Grumman F6F Hellcat was one of the best fighter aircraft of the World War Two era and the most effective fighter of the US Navy. There is no doubt that Hellcats won complete air superiority for the Americans over the vast areas of the Pacific, largely contributing to the victory over Japan. Volume One presents this legendary fighter in its first year of operational service – from the combat debut over Marcus Island and the Solomons in August 1943 until the end of the Marianas operation in late summer 1944. By then Hellcats participated, among others, in air strikes on Rabaul, Wake, Kwajalein and Truk, and supported the invasion of Tarawa in Gilbert Islands. The culmination of the Hellcats’ first year of service with the US Navy came about during the Marianas invasion in June 1944, when they took part in the First Battle of Philippine Sea. This largest aerial and naval battle in the Pacific to date broke the backbone of the Japanese Navy, and the Hellcats won such a tremendous victory in the air that the battle was aptly nicknamed the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot. Throughout the war the only foreign user of Hellcats was Great Britain, receiving first aircraft in March 1943. Until late 1944 the Royal Navy Hellcats operated mainly in northern European waters and in the Mediterranean, participating in several air strikes on German battleship Tirpitz moored in Norwegian fiords, supporting Allied landings in Normandy and southern France, and joining operations in the Aegean Sea.

Scale plans in 1/48 and 1/32 of Henschel Hs 123. Includes all subversions.

This is the story of the pursuit of a dream. Spitfire PK350 is the only late-mark Spitfire, an F Mk 22, to have ever been restored to full flying status. She had no restrictions on her airframe and with four fully serviceable 20mm cannons, she was as good as the day she came off the production line in July 1945 near Birmingham, England. She first flew as a restored aircraft on 29 March 1980 at the hands of one John McVicar “Jack” Malloch. By then a legend in his adopted country, Rhodesia, Malloch had in 1977 been entrusted by the hierarchy of the Rhodesian Air Force to restore SR64, as she was then known. In two and half years, Jack Malloch and his trusted engineers, with critical help from the Rhodesian and South African air forces, completely restored SR64 to flying condition. The fact that she was fitted with a propeller made by a German company added a sweet irony to a project that had to contend with sanctions imposed by Britain, the original country of manufacture, and highlighted the enterprising spirit of the team. This was possible because Malloch, with the backing of the Rhodesian government, had built up a successful charter airfreight company that assumed different guises, depending on where it was operating, to bypass sanctions. Malloch's network thus facilitated his quest to restore and once again fly a Spitfire such as he had flown in the RAF during the Second World War.Some fascinating insights are revealed in this account. From the test pilot who first flew her as PK350 on 25 July 1945, the reader is taken on a journey through the aircraft's complete life, with the project's lead engineer and most of the surviving pilots who flew her gracing the story with their memories. For two years PK350 delighted those fortunate enough to see her fly, mostly around Salisbury (Harare) airport. Then, on what was planned to be its last flight, Malloch's Spitfire never returned to base.

Ira “Taffy” Jones was a well-known air fighter during the First World War, having scored about 40 victories flying SE5 scouts in France with 74 Squadron. Well known in flying circles, Jones recorded stories drawn from his own experiences during the war and wrote of the many personalities he had met or known by association, both during the war and in the post-war flying years.An Air Fighter’s Scrap Book recreates the atmosphere of the days of the biplane, of wartime flying, of early peacetime adventures in the air, the development of civil aviation, and breathtaking record beating flights, all evoking the sheer delight in flying that characterised those early years.

Although the author has given this Jagdstaffel a fictitious number and changed the names of the pilots composing it, the incidents related in this book have the genuine ring of truth and will be recognised as facts by anyone who has had experience of flying on the Western Front or who has studied it since. Many experts believe this work draws on the experience of the Bavarian Jasta 35, which flew against the British; however, whatever its real number may have been, Jagdstaffel 356 undoubtedly fought in the air over Flanders in 1918.This book is an exciting account, obviously written from firsthand experience, of the air war from the German side.

A.R. Kingsford flew with 100 Squadron, the unit that dropped the first bomb at night on Germany and, on November 11, 1918, the last one. One of the many who came to Europe from all over the Commonwealth to fight in the First World War, Kingsford had sailed from New Zealand in 1914. He joined the Royal Flying Corps in 1917 and learned to fly at Northolt, before being posted to 33 Squadron at Lincoln, where he flew against Zeppelins which had been sent from across the North Sea on night bombing raids. Kingsford joined 100 Squadron in France early in 1918. He had an active career with this famous squadron up until the end of the war.Full of incident and adventure, Night Raiders of the Air is a first-person account by this young Commonwealth volunteer on his experiences during the war against Germany.

Scale plans in 1/72, 1/48 and 1/32 scale.All Zero versions.A6M2 model 21A6M3 model 22 and model 23A6M5 model 52 and model 52cA6M7 model 62

The Dam Buster raid, Operation Chastise, has gone down in history as one of the greatest feats of arms executed by the Royal Air Force. Extraordinary demands were placed upon the airmen who took part in the raid, one of whom was the particularly accomplished young pilot Henry Maudslay. Henry, educated at Eton, was well-regarded and respected by contemporaries and Masters alike. He left school in 1940 and volunteered immediately for the RAF, becoming part of a generation for who transition into adulthood would, again, be cast in the heat of battle.Henry flew his first operational tour with No. 44 Squadron on Handley Page Hampdens, following which his experiences and skills were utilized during service trials for the new Avro Lancaster. Henry joined No. 50 Squadron at the start of 1943 for a second tour and in March 1943 he was selected to join a new squadron, No. 617, then forming at RAF Scampton. Henry Maudslay attacked the Eder Dam on the night of 16/17 May 1943. After a number of attempts, he released his weapon which struck the parapet and detonated on impact almost immediately behind the aircraft. Contrary to contemporary reports the aircraft survived, and set course for home, only to be brought down near the Rhine with the loss of all its crew. Combining material from family, school and official archives, together with personal letters and recollections from those who knew him, Robert Owen, Official Historian of the No. 617 Squadron Association, describes in detail the family background, school life and extraordinary flying career of this young and enigmatic airman.

Ronnie Selley, a South African from rural Natal, joined the RAF on a short-service commission in 1937, considered the Golden Age of aviation. During these glory years of Howard Hughes and Amelia Earhart few guessed at the brewing storm and dark days to come. After completing his training on antiquated First World War aircraft, Selley was posted to 220 Squadron Coastal Command, the RAF’s under-staffed and under-equipped poor relation to the more prestigious Fighter and Bomber Commands. Tasked with reconnaissance, convoy patrols and submarine-hunting the pilots of Coastal Command chalked up more flying hours than any other RAF Command. It was not uncommon for pilots to be in the air, searching the waters of the North Atlantic, for up to sixteen hours a day, in aircraft that were neither capable of such ranges nor, initially, adequately armed to defend their charges. From the outbreak of war until after its cessation Coastal Command had aircraft in the air twenty-four hours a day, every single day. The toll this took on the men of Coastal Command was unthinkable. The first RAF pilot to sink a German U-boat, Selley went on the win the DFC for his actions during the Dunkirk evacuation. He won high praise and newspaper headlines such as “Plane fights 13 German warships”, “One RAF man bombs 3 ships, routs Nazis” and “One against eight” were not uncommon. Selley subsequently suffered acute battle fatigue and spent time convalescing at the Dunblane Hydro. Thereafter, he was posted by the Air Ministry as Air Vice-Marshal Breese’s personal pilot. On 5 March 1941 Ronnie Selley, Air Vice-Marshal Breese and the entire crew of the fully armed Lockheed Hudson they was flying experienced engine problems, lost speed, stalled and exploded on impact at Wick in northern Scotland.

The book presents the history and combat operations of JG 53 "Pik As" - one of the Luftwaffe's most famous fighter wings. A collection of forty original photographs is supplemented by a list of all JG 53 commanders, details of each of the wing's squadrons and flights and a listing of the unit's equipment used during the war. Full-page, color aircraft profiles will serve as an excellent source of documentation and a welcome addition to a set of decals included with the book. • 28 pages• 41 archive photos• 4 painting schemes• 10 throws of painting schemes• format (sizes): (205x275 mm)• decals with markings in 3 scales• booklet binding

This monograph of the most famous dive bomber of World War II focuses on the design and combat operations of the late marks of the Stuka: the Ju 87D dive bomber and strike aircraft and the Ju 87G tank buster. In addition to the detailed description of the design, the book covers combat operations of the Luftwaffe units equipped with the D and G models, as well as the biographies of the most prominent aircrews who flew those aircraft in combat. The text is supplemented by original photographs and 3D drawings showing details of the design.

Gathered in these two volumes is the legendary Luftwaffe aircraft: the Messerschmitt 109 and 110, the Focke-Wulf 190 and the jets that appeared at the end of the conflict. More than 600 color profiles detail a wide variety of insignia and camouflage paints. Together, these two books are an augmented compilation (new photographs, new profiles) and an improvement on the previous editions published in the series Aircraft & Drivers. THIS BOOK IS IN ENGLISH.

This book, originally written in 1931 by “Vigilant” (the pen name for Claude Sykes), tells the dramatic tales of air combat as fought by the best German pilots of the First World War. Manfred von Richthofen, Max Immelmann, Oswald Boelcke and other famous daredevil flyers are joined by the lesser-known but equally resourceful colleagues such as Rudolph von Eschwege and Hand Shuz, taking part in furious battles in the sky and close escapes on the ground when brought down on the wrong side of the lines.German War Birds contains some of the earliest information to appear after the war about air combat in the Middle East and Russia, as well as the Western Front, and about the significance of observation balloons as targets that were viciously attacked. The author focuses on the heart of the action and recreates the experiences of the airborne war with immediacy, excitement and a vivid turn of phrase, drawing the reader into events as they happen.

This is a rare day-to-day account by a young German squadron leader in Jagdstaffel 35 during the grim last year of the war. Originally published in 1933, it provides minute descriptions of kills, losses, and the Germans’ step-by-step retreat in the face of increasingly overwhelming Allied forces in the air. Brutally honest and vividly written, Stark’s account of the end-game of the Imperial German Army Air Service provides an intimate, front-row glimpse of the death-throes of a once feared corps. This book also contains reproductions of some of the author’s paintings depicting life on the Western Front.

This book presents the most modern aircraft in twenty-first century combat. Designed at the end of last century, they are called to fight in the next war, and for many to decide the fate of battles. Thoroughly illustrated, this book is aimed at both specialists and the general public. THIS BOOK IS IN FRENCH.

This book is dedicated to all groups of 8th Air Force based in Britain from 1943 to 1945 and examines their devices: Spitfire, P-38, P-47 and P-51; with many colour profiles, detailing badges and specific markings. A valuable tool for all designers.THIS BOOK IS IN ENGLISH.