Dan Sharp Livres

There are many myths surrounding the development of the Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter. Its unparalleled performance is beyond doubt; easily able to outpace its opponents and possessing the firepower to shred them in seconds. Yet immediately after the Second World War, rumors abounded that official indifference, technical shortcomings and interference from the Führer himself had crippled the Me 262’s progress and delayed its appearance on the front line until it was far too late.Begun as a series of design concepts during 1938, the fighter would not enter mass production until the spring of 1944. Even then it failed to make any notable impact until the closing weeks of the war, when Me 262s began destroying USAAF bombers at an alarming rate. Exactly what happened to cause this apparently late start and who was responsible has until now been largely a matter of conjecture.Grounded in research involving thousands of wartime documents spread across archival collections in three countries, Messerschmitt Me 262 Development & Politics finally sweeps aside the myths and provides a clear understanding of the real history. Sharp examines the aircraft’s technical development in unparalleled detail as well as analyzing the ongoing discussions surrounding the Me 262 at the highest levels within the Messerschmitt company, the German Air Ministry and Adolf Hitler’s inner circle.

The West was stunned when the Soviet Union dropped its first atomic bomb in August 1949 and a year later the Korean War showcased Russia’s incredible technological progress in the form of the MiG-15 - a fighter capable of besting anything the RAF had to offer at that time. In the wake of the Second World War, funding for the RAF’s Fighter Command had fallen away dramatically but now there was an urgent need for new jet fighters to meet the threat of Russian bombers head-on. Britain’s top aircraft manufacturers, including Hawker, English Electric, Fairey, Vickers Supermarine, De Havilland, Armstrong Whitworth and Saunders-Roe, set to work on designing powerful supersonic aircraft with all-new guided missile systems capable of meeting a Soviet assault and shooting down high-flying enemy aircraft before they could unleash a devastating nuclear firestorm on British soil.The result was some of the largest, heaviest and most powerful fighter designs the world had ever seen - and a heated debate about whether the behemoths should be built at all as guided weapons became ever more advanced. This is the story of Britain’s secret cold war fighter jet designs, fully illustrated with a host of drawings, illustrations and photographs.

Hundreds of thousands of classified documents were captured from Germany’s aircraft manufacturers and aviation ministry at the end of the Second World War, including details of ‘secret project’ aircraft designs created by firms such as Arado, Gotha, Blohm & Voss, Messerschmitt and Focke-Wulf.Ongoing new research in archives around the world has revealed dozens of previously unknown wartime plans and proposals for aircraft that were radical, revolutionary or just plain weird. In the sixth volume of his Luftwaffe series, historian Dan Sharp reveals a wealth of new discoveries - including never-before-seen drawings and designs for fighters, bombers, transports, rammers, ground-attack aircraft, flying boats and flying bombs. Secret Projects of the Third Reich profiles Focke-Wulf’s reluctant attempts to marry a Ta 152 airframe to a British Napier Sabre engine, Messerschmitt’s experimental Me 109 S with ‘blown’ flaps, four versions of Arado’s E 380 floatplane, Blohm & Voss’s asymmetrical P 171 stuka, Lippisch’s piston-engined Me 163, Germany’s three-step supersonic research programme, Focke-Wulf’s giant flying wings, the anti-submarine DFS Lotos glider, and many more ‘unknown’ designs.Hundreds of original and previously unseen documents have been used to compile this unrivalled look at some of Germany’s least-known Second World War project designs, featuring a host of new and period drawings, illustrations and photographs.

As British and American forces closed in from the west, the Russians pushed in hard from the east, and the RAF and USAAF bombed Germany every night and day, the beleaguered Luftwaffe went all-out in a last effort to defend the Fatherland during the last months of the Second World War.Spitfires Over Berlin tells the story of the desperate battles that took place over the Western Front from January 1 to May 8, 1945.True stories of aerial combat, courage and daring from all sides of the conflict illustrate the dramatic tale of the war’s closing chapter - from the battle between the Spitfire XIV pilots of 350 Squadron and Fw 190s over the western fringes of Berlin to the murder of a downed P-51 Mustang pilot by civilians and carefully planned ramming attacks on American bombers.Also featured are the ‘dogfight’ between a Piper L-4H Grasshopper and a Fieseler Storch, what led a disgraced Luftwaffe pilot to fly the lethal BP 20 Natter rocket-powered interceptor, the French aces who flew for the Soviets, the fate of the US pilots who shot down a flight of Mistel combinations and much more.

Design and development of an extreme high-altitude fighter for the Luftwaffe during WW2.

When it appeared in the skies over Europe in 1941, the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 A was the best fighter in the world. It was more than a match for the best Spitfires the RAF could field and began shooting them down in ever-increasing numbers. Only the introduction of the Spitfire IX with its two-stage supercharged Merlin overturned its supremacy.Alongside the Messerschmitt Bf 109, the Fw 190 is the iconic fighter of the Luftwaffe during the Second World War. It was hugely adaptable and fought on nearly all fronts, proving to be a formidable opponent.The Fw 190 F and G fighter-bombers effectively replaced the Ju 87 Stuka in the ground-attack role in the west and provided the Luftwaffe with much-needed additional capability.The Fw 190 was used for the Mistel flying bomb combination and as a test aircraft for the Ruhrstahl X-4 wire-guided air-to-air missile, and in its Fw 190 A-8 and A-9 forms fought on the front line right until the bitter end.This book tells the story of the legendary fighter with previously unseen drawings and photos which shed new light on the aircraft’s origins.

The narrative explores the ambitious development of HOTOL, an aerospaceplane conceived as a reusable alternative to expendable rockets, initiated by Alan Bond and Bob Parkinson in the early 1980s. Supported by British Aerospace and Rolls-Royce, the project gained national attention but ultimately faced funding withdrawal in 1986, leading to its decline. The book provides an in-depth account of HOTOL's journey, featuring extensive illustrations and diagrams from the creators' archives, highlighting the project's innovative vision and its historical significance in space transportation.

The narrative delves into the intricate development programs of Germany's bombers during World War II, exploring the technological advancements and strategic decisions that shaped their aircraft. It highlights key figures involved in the design and production processes, as well as the impact of these innovations on warfare. The book provides insights into the challenges faced by engineers and the military, offering a detailed examination of how these programs influenced the course of the war and the evolution of aerial combat.

Updated to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, D-Day Overlord tells the full story of the invasion, with detailed accounts of each of the five landing zones on June 6, 1944, the airborne assault and the Normandy campaign that followed.It was the most ambitious military operation in history - the invasion of Nazi-occupied France by sea. A fleet larger than any ever seen before was assembled and launched under conditions of utmost secrecy to catch the defenders of Adolf Hitler's formidable Atlantic Wall by surprise.At H-Hour on D-Day, British, American and Canadian soldiers landed on beaches whose codenames have since become a byword for heroism - Sword, Juno, Gold, Omaha and Utah. Men waded ashore into a hail of machine gun fire and fought their way through a tangle of concrete bunkers and armored emplacements.More ferocious combat followed as fanatical Waffen-SS divisions armed with terrifying new weapons such as the King Tiger tank battled to the death to contain the Allied advance.D-Day Overlord: The Great Invasion and the Battle for Normandy tells the story of the most important battle of the Second World War and remembers the men whose extraordinary courage and sacrifice brought about the liberation of Europe and put an end to Hitler's tyranny.