R.A.F.

Only the Royal Air Force could produce a large paperback book, at taxpayers' expense, and call it A Brief History! This heavy book has nearly 400 pages and starts with the early years of military flight before the RAF was established on 1 April 1918 and then covers the history of the Royal Air Force, covering the next 86 years in some 356 pages - that's four pages for every year of its existence! How long would be A History if this is a Brief History? The book cries out for some appendices, listing aircraft and types, for example, and has no index (there's a whole squadron of wing commanders not that busy - they should each have been deployed to write the index for one chapter!). Given that, in its history, the ratio of those who fly in the RAF to those who never do (ground crew, ground staff, aviators in non-flying jobs) is 1:4, there is surprisingly little about the 80% that do not fly - this book is really mostly about flying and operations but leaves out most who support aircrew; sadly this is an attitude not uncommon to RAF aviators - it's all about 'us' not 'them'. Helicopters feature relatively little and I am surprised not to find mention of the Red Arrows!

Any reader certainly would not know that the RAF of the 21st Century operates fewer than 75% of British naval and military aircraft, a significant number of aircraft being operated by the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm and the Army Air Corps. In short, this Brief History says a lot about how the RAF views itself and how it views its people - in that respect it is very disappointing.

From Jock Stirrup's foreword one learns that a copy of AP3003 was distributed to every serving member of the RAF (perhaps 40,000 to 50,000) and to the Cadet and Reserve organisations, including the University Air Squadrons. Stirrup writes "... It is crucial that we all share a common understanding of our Service's history. ...". It is a shame that the book itself does so little to live up to Stirrup's claim that the RAF is meritocratic, with "an almost unconscious egalitarianism". If you are an airman with a non-flying role, you won't find much about it here.

I do not know if AP 3003 has been up-dated since 2004.… (mais)

The official 2011 Yearbook for the BBMF. Printed in full colour, on a quality high gloss stock, this unique 54 page year book, includes; Foreword by the internationally famous actor and adventurer Ewan McGregor; Veteran’s viewpoint from the original pilot of Phantom of the Ruhr.; Full colour illustrated history of the RAF BBMF iconic aircraft.; Meet the teams that fly and keep these beautiful aircraft flying.; Behind the scenes views.; The LLA link with the RAF BBMF explained in full. A unique publication only available online from this website.… (mais)