55 Years of VSTOL at sea.

This booklet gives a 'potted' history of the 55 years between the first landing of a P.1127 onto HMS Ark Royal in 1963, and the first landing of a Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II onto the flight deck of HMS Queen Elizabeth.

The booklet covers the use of fixed-wing VSTOL at sea by the United Kingdom & the USA. Yes, Spain, Italy, & India have also used Harrier aboard ship, but there was a size restraint for the booklet. So we stuck with the main two operators.

The booklet includes contributions from Lt Cdr Chris Roy RN (who was the last ever trained Sea Harrier pilot, and is currently on exchange to the United States Marine Corps), Cdr Nathan Gray RN (former Sea/Harrier pilot and RN test pilot who was the first to land, and take-off from HMS Queen Elizabeth) and former RAF Sea Harrier pilot, who was also the first official display pilot, Ian Mortimer.

The booklet is embellished with some great photographs which came from various people/companies including;

Lt Cdr Chris Roy,

Cdr Nathan Gray,

Chris Farara, custodian of the Hawker Archives at Brooklands Museum,

Lockheed Martin,

DVIDS,

James Dresner,

Lewis Gaylard.

The excellent, striking cover design was produced by the brilliant, Richie Willis of Plane Richie.