Stuck for avgeek reading over the festive season? TIM ROBINSON FRAeS and STEPHEN BRIDGEWATER FRAeS present personal picks of their favourite aerospace, aviation and spaceflight books of 2025.
Through the Yellow Visor: The Life and (Mis)Adventures of a US Navy Fighter Pilot
E Vincent ‘Jell-O’ Aiello
Jell-O, host of the famous Fighter Pilot Podcast, flew F/A-18 Hornets with the US Navy on missions over in Iraq and Afghanistan, was an instructor at the iconic Top Gun fighter school and logged almost 4,000 hours and more than 700 carrier landings – so his memoirs have been eagerly awaited. They do not disappoint – beginning with recollections of peering into a cockpit at the Point Magu Airshow when he was aged just 8 to brutally honest recollections about flight training and the terror of his first carrier landing. Jell-O also reflects on the importance of his family and the hard-earned life lessons gained in the cockpit.
Eagle Days
Victoria Taylor
Busting the myths that the Luftwaffe in 1940 were either elite aerial knights or incompetent amateurs, in her first book, historian Dr Victoria Taylor takes a fresh look at the Battle of Britain through German eyes. Drawing on German archives, reports and letters this book gives a new perspective and insight on this iconic air battle to ask: ‘why did the Luftwaffe fight and what kept them fighting when the RAF did not submit as expected’?
Listen to Tim Robinson interview Victoria Taylor about Eagle Days here.
Red Square : Mary de Saulles and the 1960s BEA corporate identity
Phillip Pennington
Perhaps one of the most iconic airline liveries of all time, British European Airways’ distinctive red square logo was an iconic piece of 1960s design. The scheme was the brainchild of John Lunn and, remarkably for the period in which it was designed, Mary de Saulles. This unusual book was produced with the assistance of de Saulles and tells the story about the creation and application of the brand, including around 400 illustrations, photographs and concept drawings.
Shaping the Vulcan
Stephen Liddle
First flying in 1952 – only 11 years after the Lancaster, the iconic delta-winged Avro Vulcan bomber still looks like it belongs in a science fiction future. But why and how did it get this giant delta wing – and what motivated the designers at Avro to take a leap into the aeronautical unknown with such a radical configuration? Aerodynamicist Stephen Liddle takes an expert look at the technology and engineering behind the development of the ultimate Cold War V-bomber. Recommended.
From Bleriot to Spitfire
Scott Butler
The story of how Richard Shuttleworth began collecting flyable vintage aeroplanes in the interwar years has been well told over the years, with his aircraft forming the nucleus of the Shuttleworth Collection, which is still flying the same airframes (and many more) 80 years after his death in WW2. This book, written by the Collection’s pilots puts the reader in the cockpits of these amazing and often unique flying machines. Collated by current Shuttleworth pilot Scott Butler, Bleriot to Spitfire, expands on David Ogilvy’s 1970s first edition, retaining chapters written by icons such as Neil Williams and Des Penrose and adding new chapters for aircraft that have joined the fleet over the last 40 years. Beautifully illustrated throughout, this book really gives a sense of flying with the wind through the wires.
Mitchell – Father of the Spitfire
Paul Beaver
Providing a new biography of Stoke of Trent’s most famous son, Reginald J Mitchell (sorry Robbie Williams) is aviation historian and author of ‘Winkle – Britain’s Greatest Pilot’ Paul Beaver. RJ Mitchell, is of course, known as the designer of the legendary Spitfire – although Beaver makes clear that he was a team leader and ‘conductor’ par excellence of a highly talented orchestra at Supermarine. Filled with lots of lesser-known information (one example – the outstanding success of Far East tour of one of Mitchells’s earlier designs, the Supermarine Southampton, making the making normally staid Air Ministry write a gleeful press release) this book provides an engaging profile of the chief designer of the Spitfire – who sadly succumbed to cancer too late to see his creation prove decisive in the Battle of Britain. With other designs on the draughtboard and the jet age imminent, the book leaves the reader pondering a ‘what if’ that Beaver poignantly raises on this Insight blog, what other masterpieces might have come out of Supermarine, if he had lived another 25 years?  Â
An Officer and Her Gentleman
Mandy & Craig Hickson
The follow up to Mandy Hickson’s 2020 book An Officer Not a Gentleman, which told her story as one the RAF’s first female fast jet pilots, this new book has been cowritten with her husband Craig, a Royal Navy pilot and airline captain. It is more than ‘just’ flying stories (although they do feature heavily), including anecdotes about family life and overcoming obstacles – with Craig candidly discussing his dyslexia and the determination that led him to the flight deck.
Gemini and Mercury remastered
Andy Saunders
A sumptuous treat for space enthusiasts, this book from Andy Saunders, behind the previous Apollo Remastered and The Moonwalkers exhibition, dips into NASA’s archives to bring Mercury and Gemini missions back to life. Vintage photos restored to breathtaking detail and clarity gives readers the feeling that these events only happened yesterday and bring new awe for the early astronauts risking their lives in these spacecraft. The Right Stuff – brought to life.    Â
The Race for Speed: The Untold Story of Six Racing Pilots and the Throttle Benders Union
Sarah Chambers
While the daring exploits of military pilots often attract the attentions of authors it is refreshing to see the postwar air racing and record setting ‘scene’ receiving attention in this book. Chambers skilfully threads together the stories of the extremely competitive Nat Somers, Tony Cole, Geoffrey Alington, Fred Dunkerley, Jimmy Rush and Ron Paine in the pages of a gripping tale that explains how they went on to form the Throttle Benders Union. A brilliantly written book about a largely forgotten period in British aviation history.Â
Lightning Vol IV
Ian Black
From ex-RAF fighter pilot, air-to-air photographer and author Ian Black comes the latest edition in his growing tribute to the ultimate RAF Cold War hot-rod – the Mach 2 English Electric Lightning. Illustrated with stunning photographs on every page, Lightning Vol IV also features contemporary material in the form flight reports, maps, badges – particularly of the Lightning P1B prototype XA847  – which the author is now restoring to public display. Fittingly, 100% of the profits of Vol IV will go towards this project – with P1B set to be unveiled in September 2026.  Â
Poor Little Lambs: The Baa Baa Black Sheep Story
Stephen Chapis
There have been some seminal aviation films and TV shows over the decades, many of which have been covered in detail in a variety of books – but this, to our knowledge, is the first time anybody has put pen to paper to tell the story of the 1970s NBC series Baa Baa Black Sheep. Based on the memoirs of WW2 Corsair pilot, Gregory ‘Pappy’ Boyington’s memoirs, and filming using a number of original Corsairs, the show ran for two seasons. Fifty years later, Chapis tells the story of a series that was ahead of its time in many ways, featuring interviews with producers, directors, actors and the pilots who flew the aircraft for the cameras.Â
The rise and fall of Boeing:Â and The Way Back
Scott Hamilton
Following on from his previous Air Wars, which looked at Airbus vs Boeing rivalry, aviation journalist and analyst Scott Hamilton brings commercial aerospace up to date with a look at the rollercoaster ride that has been Boeing’s fortunes over recent years. How did a brand that personified American engineering excellence become so distrusted by customers, politicians and even the general public? And more important – what are the ways back from this?   Â
Host
Russ Capasso
It is not often that we feature fiction in our book choices – but, then again, it is not often that authors write novels about aerospace journalists! In Host, Capasso tells the story of space journalist Elliot, who discovers a mysterious signal coming from an old communications satellite. Has it been hacked? Is it a government cover-up? Will Elliot, his friend Jake and mysterious hacker LiLo uncover the truth or even escape with their lives? This is a story of surveillance and espionage, international governments and shadow organisations on the verge of a global cyber war.
The Invisible Campaign: Bomber Command Gardening Operations 1940-1945
Jane Gulliford Lowe
Mention ‘RAF Bomber Command’ and most people’s thoughts will turn to night attacks on cities and urban areas – as the RAF aimed to hit the centres of production of the Nazi war machine. However, in parallel – a parallel bombing campaign was also underway – that of aerial minelaying of harbours, coastal waters, shipping lanes that sought to strangle Germany by sea. Jane Gulliford Lowe provides new insight on this forgotten war – which saw RAF crews risk their lives to deny Axis U-boats and shipping the freedom of the seas in lonely, hazardous missions.
A Spitfire’s Story: The Invisible Thread: Spitfire R6644 and the Pilots Who Flew
Dilip Sarkar MBE FRHistS FRAeS
When Spitfire IA R6644 was built by Supermarine at Woolston, and test-flown by the famous test pilot Jeffrey Quill on 30 May 1940, nobody could have imagines how many lives that one airframe would impact. Sarkar tells the story of the men who flew R6644, from P/O Richard Hillary (who was later shot down and badly burned) to aces including F/O Brendan ‘Paddy’ Finucane DFC. The story almost comes to an end of 11 May 1941, when Polish P/O Franciszek Surma was forced to bail out of R6644 near Malvern following an engine fire – but in 1987 the wreckage was recovered and Sarkar discovers the excavation in detail.
Final Orbit
Chris Hadfield
The latest in Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield’s alternate history Cold-War thrillers, Final Orbit weaves a plausible mid-1970s tale of an Apollo-Soyuz mission and a secret Chinese space launch. Fusing Hadfield’s detailed technical knowledge and real-life space experience with Cold War political intrigue, real historical characters and nail-biting action – Final Orbit is an entertaining read for space and non-space fans alike.
Shadow Flyer – The Life of Bob Ericson, CIA and NASA U-2 Pilot
Chris Pocock
Undoubtedly recognised as ‘Mr U-2’, AEROSPACE contributor Chris Pocock uses his latest book to tell the story of Bob Ericson, who was one of the select group of pilots who were recruited in 1956 by the CIA to fly the U-2 over the USSR. Ericson would eventually fly the spyplane for more than three decades, serving both the CIA and NASA, and is perhaps best known as the pilot whose flight over Cuba in 1962 produced the images that set off the Cuban Missile Crisis. Pocock also discusses Ericson’s close calls, including getting nearly shot down over the USSR and flying missions over Tibet, China and North Vietnam.
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