Spooner, Nigel A History of Aviation at Brooklands in 100 Objects. From Bamboo Biplanes to Supersonic Airliners and the Pioneer Designers who created them

Many of the extraordinary developments that transformed aviation from fragile wooden and fabric biplanes to supersonic transports were carried out for much of this century on a 330-acre, low-lying former estate in Surrey, England. The estate was called Brooklands. This boggy land was transformed from 1907 into the world's first bespoke motor racing circuit, then a rapidly developing aerodrome and finally one of the country's largest aircraft factories employing tens of thousands of people. Over nine decades of peace and war, almost 19,000 aircraft of various types were built at Brooklands. In the 1980s, however, the factory was displaced by larger production facilities elsewhere with longer runways and better communication links. In 1989, the then owner British Aerospace closed the factory. This book tells the story of these amazing developments through 100 of the most important aircraft, engines, sites and other artefacts still on display at or near Brooklands Museum or at other locations around the country. It also highlights the stories of six designers whose inspirational creativity produced aircraft, engines and weapons ranging from the Camel to the Concorde, from the Fury to the Harrier, from the Wellington to the Viscount and from the Merlin to the Olympus. Thomas Sopwith, Barnes Wallis, Rex Pierson, Sydney Camm, Stanley Hooker and George Edwards were responsible for much of what was designed, built and flown not only at Brooklands but elsewhere. The book is organised into successive historical episodes, but the many links between the objects and the designers should enable readers to follow different paths if they wish. The book is not intended as a technical reference work, but to encourage the reader to seek out the objects and learn more about them.