1. The first of the British aces. Lanoe Hawker, VC.
2. Oswald Boelcke. ‘Knack knack knack went my gun. Fifty rounds and then a long flame shot out of his engine.’
3. From the schoolroom, straight to the lethal skies over France. Albert Ball, VC.
4. One of the Short ‘Folder’ seaplanes that took part in the Christmas Day raid on Cuxhaven in 1914.
5. Royal Aircraft Factory BE2Cs. Their unusual stability made them poor fighter aircraft but excellent reconnaissance machines.
6. A De Havilland DH2 serving with the RFC in the Middle East. The ‘pusher’ configuration meant a forward-mounted machine gun could fire freely without fear of hitting the propeller.
7. James McCudden VC. The former boy-burglar who became one of the great air warriors of the First World War.
8. Members of 85 Squadron with pets and mascots at St Omer towards the end of the First World War. Unlike pictures of soldiers of the period, the animals seem natural and relaxed.
9. The iconic British aeroplane of the First World War. A Sopwith Camel of 9 Naval Squadron, one of the RNAS units that served on the Western Front. The pilot is Flight Sub Lieutenant E. Pierce and the face on the rudder is music hall star George Robey.
10. Edwin Dunning’s Sopwith Pup touches down on HMS Furious in a pioneering feat of naval aviation. Shortly afterwards, he was dead.
11. Aerial policing. RAF air power intimidated restless natives in the inter-war years. This is Iraq and the aircraft are Westland Wapitis.
12. Between the wars the Hendon Air Pageants enthralled thousands, including many boys who would take to the skies themselves.
13. Mick Mannock combined a cool ruthlessness with a complex and beguiling intelligence.
14. The essence of Fighter Boy skill and insouciance. Brian Kingcome.
15. Roland Beaumont fought from the Battle of Britain to D-Day and beyond, before going to a post-war career as a test pilot.
16. Keith Park and his personal Hurricane. If any two men can be said to have won the Battle of Britain, it was he and his boss, Hugh Dowding.
17. Brilliant, driven, and ultimately fragile. Guy Gibson, VC.
18. Squadron Leader Peter Hill briefs crews of 51 Squadron before the Nuremberg raid. Neither he, nor many of those in the picture, would return.
19. They also serve – WAAF mechanics. For many of the 250,000 women who passed through the wartime RAF, the experience was a liberation, an adventure, and an epiphany.
20. The Handley Page Halifax was overshadowed by the Lancaster, but it shared the workload and losses of the Strategic Air Campaign.
21. Dowding’s nickname was ‘Stuffy’, but there was nothing hidebound about his visionary approach to Britain’s air defence.
22. The Father of the Royal Air Force. ‘Boom’ Trenchard flanked by Wing Commander N. Goldsmith (l) and Middle East Air Commander Air Vice Marshal Geoffrey Salmond during a visit to Aboukir, Egypt, soon after the First World War.
23. Downtime. Pilots of 66 Squadron put on a show of relaxation for the official photographer. The men in the picture featured in Ten Fighter Boys, a volume of wartime propaganda that captured the spirit of Fighter Command. ‘Bogle’ Bochie is standing beneath the propeller.
24. Instant tradition. The Wren-inspired RAF college, Cranwell, with the old huts in the foreground.
25. Sergeant pilots put their feet up while at readiness in December, 1940. In the Battle of Britain, which had just ended, NCO pilots – many from RAF Volunteer Reserve – played a prominent role.
26. Pilots of the Free French 340 Squadron in a practice scramble to their Spitfire Mark Vs.
27. Battle over Britain. Condensation trails scribble chalk marks over an English summer sky. The spire belongs to the Roman Catholic church of St Francis in Maidstone, Kent.
28. ‘Screwball’. George Beurling notches up another kill.
29. Spitfires of 241 Squadron with Mount Vesuvius in the background. Even with overwhelming air superiority, the road to Rome was slow and bloody.
30. The rocket-and-cannon-armed Hawker Typhoon excelled at attacks on small ground targets and greatly aided the Allied armies as they advanced after D-Day.
31. Perhaps the most brilliant design to take flight from Geoffrey de Havilland’s drawing board – a DH Mosquito B1V.
32. The Lanc – greatest heavy bomber of the Second World War.
33. The Cinderella Service. A Lockheed of Central Command’s 224 Squadron heading off on patrol.
34. Frank Whittle’s ground-breaking engine gave the RAF its first fighter jet – the Glosser Meteor.
35. A Sea Harrier hovers over the deck of a carrier somewhere in the grey waters of the South Atlantic.
36. Cold War workhorse. The delta-winged Avro Vulcan was the mainstay of Britain’s airborne nuclear deterrent force and saw action in the Falklands.
37. ‘What’s it like flying in a Tornado? It’s like nothing else...’
Wings Page 34
