"An encyclopaedic, four-volume work on every aircraft type proposed, designed, or manufactured in Australia, from Lawrence Hargrave's experiments in the 1880's, through to the authors self-imposed cutoff point in the mid-1980's. The four-volume work lists over 540 aircraft types as well as detailed histories of the companies involved in their construction. Coverage is multi-faceted, being technical, operational, historical, industrial, and political. Along with the text is the most comprehensive collection of photographs, technical drawings, and diagrams yet assembled into the one reference work, many of which have never before been seen outside the original source. Exhaustively researched over the past 40 years by the well-known aviation personality Keith Meggs, a man uniquely placed to write on all aspects of Australian aviation from construction through to operational flight. All volumes are superbly indexed and cross-referenced with the main text reinforced by extensive and detailed endnotes. Aircraft enthusiasts, pilots, aeronautical engineers, manufacturers, industrialists, universities, and other technical institutions, "Australian-built aircraft and the industry" is a must have for your reference library. In Volume One the fourteen chapters cover the following activities: Hargrave, Taylor, the Commonwealth Prize, Early Experimenters, Duigan, WWI Activity, AA&ECo, 1924 Lightplane Competition, LASCo, QANTAS, WAA, RAAF Randwick, Individual Builders 1918-1939, AMSCo, MSB, Matthews Aviation, General Aircraft Co, Cockatoo Dockyard, Tugan Aircraft, Harkness & Hillier, De Havilland (Aust) - part 1, Industry proposals, and other snippets."--Provided by publisher.

"An encyclopaedic, four-volume work on every aircraft type proposed, designed, or manufactured in Australia, from Lawrence Hargrave's experiments in the 1880's, through to the authors self-imposed cutoff point in the mid-1980's. The four-volume work lists over 540 aircraft types as well as detailed histories of the companies involved in their construction. Coverage is multi-faceted, being technical, operational, historical, industrial, and political. Along with the text is the most comprehensive collection of photographs, technical drawings, and diagrams yet assembled into the one reference work, many of which have never before been seen outside the original source. Exhaustively researched over the past 40 years by the well-known aviation personality Keith Meggs, a man uniquely placed to write on all aspects of Australian aviation from construction through to operational flight. All volumes are superbly indexed and cross-referenced with the main text reinforced by extensive and detailed endnotes. Aircraft enthusiasts, pilots, aeronautical engineers, manufacturers, industrialists, universities, and other technical institutions, "Australian-built aircraft and the industry" is a must have for your reference library. In Volume One the fourteen chapters cover the following activities: Hargrave, Taylor, the Commonwealth Prize, Early Experimenters, Duigan, WWI Activity, AA&ECo, 1924 Lightplane Competition, LASCo, QANTAS, WAA, RAAF Randwick, Individual Builders 1918-1939, AMSCo, MSB, Matthews Aviation, General Aircraft Co, Cockatoo Dockyard, Tugan Aircraft, Harkness & Hillier, De Havilland (Aust) - part 1, Industry proposals, and other snippets."--Provided by publisher.

Not being good at listening to detractors, the author made aviation history by becoming the first person to fly solo around the world twice - in his single engined home-made kit plane. This is the remarkable story of his achievements.

History of the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation and the aircraft it designed and built.

Aircraft of The Royal Australian Air Force tells the story of the RAAF’s first one hundred years by describing the acquisition, operation, and service record of the multitude of aircraft types flown by the RAAF. The 176 aircraft types include the flimsy wood and canvas aircraft typical of World War I, through the technological advances during and after World War II, to modern fifth-generation, complex aircraft like the F-35 Lightning II. Even before its formation Sir Richard Williams, the Father of the RAAF, had decided to employ an alpha-numeric numbering system to identify and account for each aircraft in service. This system started with A1, A2, A3 etc as each type of aircraft came into service. Each individual aircraft within each series was identified as A1-1, A1-2 and so on and the aircraft serial became known colloquially as the ‘A-number’. With some exceptions over the century since the A-number system started, aircraft entered RAAF service in broadly the sequence of the A-numbers, and so this book is intended to assist in charting the 100-year history of the RAAF by listing aircraft operated in A-number sequence, rather than by listing them by role (such as Fighter, Bomber, Maritime, Trainer, Transport etc) or alphabetically by name or by manufacturer. The inclusion of a comprehensive Index and the Quick Reference Guide to aircraft by role is intended to facilitate the location of the entry for any specific type of aircraft for those who may not already know its A-number. Aircraft of The Royal Australian Air Force is a must have for all those who have served in the RAAF, those with a passion for military aviation and aircraft in general, and the broader members of the public wishing to gain an appreciation of the Royal Australian Air Force in its centenary year.

British Imperial Air Power examines the air defense of Australia and New Zealand during the interwar period. It also demonstrates the difficulty of applying new military aviation technology to the defense of the global Empire and provides insight into the nature of the political relationship between the Pacific Dominions and Britain. Following World War I, both Dominions sought greater independence in defense and foreign policy. Public aversion to military matters and the economic dislocation resulting from the war and later the Depression left little money that could be provided for their respective air forces. As a result, the Empire’s air services spent the entire interwar period attempting to create a strategy in the face of these handicaps. In order to survive, the British Empire’s military air forces offered themselves as a practical and economical third option in the defense of Britain’s global Empire, intending to replace the Royal Navy and British Army as the traditional pillars of imperial defense.

The flying career of John Robertson Duigan spanned just a decade from 1908 to 1918. 100 years ago he built and successfully flew the first aeroplane made in Australia using only photographs, journal articles and an unreliable textbook as his guides. He was the first Australian to fly a powered Australian-made aeroplane in Australia. The full story of John Duigan and his flying career has now been published for the first time. An article about the flying career of John Duigan is featured here in The Age