Featuring some of the most significant military and civil aircraft from around the world, this book discusses why they are considered "classics". They include the German Stuka dive-bomber of World War II, which added a new and terrifying dimension to war as the spear-point of the crushing Blitzkrieg of 1940; the Boeing B-29, which dropped the atomic bomb and brought an end to the war in 1945; the elegant HP42 Imperial Airways airliners of the 1930s, which opened the air routes to the Empire; and Concorde, which represents the cutting edge of 1970s technology.