Audio from Chalke Valley History Festival 2019. Paul Beaver discusses with John Buckley and Paul Stoddart, the importance of that unsung hero of WWII, the rocket firing Hawker Typhoon.

Paul Beaver, CVHF Air Show commentator talks about what we can expect this weekend at the Air Show.

Even in 1940, the Spitfire had celebratory status. Communities and individuals around the British Isles and across the Dominions and Empire were thinking of new ways to collect money and entice their friends to part with their hard-earned savings to buy a Spitfire.

Captain Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown is an extraordinary man, whose career stretched from the pre-war days of the biplane to supersonic jets. Captain Brown visited Nazi Germany before the war, flying with General Ernst Udet, flew with the Fleet Air Arm early in the war, had an escort carrier sunk underneath him, then became a pioneering test pilot. He was the first person to land a two-engine Mosquito on an aircraft carrier, flew every single one of the German experimental jets at the end of the war, interrogated Göring, and was a key figure in the post-war Jet Age. No man has ever flown more aircraft types. Charming, amusing, and with a mind as sharp as ever it was, this is a rare opportunity to hear one of Britain’s true flying legends talk about his life and times.

Bob Stanford Tuck was every inch the fighter pilot as if ordered up from Central Casting; brave, good-looking, a crack shot and a superb aviator. The London boy who did not excel at school and nearly made the Merchant Navy his career, was to become the first Spitfire Ace in May 1940 in the skies above northern France.