Aeroplane Magazine Secret Flights Special Issue

The Cold War: its secrets continue to be uncovered. From the years of East-West conflict have emerged some of military aviation’s most compelling stories, often detailing operations and missions long kept on the classified list. And now, with Russia again flexing its muscles, those decades of tension have a renewed resonance.

In this new publication, we’re delighted to bring you a fascinating array of Cold War features, taking in the aircraft, the missions, the people, the places and much more. Painstaking research and exclusive interviews put you on the flight deck of the first Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-104 to visit Britain — and with the Soviet KGB chief aboard to boot — or in the cockpit of a US Air Force Lockheed SR-71.

Discover how the RAF got in on the CIA’s act in the early days of the Lockheed U-2 programme, and how East Germany’s state security agency, the Stasi, employed aircraft as intelligence-gathering platforms. Read brand new accounts of the USAF’s use of the Boeing F-13, the reconnaissance version of the B-29, in one of the most inhospitable operational theatres in the world, or the RAF’s examination of the Grumman F-14 Tomcat and McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle as potential alternatives to the Tornado air defence variant.

We should never give anything other than due regard to the Cold War, and its role in shaping today’s world. And as still greater detail comes off the secret list, so the period will only come further to life.