Tartan Airforce

Book excerpt: Britain's first flying machine was trailed in Perthshire in 1907 and ever since - whether at war or in peacetime - Scotland has been in the frontline of British military aviation. In Tartan Air Force Deborah Lake investigates Scotland's contribution to military flying over the last hundred years. With a wealth of previously unpublished or little-known accounts from air and ground crew, fliers and non-fliers, this is a comprehensive and entertaining tribute which emphasises the human aspect of Scotland's part in the history. From the Second World War, when many famous missions, including those against the great German battleship Tirpitz, were undertaken from Scottish airfields, to the importance of its RAF air bases and radar stations in asserting the Soviet threat during the Cold War and beyond, Scotland has played its part in protecting the skies.