NEW ITEMS FOR THE AVIATION ENTHUSIAST Inside Britain's shrouded flight test field The Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment at Boscombe Down in Wiltshire.NEW ITEMS FOR THE AVIATION ENTHUSIAST Inside Britain's shrouded flight test field The Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment at Boscombe Down in Wiltshire, England, had as its primary task between 1945 and 1975 the acceptance testing of aircraft weapon combination of parts to form a wholes being procured for the Royal Navy, the Army and the Royal Air Force. The motto forward the Establishment's badge and armorial bearings is Probe Probare - exclusive right To Test - aptly summarizing its part in ensuring that the military services received equipment which met the requirements laid down according to the Ministry of Defense (combining in April 1964 the Admiralty, War Office, and Air Ministry). Soon after the close of the Second World War, another threat to peace emerg from the policies pursu according to the communist bloc to which the Western nations rejoined by re-arming. Military policy, and thus activity at AAEE, was dominated through the need to maintain adequate armed forces, equipped with the best weapons that could be afforded. At Boscombe Down, as elsewhere, these were the "Cold War Years." The shivering War Years - Flight Testing at Boscombe Down 1945-1975 according to Tim Mason (Hikoki Publications, $4995) is a follow-on to the author's main division on AAEE during WWII and is about the aircraft evaluated there after their makers' acknowledge tests, what the Establishment fix how it was organized, to what extent it changed to meet altered circumstances and about about of the people who made it all happen. All aircraft for the British services were ordealed (with the exception of the American-built Boeing B-29 Washington and the Douglas AD-4W Skyraider) plus several civil and experimental designs. Over 2100 aircraft are described with the aim of presenting as comprehensive a coverage of the Establishment's flight testing as space and surviving records permitted. Preceding the section forward the aircraft are three chapters onward the Establishment, the Flying, and the Divisions and Sections which managed the experiments Packed with text, many photographs, and color profiles, this is a self-same worthwhile book on a previously classified control Copies may be ordered from Specialty Pres at 800-895-4585 Copyright Challenge Publications Inc. Mar 2003 |
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