Books by Andrew Brookes

This book approaches the prevention of fatal incidents in outdoor education and related fields through detailed study of past tragedies.

The TSR2 is one of the greatest "what-if" aircraft of the Cold War, whose cancellation still generates anger and controversy among aviation fans. It was a magnificent, cutting-edge aircraft, one of the most striking of the Cold War, but fell victim to cost overruns, overambitious requirements, and politics. Its scrapping marked the point when Britain''s aerospace industry could no longer build world-class aircraft independently. After the demise of TSR2 the RAF''s future jets would be modified US aircraft like the Phantom and pan-European collaborations like Tornado and Typhoon.In this book the eminent air power analyst and ex-Vulcan bomber pilot Andrew Brookes takes a fresh, hard-headed look at the TSR2 project, telling the story of its development, short career, and cancellation, and evaluating how it would have performed in Cold War strike roles as well as in the recent wars in the Middle East.

The RAF's first Cold War strategic bomber, the Vickers Valiant, was procured as an insurance measure in case either the Vulcan or Victor was found to have a serious flaw. The Valiant was the equivalent of the US B-47 Stratojet.

From its first public demonstration at the Farnborough Airshow of 1949, the English Electric Canberra bomber captured the attention of the aviation world. It could outmanoeuvre all the fighters of the time and it could climb way above their operating ceilings. This book deals with this aircraft.

Of the three jet bombers that formed the RAF's V-Force in the early years of the Cold War, the Victor was perhaps the most technologically advanced. First flown on 24 December 1952, the Victor entered service in B 1 configuration in November 1957. Further improvements were introduced with the B 2, which was optimized for high altitude. Most B 2s were equipped to carry the Blue Steel stand-off missile, but eight were modified in the strategic reconnaissance role because the Victor 2 was then the longest-ranging aircraft in the RAF. The Victor ceased to be a low-level bomber after the nuclear mission was taken over by the Royal Navy's Polaris submarine force in the late 1960s. Thereafter, Victor 1s and 2s continued in frontline service as airborne tankers, supporting operations such as the Falklands War and the Gulf War until the last Victor flight took place on 30 November 1993.