Aviation

The great military institution took flight on April 13th, 1912.

Concorde began regular test flights above Britain 40 years ago this month. Jad Adams looks back to a time when, wracked by industrial decline, a nation embraced the world’s first supersonic airliner.

John Swinfield describes the bizarre politics behind the British government’s attempt to launch a pair of airships in the 1920s and how a project that might have boosted national pride ended in tragedy and failure.

John Etty shows the vital importance of aviation in the Stalinist Soviet Union.

Patricia Cleveland-Peck visits Tempelhof which is about to close for ever as an airport.

Glen Jeansonne and David Luhrssen describe how the pioneer aviator Charles Lindbergh was increasingly disturbed by the tension between technology and its impact on the environment. In his later career, in the 1960s, Lindbergh became a spokesman for the embryonic environmental movement as they describe here.

Bernhard Rieger looks at a lavish book on planes from after the First World War to the 1950s.

Colin Cook looks at the political, philosophical and cultural impact of the idea of aviation in the first half of the 20th century.

A.D. Harvey assesses the role of the Soviet Air Force in the defeat of Nazism.

Taylor Downing and Andrew Johnston seek the truth behind the legend of the Spitfire.

Michael Paris looks at pioneering 1920s film about war in the air over the Western Front, the passions it aroused and the genre it created.