From some of the first ever airfields in Great Britain, through the municipal airports of Stoke, Walsall and Wolverhampton, to a total of eighteen RAF airfields in the Second World War, Staffordshire has always embraced aviation. Both Stoke and Wolverhampton were taken over for the use of Elementary Flying Training Schools, huge new airfields were built to house bomber Operational Training Units at Hixon and Lichfield, and to provide extra room for the Elementary Flying Training Schools, grass satellite airfields were built at Penkridge, Abbots Bromley and Battlestead Hill. Finally, Relief Landing Grounds for the storage of aircraft were created in the grounds of stately homes at Teddesley Park and Hoar Cross. Since the war the number has dwindled steadily, as agriculture reclaimed several and housing many others. Nowadays, only the ghosts of forgotten wings tell of the long lost heroes who flew at many of these airfields. In almost 200 photographs, this book places the aircraft, runways and buildings in the modern landscape, showing how they have been transformed.

Alec Brew is curator of the Tettenhall Transport Heritage Centre in Wolverhampton. He also writes for the Wolverhampton Chronicle.