Follow  the saga of the Soviet shuttle effort, from the pioneering days of Tsiolkovsky and Zhukovsky to the rocket-powered fighters of World War II, the Soviet Lifting Bodies and the various prototypes which preceded Buran and MAKS-- the Russian shuttle of the future. Take a glimpse at the top-secret ramjet-boosted Sanger space bomber. Follow the training of the élite Soviet/Russian  shuttle test pilots. See their pictures. Read their biography. Examine complete flight logs of manned and unmanned shuttle testbeds.
With recently declassified exclusive pictures, cutaways, three-view drawings, sketches and information, the Secret Story of the Soviet Space Shuttle is a great reference for aerospace historians and enthusiasts alike.

This is the untold saga of the first British supersonic aircraft. Three tailless experimental DH.108 aircraft were built. First flight was in May 1946. On 6 September 1948, the third DH.108 became the first British supersonic aircraft, flown by the legendary John Derry. Tragically all three aircraft were lost in fatal accidents, but the program's 550 sorties made a considerable contribution to swept wing research and supersonic flight.

With official historical documents retrieved almost by a miracle, the complete story can be told for the first time. Several former DH.108 pilots provided invaluable archival material for this book. 
The next generation of fighter aircraft is already on the drawing boards. Some of these may be of tailless configuration. Development would utilize the stockpile of information that began to accumulate half a century ago with the DH.108. 

The Hawker Siddeley Harrier is the only VTOL aircraft in the world to have passed through all stages of prototype and pre-series development to series production, and then gone on to serve successfully in the armed forces of several nations. It was the culmination of a flight test and development programme which began with a forerunner aircraft, known simply as the P.1127.
This book covers the design evolution of the P.1127 and its development to Kestrel standard, from which the Harrier was finally derived. You will witness the action from the front seat. You will watch the Beginnings of the Formidable Harrier in UNPRECEDENTED DETAIL!
This is the story is as told by the former Hawker experimental test pilot who shared intensively in the project's test and development work for its first ten years, and he bases this account on invaluable and unpublished material from his own archives. Now at last it can be told, FOR THE FIRST TIME, the story of all 6 P.1127s and 9 Kestrels which paved the way for the Harrier! The problems, the challenges, the dangers, and finally the success!!

Before the Space Shuttle, there was the X-15, and before the X-15 there was the X-2. This winged missile, barely wide enough to house a man but harnessing enough power to drive a navy cruiser, went higher and faster than any other airplane before. It extended mankind's reach toward space and was in a way a prototype of the winged space vehicles to follow. It was indeed the first of the spaceships and a tragic but heroic milestone in the conquest of space.
This is its untold story, with many declassified top secret documents, from the first unpowered flight to the last fatal sortie -- the first one beyond Mach 3!!!.
The book includes never-before-seen pictures; biographies of all the X-2's pilots and candidate pilots; seventeen flight test reports; incredibly detailed progress reports logging the day-by-day activities of the project at its apogee, a complete flight chronology with every powered and unpowered flight and many captive and cancelled flights.

The Northrop MX-324, the first US aircraft built from the outset for rocket propulsion, was a flying wing of the type John Northrop pioneered. It made its first powered flight more than half a century ago,  with Harry Crosby at the controls.
This most secret project was only revealed in 1947, well after termination. But although the secrecy was lifted, published accounts differed in their coverage of this project because most official documents were lost. There was confusion as to the real designation of the aircraft, the number of powered and unpowered flights, the name and number of pilots, and other aspects.
Now for the first time, the complete story of MX-324, (and stablemates MX-334, and XP-79B) can be told. Flight by flight, test by test, date by date. Read the test pilot reports. See the drama unfold. Discover the rocket wing, which paved the way for the rocket-powered X-plane dynasty: the X-1, X-15 and the Space Shuttle.
In July 1944, America’s first rocket aircraft ushered in the space age at Muroc, California. Now at last, with official historical documents retrieved almost by a miracle, the complete story can be told for the first time. 

For many years, experts in the West thought that this aircraft never existed and that it had only flown in glides in war-time Germany as DFS 346. The truth is that several prototypes were built in the USSR. Designated Samolyot 346, they were flown in an ambitious but difficult rocket research program until the early 1950s. For the FIRST TIME, the story of this program can be told. Revealed are the rocket flights made by Wolfgang Ziese, a German pilot in the USSR, the rocket-powered B-5, and a little-known French version which eventually spawned the outstanding record-breaking Griffon, a ramjet-powered X-plane.

Second Edition
 

An obscure but exciting chapter of the Gemini space program by a space flight historian and artist.

There was a time in the early 1960s when it seemed that Gemini, Apollo, and space station escape modules as well as the jettisoned stages of the Saturn launcher would be equipped with inflatable wings for recovery. The idea was outstandingly simple. Safely tucked inside the spacecraft during the searing atmospheric reentry, an inflatable wing would deploy in the last portion of the flight and would be used to land the vehicle in a pre-selected area, just like a glider. Gone would be the need for the vast recovery operation in the ocean, and the uncertainty of landing in an undesirable location.
Unfortunately, the development of this concept into operational hardware dragged on, and the inflatable wing faded from the annals of space exploration. Nonetheless the concept was truly remarkable and this book, by a dedicated space flight historian, traces its history with unprecedented detail and is a tribute to the test pilots and engineers involved. It is a must for every space exploration buff.
 

In the evening of 27 September 1946, the second DH.108 tailless research aircraft took off from the de Havilland aircraft factory airfield at Hatfield, near London to make a practice speed record run over the Thames Estuary. It did not return. Its wreckage was found the next day in the mud of Egypt Bay near Gravesend, but it was a full ten days later before the body of the pilot, 36-year old Geoffrey Raoul de Havilland, son of company founder Sir Geoffrey de Havilland, was recovered. What had happened?

Second Edition
 

Available   $10    16 pages

This is the thrilling life story of the late Jack Woodman, once Canada’s top-running astronaut candidate, who made the first flights of the NF-104A  rocket Starfighter spaceflight trainer. Before that, he flew operational missions in World War II, made a history-making 4,600-mile flight to rescue a radio operator in Mould Bay in the Arctic Ocean (landing on dangerously thin ice), and trained at the Empire Test Pilots' School in England.
 

This is the story of the late legendary Chief Test Pilot, Ben Gunn, in his own words. Hold on to Your seat.
He started flying in Sir Alan Cobham's famous Air Circus.
He fought in the air in WW II and shot down the last Vl flying bomb over England, in daylight, on 1 September 1944.
He flew Tempest fighters in daring low-level attacks inside Nazi Germany.
He ejected inverted from a vicious black exotic X-plane dubbed the Widow Maker, and extensively flew its stablemate the Yellow Peril, which felt like "sitting on a knife's edge."
He led a successful campaign to save Shoreham Airport, which was teetering on the edge of collapse, and made it into the best of the small airports in England.
He was awarded the Medal of the British Empire.

Second Edition

They shaped the future of aviation on wings of steel and thunder...
In the years 1946 to 1958, the three Bell X-1s and the advanced X-1A, X-1B, X-1D and X-1E accumulated a total of at least 239 flights.  Twenty-eight pilots from Bell Aircraft Corporation, the US Air Force and NACA took turns in the cockpit as the bullet-shaped aircraft explored unprecedented speeds and altitudes in one of the most successful aeronautical research programs of all times. Now for the first time, the biography of each X-1 pilot can be read, with details of major aircraft programs that he participated in, and much more. You know the X-1. Now meet the X-1 pilots...

Meet Eric Genders, legendary British fighter ace and test pilot. Revealed in painstaking detail: the adventures, the heroism, the incredible feats, the blazing skies of Greece and the Western Desert, the evacuation, the battle of Crete, the air action, the heroic 21-hour swim to shore after bailing out, the reconnaissance, interdiction and strafing attacks over Libya, then the Empire Tests Pilots' School, the flights to the edge as Commanding Officer of the RAE's Aero Flight and the final untimely death in the crash of the tailless DH.108. Witness the history of one of Britain’s great aces as it unfolds.
Based to a great extent on personal recollections and letters home!!!
 

Supersonic. Double-sonic. Triple-sonic. Flying Wing. Swing Wings....
The five aircraft in this booklet, the USAF’s first research-dedicated experimental aircraft or X-planes, were configuration explorers which charted new domains of flight and broke new ground in aeronautical science. There were accidents, injuries and deaths, but every aircraft flying today has benefited from these X-planes.
A summary of each program is included, along with picture and biography of main project pilots: Jack Woolams, Robert Stanley, Glen Edwards, Chalmers Goodlin, Chuck Yeager, Arthur Murray, Frank Everest, Iven Kincheloe, Milburn Apt, William Bridgeman, Joseph Walker, Chuck Tucker, Scott Crossfield, Jean Ziegler, Raymond Popson.

If the history of most postwar research airplanes is poorly known, that of initial prototypes of famous operational aircraft is all the more obscure. This is particularly true of MD 550, the Mirage I. This little delta prototype, conceived as a result of the Korean War, bred the Mirage dynasty which has done more than any other postwar military aircraft to place France among the world's foremost aircraft manufacturing nations. This booklet presents the untold story, the competition, the dazzling designs, along with exclusive pictures and drawings.

Sometime, early in the 21st century, a new shape will be flying over Europe: Eurofighter. Produced by Great Britain, Germany, Italy, and Spain, Eurofighters will replace Jaguars, Tornado F.3s, upgraded F-4F Phantoms, F-104S Starfighters and eventually perhaps the Harriers in the air forces of these countries. Eurofighters may also replace the F-5s and various aircraft in Norway and Greece and a number of other countries.
The way for such an outstanding achievement was paved by a little-heralded and now seldom-remembered aircraft: the Experimental Aircraft Programme (EAP) demonstrator, from which Eurofighter is derived.
Initiated as a private venture by BAe (now BAE Systems) with the British Government only belatedly putting in substantial amounts of money, EAP and its Eurofighter offspring survived extremely cost-conscious politicians, indifferent (sometimes hostile) decision-makers and a tug-of-war with Dassault, a company fully-backed by the French government. 
It is now ten years since the little EAP demonstrator last flew and this book is an attempt to preserve its history. It traces its career, from its origin (Air Staff Target 396) to the beginning then the conclusion of the flying programme and the resulting Eurofighter. It contains exclusive pictures of plane and test pilots, a complete flight log of the 259 flights of the EAP demonstrator, a stunning cutaway by Mike Badrocke and new information on the ACT Jaguar, F-104G CCV and other projects which paved the way for EAP and Eurofighter.
Like all HPM Publications, this book is a collector's item and a must-buy.

There was a time in the late 1950s when it seemed that Britain stood at the threshold of space. Its tool to join the space faring super powers, would have been a sleek white delta interceptor prototype which used rocket and jet propulsion and was named SR.53. Built by Saunders-Roe, this little aircraft or its more powerful derivatives would have spearheaded the construction of suborbital and orbital air-launched spaceplanes. Its principal derivative, the SR.177, had looked set to capture the huge interceptor market so successfully taken by Lockheed's Starfighter. Political shortsightedness, bad economy and a tragic fatal accident felled this success story in the bud. 
The SR.53 remains one of the brightest achievements of British aircraft industry. For years, its history was in limbo, with contradictions surrounding the number of flights, the boundaries reached, the ambitious plans drawn. 
Now at last the full story of this saga can be told, with never-published-before pictures, complete flight log and company documents detailing the project from conception to end, as well as recollections by project personnel.
Peter 'Sheepy' Lamb, DSC*, AFC, MRAeS, the third and last test pilot of the SR.53, wrote the foreword for this book, which was reviewed and corrected by Richard B. Stratton, chief project engineer.
For every space buff and every x-plane enthusiast, this book is a must-buy!

Second Edition

Sixty years ago, on 15 May 1941, Jerry Sayer made the first flight of the Gloster-Whittle E.28/39 Pioneer, the first British jet aircraft. It was the third jet to fly after the German He.178 and the Italian N.1 (CC.2), but was the first successful, with both Pioneer prototypes logging a total of more than 240 flights. More importantly, it prompted General Hap Arnold to push for the development of jet fighters in the US and paved the way for dynasties of jet aircraft on both sides of the Atlantic.
Until now, only the briefest information was known about the Pioneer. There were no flight logs and very few pictures. Now, after lengthy archival research, the full story can be told FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME, with complete flight logs, never-published-before pictures (including crash of the second prototype), and company documents detailing the day-to-day running of the programme. This is aviation history. Alive.

The Trident, of mixed rocket and jet propulsion, was one of the most famous French prototype aircraft of the 1950s. It was a glaring example of the impressive rebirth of French aviation industry after the ravages of World War II. It demonstrated outstanding performance and achieved some aviation records which still stand to this day. 
The Trident came close to consolidating in France the new concept of mixed propulsion (the eight prototypes built logged more than 600 flights including 220 on rocket power). Unfortunately, it was axed in its prime. Had it survived, it could have well become the stepping stone to hypersonic and orbital spaceplanes, the way the X-1, X-2 and X-15 paved the way for the US space shuttle.
This book traces the history of the Trident project, from inception to flight development. Readers of English should find it particularly revealing, as the Trident and other fascinating French X-Planes have had scant coverage in the English aviation library. The pictures are out of this world and include a stunning spread of a Trident-II in rocket flight. Like all HPM books, this book is a must-buy!

This book marks the 50th anniversary of the first flight of the DH.110, the prototype of what would later become the Sea Vixen.
If the operational record of the Sea Vixen is known, the story of the extensive development of the DH.110 has never been told before. This book chronicles the development from the first flight, on 29 September 1951, through the tragic crash at Farnborough on 6 September 1952 and finally the first production Sea Vixens.
For the first time, here is the complete and detailed story of the DH.110 flight development program. It is based on a formidable mass of exclusive documents compiled by John Wilson, former DH test pilot and a very good friend of the author.

Former DH.110 pilots have called the book "a splendid chronological record"
and "much enjoyable to read."

Hurry up and order your copy while supplies last.

This is the full colour history of Rafale A, the unique proof-of-concept aircraft that has ushered in French military aircraft of the future with its the 867 flights. More than 60 Rafales have been ordered and the aircraft will equip French squadrons for decades to come. The Rafale A has been an outstanding success and this is its complete history, FOR THE FIRST TIME, with more than 100 COLOR, BREATH-TAKING PHOTOS .

Hurry up and order your copy while supplies last.