Aviation Classics Magazine Cold War Special Issue

Sex, spies and nuclear missiles.

Fifty years ago the world teetered on the brink of nuclear holocaust. The pivotal year of the Cold War, 1963 saw Britain rocked by revelations about war minister John Profumo sharing a glamorous young mistress with a Soviet spy. The nation's first nuclear submarine was launched and the Polaris missile system was bought from the Americans, sparking a deadly new phase in the conflict and mass protests.

The RAF was on standby to launch its V-bombers at just four minutes' notice and English Electric Lightning jet fighters were Britain's first line of air defence. The year saw Beatlemania taking hold, the Vietnam War escalating wildly, the Great Train Robbers playing monopoly with real money, Beeching dropping his axe on the railways, a top British intelligence officer revealed as a Soviet agent, Sean Connery in From Russia With Love, Steve McQueen in The Great Escape and the assassination of US President John F Kennedy.