The ancient Norwich firm of Boulton & Paul were brought into aircraft construction in 1915, and quickly became one of the great innovators. They pioneered metal construction and built the frame of the largest aircraft ever built in Britain, the R.101 airship. The Overstrand, the last of their superlative medium bombers, was the first aircraft in the world to feature a power-operated gun turret, and after their move to Wolverhampton in 1936 and change of name to Boulton Paul Aircraft their ...

The first great British aircraft engine manufacturer, the Sunbeam Motor Car Company turned to the sunrise industry of aviation in 1912, and was among the first to buy an aircraft to test their engines, flown by a full-time test pilot, the famous Jack Alcock. Through the First World War Sunbeam was a vital supplier, of both engines and aircraft, particularly to the Royal Naval Air Service. Consistently Sunbeams were the most powerful British engines available, and they were fitted to the fi...

For 300 Years the name Molineux has been indelibly linked with the town of Wolverhampton, known throughout the World as the home of Wolverhampton Wanderers FC, but only for the last 130 of those years. Built in 1720 as one of the finest private homes in the town, with large formal gardens, Molineux became in turn a hotel with pleasure gardens and a home for major exhibitions, and cricket and boxing matches and the home of cycle racing in this country, but then the local football club moved...

The Boulton Paul Balliol was the last British aircraft powered by the iconic Rolls-Royce Merlin engine. Also, the Balliol was the last piston-powered advanced trainer in both the Royal Air Force and the Fleet Air Arm, and yet it began life as the world’s first turbo-trainer. Conceived in the last days of the Second World War as a new trainer to be powered by a revolutionary turboprop engine, it became the first aircraft to be powered by a single prop-jet, beating the rival Avro Athena into...

Twenty-three compelling accounts of desperate circumstances and unbelievable survival when planes went down in remote and dangerous locations.When a pilot experiences a sudden loud bang or sudden total silence, he is often faced with the stark choice of the parachute or attempting to get the aircraft down to earth in as few pieces as possible. This book describes twenty-three remarkable and true instances when, for a variety of reasons, all seems lost—but life was n...

Wolverhampton has been blessed with a large number of successful sports clubs and individuals who have won national and international acclaim. Wolverhampton Wanderers are the reason that the city's name is known worldwide. However, Wolverhampton & Bilston Athletics Club and Wolverhampton Judo Club both have a greater claim to the accolade of most successful sporting club in the city. The 'other' Wolves, Wolverhampton's speedway team, have consistently ridden in the top flight of British Sp...

Wolverhampton was granted city status in 2000, but its origins lie in Anglo-Saxon England. During the Middle Ages Wolverhampton was a prosperous Staffordshire market town and a centre for the wool trade. Its coal and iron deposits enabled it to grow rapidly during the Industrial Revolution, when it became one of the most heavily industrialised areas of the country, specialising in coal mining, iron and steel production, engineering and manufacturing. The wealth brought into the town is see...

Wolverhampton was a Staffordshire market town in the Middle Ages but became a major industrial town during the Industrial Revolution, renowned for coal mining, metalworking and steel making. The prosperity brought to the town from this era is in evidence in many buildings in the city, and the growing population required a large programme of public housing in the early twentieth century. The development of Wolverhampton continued post-war, with much of the centre being rebuilt in the 1960s ...

From some of the first ever airfields in Great Britain, through the municipal airports of Stoke, Walsall and Wolverhampton, to a total of eighteen RAF airfields in the Second World War, Staffordshire has always embraced aviation. Both Stoke and Wolverhampton were taken over for the use of Elementary Flying Training Schools, huge new airfields were built to house bomber Operational Training Units at Hixon and Lichfield, and to provide extra room for the Elementary Flying Training Schools, g...

The West Midlands city of Wolverhampton has a fascinating history. Originally a medieval market town, it grew rapidly during the Industrial Revolution through the new coal-mining and manufacturing industries because of its mineral resources, particularly iron, coal and limestone. With the decline of these industries in the late twentieth century, Wolverhampton has had to change yet again, but in spite of the many changes that have occurred here the city has retained its identity. This fasc...

Though there were airfields in Shropshire during the First World War, at Shawbury, Tern Hill and Monkmoor, it was in the late 1930s that a massive building programme began to dot the county with new RAF airfields, mostly for training purposes, until there were over sixteen – in some cases they were so close together that their circuits overlapped. Since the Second World War the number has fallen away, but Shawbury, Tern Hill, Cosford and little Chetwynd are still used by the RAF, and Sleap...

On 27 June 1910, the first ever all-British Flying Meeting began at Dunstall Park racecourse, Wolverhampton, and began an unbroken century of flying in the area. Dunstall Park, actually one of the first airports in the whole country, was to remain the town's airport until after the First World War, though an anti-Zeppelin landing strip was established at the Fern Fields, Perton, during the War. Though dogged by bad weather the Flying Meeting, only the third ever held in the country, attrac...