The Short Mayo Composite Aircraft - Weird and Wacky! The story of the Short Mayo Composite aircraft begins in the 1930s. By this time, it was well understood that aircraft could maintain flight carrying greater loads than they could take off with. An aircraft’s take-off weight was the limiting factor in how much fuel and cargo it could carry. For Major R.H. Mayo, the Technical General Manager of Imperial Airways, this presented a challenge — and an opportunity. What if an ove

The Boulton-Paul Defiant Turret Fighter: In the 1930s, a new type of tactical thinking emerged within Britain. It was believed that if Germany were to bomb Britain, it would do so via unescorted, long-range bombers operating from airbases within Germany. The fighters of the early 1930s lagged behind the fast and modern bomber designs of the era and thus would not have the ability to escort bombers from Germany to Britain and back. The counter to this perceived threat was a fi

The story of the Bristol Brigand begins in 1942 when the Royal Air Force (RAF) issued Specification H.7/42, seeking a fast, long range torpedo aircraft to replace the Bristol Beaufighter.  In response, Bristol’s design team, led by Leslie J. Frise, submitted their Type 164 for consideration.  The Type 164 Brigand was derived from the Bristol Buckingham bomber, using the same wings, tail and undercarriage designs as the Buckingham. Furthermore, it would also use the Bristol Ce

The de Havilland DH.88 Comet Story: The 1930s were years of significant development in the aircraft industry. The boundaries of speed, aerodynamics and design were all being pushed to its absolute limits. Biplanes had reached its absolute peak and with it came the slow transition to monoplanes. In 1934 De Havilland would take air racing to a new height when one of its aircraft would win the Great Air Race of 1934 from England to Melbourne, Australia. This plane was the DH.88