Over a crowd reminiscent of R.A.F. Display days - A.A.F. Blenheims taking-off at Hendon.
It is May 1939, and three 601 Sqn Blenheims are taking off from RAF Hendon at an Empire Air Day. Four months later they would be doing the same exercise for real.

One is so used to seeing Mustangs in USAAF markings that one tends to forget that the type was designed from the onset for RAF service - it was only later that it was adopted by the USAAF. MICHAEL O'LEARY'S plate shows a Mustang resplendent in RAF colours.

Spitfire Is of 19 Sqn at RAF Duxford in May 1939. This unit was the first to equip with the Spitfire and, when war was declared in September 1939, nine Spitfire squadrons were operational in RAF Fighter Command.

The photograph was taken at Brooklands in July 1939. The basketweave geodetic construction had already been used in the Wellesley and it allowed the Wellington, seen here, to absorb a great deal of punishment.

An impressive line-up of 48 Sqn’s Ansons at Manston in October 1936. At the outbreak of war 12 squadrons were equipped with Ansons, though the type was being replaced by Hudsons.