On 26 December 1900, the vessel Hesperus arrived at Eilean Mor in the remote Outer Hebrides with a relief lighthouseman and fresh provisions. The lighthouse had been in operation for a year, but it had been noted that no light had been seen from Eilean Mor for several days. The relief keeper, Joseph Moore, found the lighthouse to be completely deserted, and a subsequent search of the island failed to reveal any sign of what had happened to the three keepers. The last entry...

Conspiracy theories of sabotage, murder and even UFOs flourish around the greatest unsolved mysteries of aviation from the twentieth century. This account of the most intriguing loose ends from aeronautical history provides the known details of five great mysteries and the best (and most colourful) attempts to explain what might have happened. Planes disappearing out of the sky, shady dealings with Sri-Lankan businessmen, the plummeting death of the richest man in the worl...

Airwork Ltd/Airwork Services, now owned by VT group plc, has a long and distinguished history. It played an important role in defence support services to the RAF, Fleet Air Arm and overseas air forces, as well as in the development of civil aviation. Created at Heston in 1928, it maintained Whitley bombers and de Havilland Tiger Moths in the 1930s and established the precursors of the post-WW2 airlines of Egypt, India and Rhodesia. Post-war it was the first airline to be a...

The Dyatlov Pass incident resulted in nine unsolved, mysterious deaths; Keith McCloskey attempts to decipher the bizarre events that led up to that night and the subsequent aftermathIn January 1959, ten experienced young skiers set out to travel to a mountain named Mount Otorten in the far north of Russia. During the trip, one of the skiers fell ill and returned. The remaining nine lost their way and ended up on another mountain slope known as Kholat Syakhl, or "Mo...

A biography of unprecedented expedition under sailThe role of the sailor through history should never be underestimated. Over centuries battles were won and new lands discovered and settled by their skills and nerve. Rob Mundle is back on the ocean to tell one of the great stories of an expedition under sail: the extraordinary eight-month, 17-000-nautical mile voyage of the First Fleet. With customary sweep and swell, Mundle puts you alongside 48-year-old Captain Arthur Phillip on ...

My name is Leslie Joy (Les to my friends), and I was born on the 16th March 1923 in Bradford, Yorkshire. This is my true story of how at the age of 19 I joined the RAF, fell in love with a Tiger Moth, got my wings and flew as a Lancaster Bomber pilot in World War II, and survived just!

How the mighty clipper ships transformed Australia from convict outpost to a nation.More than one million Australians can trace their heritage to the migrant ships of the mid-to-late 19th century...The story of the Clipper ships, and the tens of thousands of migrants they bought to the Australian colony of the nineteenth century, is one of the world's great migration stories. For anyone who travelled to Australia before 1850, it was a long and arduous journey that could tak...

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...

As a captain in the Georgian navy Arthur Phillips integrity, intelligence and persistence made him perfectly suited to the role that history and circumstance presented to him in 1788, but landing the First Fleet at Botany Bay was only one of many achievements in a captivating life.His is a story of political intrigue, eighteenth-century sailing ships, and the race for economic and geographic advancement in a world that was becoming truly international. It is a tale of ambition, of wealthy ...

DESCRIPTIONRJ Mitchell: Legend of the Spitfire recounts the extraordinary achievements of one of Britain’s greatest aviation legends, the man responsible for creating Britain’s most iconic fighter aircraft, the Supermarine Spitfire.The book, which is around the length of a short story, approximately 40 printed pages, gives the reader a concise and straightforward insight into the life of RJ Mitchell, his role in the prestigious Sch...

Has history been wrong for 200 years? Read the startling truth about the mutiny on the Bounty, its characters, causes, and aftermath. Television rights are now in development with Ridley Scott's Scott Free Productions.More than two centuries after Master’s Mate Fletcher Christian led a mutiny against Lieutenant William Bligh on a small, armed transport vessel called Bounty, the true story of this enthralling adventure has become obscured by the legend. Combining vi...

In 1945 Britain was the world's leading designer and builder of aircraft -- a world-class achievement that was not mere rhetoric. And what aircraft they were. The sleek Comet, the first jet airliner. The awesome delta-winged Vulcan, an intercontinental bomber that could be thrown about the sky like a fighter. The Hawker Hunter, the most beautiful fighter-jet ever built and the Lightning, which could zoom ten miles above the clouds in a couple of minutes and whose pilots rated flying it as ...