A pair of books that were passed onto me by my friend Carole Barker, from her father Bernard Thorpe‘s collection. These are based on pre-war information, and were an exciting visual feast, given the paucity of colour printing in the period.

On the covers, a pre-war Hawker Hurricane and Vickers Armstrong Wellesley, the Wellesley’s artwork isn’t particularly accurate, but nice to see a rarer type make a cover star for a change.

Top the prototype Defiant, while the bombers features the Bristol Bombay, the rare transport-bomber type. I’ve chosen a selection of pages for maximum variety.

Then the odd inclusion. the Gloster F.5/34 – which never got a production order or saw service, though we’ve seen it here before. The yellow and black target tug stripes on the Blackburn Skua always seemed to cause confusion. Here we get green and white!

The Heinkel He 112 was a real aircraft, but saw little use with the German Luftwaffe, despite the propaganda. Of course, in contrast, the Lockheed Hudson was a very significant type for the allied forces.

James Kightly, Vintage Aero Writer.