It could be argued that the heyday of British military aircraft flight
testing began in the 1940s, and continued throughout the three decades
that followed, during the so-called Cold War period. As such, the
authors have purposely chosen to focus on the first 30 years, The Golden
Years, 1945 to 1975, from the end of World War Two until the mid-1970s.
This was arguably the most exciting period with many wonderful and new
types rubbing shoulders with wartime and immediate postwar designs that
were utilized for development purposes, making for an eclectic mix of
shapes and color schemes.
Alongside the technical aspects of military testing and development, are
the many and varied color schemes and markings carried by the aircraft
themselves - not only by the brand-new experimental designs, but by
existing production machines, suitably modified, to greater or lesser
degrees, to develop the technical advances in systems and weaponry.
Scores of different aircraft types are covered in British Military Test
& Evaluation Aircraft The Golden Years 1945 - 1975, with over 65 rarely
seen contemporary photographs from private collections, and, differing
slightly from previous Flight Craft book formats, over 50 pages of
specially commissioned full color profiles and plan views, visually
chronicling the diverse range of color schemes and markings applied to
these fascinating airplanes.
Compiled by Neil Robinson and Martin Derry, who have authored several
other Flight Craft books, with informative background text by well known
aviation historian Malcolm V Lowe and superbly executed illustrations by
Mark Rolfe. As with other books in the Flight Craft series, although
published with aircraft modelers in mind, it is hoped that most aviation
enthusiasts will find something of interest here too.
