The BAE Hawk jet trainer was first delivered to the RAF in November 1976 – fifty years ago. Since then, the aircraft has been extensively used by the RAF (and Royal Navy), still seeing service with the Red Arrows Aerobatic Team and in the advance flying training role. The Hawk has been an export success for the UK aviation industry, with worldwide sales ranging from Finland to Australia and Canada to the Middle and Far East. A major success was selling the design to the US Navy. The final ...

Dorset has always been an important railway county, catering for holidaymakers heading to the resorts of Bournemouth, Swanage and Weymouth. As part of the mid-nineteenth-century desire for railways to reach many parts of the country, a line from Southampton reached the county town of Dorchester in 1847. This was to become part of the London & South Western Railway. The Great Western Railway arrived in the county in 1857 with a line from Yeovil to Weymouth built to Brunel’s broad-gauge stan...

Often regarded as a quiet holiday county, in fact Dorset has many aviation connections. As early as 1908 Bleriots were being built by Bournemouth businessmen, the Royal Navy undertook first landing on a warship at Weymouth in 1910, the Schneider Race was held at Bournemouth in 1913, Dorset was at the front line of the early days of the Battle of Britain with attacks on Portland Naval Base, the Dam Busters bouncing bomb was tested on Dorset ranges in 1943, and aircraft production factories ...

The first ex-military jet flew in Britain in the late 1960s, restored by Jet Heritage of Bournemouth. The company made a successful business out of restoring the complicated military airframes and making them legal for civilian flight. This is the story of Jet Heritage and the men who restored the first ex-military jets back into service.

George Errington was a well-known and popular test pilot from 1935 to 1955. His name appeared frequently in aviation magazines of the time and he ranks with the likes of Cunningham, Duke, Falk and Lithgow. He joined the Airspeed company at Portsmouth in 1934 and became their Chief Test Pilot in 1939, when test flying was vastly different from today. During the Second World War he was responsible for much of the testing of the Horsa assault glider, which included a number of incidents. Afte...

Bournemouth Airport was first opened as RAF Hurn on 1 August 1941, one of the bases established by the RAF to counter the Luftwaffe presence across the Channel in northern France. RAF Hurn would go on to serve as a base for the development of radar in aircraft and as a base for bombers and fighter-bombers supporting the D-Day invasion of France. BOAC operated civilian services from Hurn as early as January 1942, flying at first just to Cairo but later to Madrid, Lisbon and Ireland, and bet...

Wessex - for our purposes Dorset and Wiltshire, along with the western parts of Hampshire and Berkshire - has been part of Britain's aviation industry for over a hundred years. In his comprehensive new book, historian Mike Phipp recalls the area's proud heritage and details the many companies that have been involved in aviation over the years. Many well-known names are included, along with those that have faded into obscurity. The book tracks the mergers, takeovers, government specificatio...

Flying boats have been a familiar sight in the Solent since the dawn of aviation. Two of Britain's major manufactures, Saunders-Roe and Supermarine, were based in Cowes and Woolston respectively. The area has been home to flying boats of Imperial Airways and, latterly, BOAC and Aquila Airways. With a terminal at Hythe and then Southampton Docks, one could view not just majestic ocean liners but huge flying boats too, from the Empire boats of Imperial Airways to the majestic Saunders-Roe Pr...

Darren Carver is vain, selfish, ambitious, corrupt, hedonistic, insincere and a disgusting low life human. He is also your HR Director. And your boss.He does not just hate you - he hates everyone. He does not embrace the corporate values. He would rather eat his own vomit than do that, in fact, he would rather eat your vomit.And female HR Director Catrina Carver is the same, If not worse.

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!

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...

The story of the British-made bombs, Upkeep and Highball, successfully dropped on Nazi dams “has never been told in such depth before” (Daily Mail, UK).The night of May 16, 1943: Nineteen specially adapted Lancaster bombers take off from an RAF airfield in Lincolnshire, England, each with a huge nine-thousand-pound cylindrical bomb strapped underneath it. Their mission: to destroy three hydroelectric dams that power the Third Reich’s war machine.It...