Combat in the Stratosphere: Extreme Altitude Aircraft in Action During WW2 [Hardcover]

Taylor provides short vignettes of actual flights and combat interactions revealing performance and flight procedures used to shoot and avoid being shot down. He draws on a wide range of sources including com-bat reports, British files and documents, and first-hand ac-counts of engineers and the pilots who flew these aircraft. - The Journal of the Air Force Historical FoundationIn the summer of 1940, a new German aircraft began appearing in the skies over the British Isles. Unlike the rest of the Luftwaffes fleet in the Battle of Britain, these aircraft were flying at a height of 40,000 feet and higher  way beyond the reach of the RAFs defending fighters.These virtually untouchable intruders were examples of the Junkers Ju 86P. The worlds first operational combat aeroplane equipped with a pressurized cabin, they were able to reach a maximum altitude of 42,000 feet. The Ju 86Ps introduction ushered in a new era of aerial warfare, where combat would take place at previously unimaginable heights.The Ju 86P was just one of many high-altitude aircraft projects developed by both the Axis and Allied powers during the Second World War. Others included the Vickers Wellington Mk.VI, Vickers Windsor, Boeing B-29 Superfortress, Junkers Ju 388, Heinkel He 274 and Henschel Hs 130. With pressurized cabins, such aircraft offered obvious tactical advantages: bombers and reconnaissance aircraft could operate safely above the maximum ceiling of the opposing sides fighters, prompting intense development  especially by the British and Germans  of pressurized interceptors to meet the threat they posed.Combat in the Stratosphere is the first book devoted exclusively to exploring the fascinating story of the development and operational history of aircraft designed specifically for high-altitude operations during the Second World War.But this is not a book solely about the machines themselves. It also focuses on the men who flew these revolutionary aircraft, both in the testing phlÃ4