Special Operations - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1911639072 ISBN 13: 9781911639077

Publisher: Tempest, 2020

Synopsis

Aviation Classics: Special Operations details some of the most interesting and unusual missions carried out by aircraft and air forces over the last 75 years.

The incredible long-range flights in converted bombers that kept lines of communication open between the Allies during wartime are revealed, along with Cold War Canberra spy flights, the remarkable story of Australia’s Air Beef operations and the Pipers that flew behind enemy lines in the Middle East.

United Nations-backed combat missions flown by Sweden’s ‘flying barrel’ Saab 29 Tunnan jet fighter in Africa are recounted, as are details of the CIA’s covert Lockheed U-2 flights off aircraft carriers, the Piaggio diamond mine taxi, the Gloster Javelin’s role in the Rhodesian standoff, the BAe Hawk’s ground-attack missions in the Congo, Tu-22 Blinders bombing the French and more.

Each of the 14 pieces comes with a guarantee of painstaking research carried out by some of the finest aviation historians working today.

About this title

About the Author

The son of an RAF wing commander pilot and a former American Overseas Airways stewardess, Mick has been passionate about aviation since early childhood in the 1960s.In 1979 he became a Ministry of Defence Student Engineer at RAE Farnborough and Bedford, and embarked on an aero-engineering degree course at Imperial College, London; but his predilection for the history and romance of aeronautics led him in 1981 to change direction and become a junior curator at the Royal Air Force Museum, Hendon. Two years later he joined Aeroplane, and in 1998 he succeeded Richard T. Riding as Editor, a post he held until he retired in 2010, after 28 years on the magazine. He is a member of the Royal Aeronautical Society's Historical Group Committee, and in 2011 he received the Air League's prestigious Scott-Farnie Medal from HRH The Duke of Edinburgh for "most meritorious work in the field of air education" in recognition of his work on Aeroplane. On the odd occasions when he is not absorbed in aviation history, he is absorbed in Egyptology; he is a member of the Egypt Exploration Society and a founder member and committee member of Sussex Egyptology Society, a registered educational charity.

Edition details

• Publisher: Tempest
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1911639072
• ISBN 13: 9781911639077
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 132