Australia began developing military aviation less than 10 years after the Wright Brothers made their first successful powered flight and just 3 years after the first Heavier-than-air military forces were created in the USA and France. With such a long history of military aviation, the three arms of the Australian military have operated a large number of aircraft types, firstly by the Army (1914), then by the Royal Australian Navy (1915) and then by the RAAF, an entity that was established in 1921 expressly for the purpose of operating in the ‘third dimension’.

This book has been written as a guide to the large and varied collection of aircraft types that have been operated by, and for, all three services. Some of these aircraft, such as the Supermarine Spitfire, will be very well known to most of the public, but throughout the more than 106 years of Australian military aviation there have been a large number of types that will not be familiar. With descriptions for over 300 aircraft types, illustrated by over 350 photos, the reader will gain an appreciation of the aircraft that have served Australia from the first flight of the Bristol Boxkite in March 1914 through to the latest projects being undertaken by the Australian Defence Forces.