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