The BAE Hawk jet trainer was first delivered to the RAF in November 1976 – fifty years ago. Since then, the aircraft has been extensively used by the RAF (and Royal Navy), still seeing service with the Red Arrows Aerobatic Team and in the advance flying training role. The Hawk has been an export success for the UK aviation industry, with worldwide sales ranging from Finland to Australia and Canada to the Middle and Far East. A major success was selling the design to the US Navy. The final ...

Dorset has always been an important railway county, catering for holidaymakers heading to the resorts of Bournemouth, Swanage and Weymouth. As part of the mid-nineteenth-century desire for railways to reach many parts of the country, a line from Southampton reached the county town of Dorchester in 1847. This was to become part of the London & South Western Railway. The Great Western Railway arrived in the county in 1857 with a line from Yeovil to Weymouth built to Brunel’s broad-gauge stan...

The first ex-military jet flew in Britain in the late 1960s, restored by Jet Heritage of Bournemouth. The company made a successful business out of restoring the complicated military airframes and making them legal for civilian flight. This is the story of Jet Heritage and the men who restored the first ex-military jets back into service.

Often regarded as a quiet holiday county, in fact Dorset has many aviation connections. As early as 1908 Bleriots were being built by Bournemouth businessmen, the Royal Navy undertook first landing on a warship at Weymouth in 1910, the Schneider Race was held at Bournemouth in 1913, Dorset was at the front line of the early days of the Battle of Britain with attacks on Portland Naval Base, the Dam Busters bouncing bomb was tested on Dorset ranges in 1943, and aircraft production factories ...

Flying boats have been a familiar sight in the Solent since the dawn of aviation. Two of Britain's major manufactures, Saunders-Roe and Supermarine, were based in Cowes and Woolston respectively. The area has been home to flying boats of Imperial Airways and, latterly, BOAC and Aquila Airways. With a terminal at Hythe and then Southampton Docks, one could view not just majestic ocean liners but huge flying boats too, from the Empire boats of Imperial Airways to the majestic Saunders-Roe Pr...

Bournemouth Airport was first opened as RAF Hurn on 1 August 1941, one of the bases established by the RAF to counter the Luftwaffe presence across the Channel in northern France. RAF Hurn would go on to serve as a base for the development of radar in aircraft and as a base for bombers and fighter-bombers supporting the D-Day invasion of France. BOAC operated civilian services from Hurn as early as January 1942, flying at first just to Cairo but later to Madrid, Lisbon and Ireland, and bet...

George Errington was a well-known and popular test pilot from 1935 to 1955. His name appeared frequently in aviation magazines of the time and he ranks with the likes of Cunningham, Duke, Falk and Lithgow. He joined the Airspeed company at Portsmouth in 1934 and became their Chief Test Pilot in 1939, when test flying was vastly different from today. During the Second World War he was responsible for much of the testing of the Horsa assault glider, which included a number of incidents. Afte...

Wessex - for our purposes Dorset and Wiltshire, along with the western parts of Hampshire and Berkshire - has been part of Britain's aviation industry for over a hundred years. In his comprehensive new book, historian Mike Phipp recalls the area's proud heritage and details the many companies that have been involved in aviation over the years. Many well-known names are included, along with those that have faded into obscurity. The book tracks the mergers, takeovers, government specificatio...

Darren Carver is vain, selfish, ambitious, corrupt, hedonistic, insincere and a disgusting low life human. He is also your HR Director. And your boss.He does not just hate you - he hates everyone. He does not embrace the corporate values. He would rather eat his own vomit than do that, in fact, he would rather eat your vomit.And female HR Director Catrina Carver is the same, If not worse.

The uncertain fates of Amelia Earhart, Amy Johnson and Glenn Miller have fascinated readers and aviation historians ever since they disappeared. Even today, more than half a century after their final flights, what happened to them is still the subject of speculation, conspiracy theory and controversy. This has prompted Roy Conyers Nesbit to reinvestigate their stories and to write this perceptive, level-headed and gripping study. Using testimony from new witnesses and hitherto undisclosed ...

An amazing array of leaflets, books and manuals were issued by the Air Ministry during the Second World War to aid pilots in flying the Supermarine Spitfire, here for the first time they are collated into a single book. An introduction is supplied by expert aviation historian Dilip Sarkar. Other sections include aircraft recognition, how to act as an RAF officer, bailing out, and so on.

DESCRIPTION“An excellent book to read at this time during the anniversary of the bombing of the German dams by what seemed impossible odds.” Review.**Guy Gibson: Legend of the Dam Busters tells the dramatic story of a renowned British flying legend and his leadership of the infamous raid on the Ruhr dams in May 1943, providing a fitting and timely tribute to a truly courageous aviator.This short i...