under a small but outstanding team under designer Sir Sydney Camm designer of Hawker Hurricane fame along with Sir Stanley Hooker Bristol's Technical...

Strap yourself in for some high octane action from the cockpit of the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II. The A-10 or Warthog is the unsung hero of the USAF that has had to prove itself time and time again. With many critics over the years it has often been referred to as a private jet with a 30mm cannon. The same 30mm GAU-8 Avenger cannon that is still the heaviest rotary cannon ever mounted on an aircraft and packs a formidable punch. The Gulf...

Flying at 120 knots with the unique roar from its aerodynamic rotors and twin turbines the AH64 Apache is the world's most fearsome attack helicopter its pilots refer to it as 'Riding the Dragon'. The Taliban would more often than not flee rather than suffer its 30mm cannon, 2.75 rockets or Hellfire missiles. Some of the Apache systems are truly amazing such as being able to read a car number plate at 4.2Km away with its 127 times-magnification day...

At the outbreak of the second World War, Air Chief Marshall Dowding was Commander-in-Chief of RAF Fighter Command, which had been set up three years earlier to protect Britain against attacks from the air and the threat of invasion. London was subjected to extensive night bombing for several months. However, our fighter squadrons and defence systems enabled us to maintain master of the air. The Battle of Britain ended in 1940 and our island was never...

"In Fifteenth Air Force against the Axis: Combat Missions over Europe during World War II, historian Kevin A. Mahoney provides a detailed combat history of the crucial role played by this air force from November 1943 through May 1945. Presented by month in chronological order, Mahoney describes all the major bombing and fighter missions carried out by this air force within a strategic context. Each chapter includes an introduction describing developments...

Few RAF pilots flew operationally from the beginning to the end of the Second World War. Fewer still can claim to have taken part in the Battle of France, Battle of Britain, El Alamein, and the D-Day landings as well as bomber escort duties in the closing days of the war. Peter Ayerst is one such man and his tale is, as yet, untold. Illustrated with photographs, this is the previously unpublished story of an RAF Second World War fighter pilot ace....

Follows the history of the aerial assault vehicle from the creation of the aeroplane to its militarization during World War I and the Russian Revolution. Viewers learn that it was the Spanish Civil War that served as the testing ground for the German airplanes of the Third Reich in the lead-up to the Second World War, and more.

Describes the contributions made to the Union's efforts in the Civil War by Thaddeus Lowe and a corps of hot air balloonists who helped spy on the Confederate army, despite becoming targets in the war themselves.