Hawker Typhoon. The RAF’s Ground Breaking Fighter-Bomber by Tony Buttler. Key Books, 2021. ISBN 978 1 913870 90 4. Another excellent Hawker monograph by the reliable Tony Buttler, this is a well presented soft-back of 128 pages. Considering the size of the book and the large number of illustrations, many not published before, the coverage of the Napier Sabre powered Typhoon and its Rolls-Royce Vulture powered sister, the Tornado, is remarkably thorough. The latter, of course, never saw service due to problems with its engine. Development, flight testing and operational use in the UK and Europe, where the Typhoon was a crucial weapon, are all concisely described. Rightly famous for ground attack, the successes of the Typhoon in air combat are rarely mentioned; but in this book they are.
    The ’Memories’ chapter gives some Typhoon pilot recollections of flying this large, powerful, fast and heavy fighter. Sadly few pilots remain but Association members will remember the talk given by David Ince DFC in 2004 and reported in Newsletter 5. The final chapter is a technical description. The account of Typhoon rear fuselage structural failures was written before the FAST (Farnborough Aerospace Trust) papers on this subject were available so does not include the ultimate solution as reported in The Aviation Historian Issue 27. My only adverse criticism is that there is no index, presumably due to lack of space, nevertheless this book is recommended for all Hawker and Typhoon enthusiasts. The pun in the subtitle is, no doubt, unintentional!