Infamous aircraft

Many aircraft, some famous and some rare, gained a reputation for being difficult to fly and sometimes downright dangerous.

This book looks at some of the worst culprits over a period spanning World War One to the age of supersonic flight.

The following aircraft are included.BE.2 - The RFC went to war in it in 1914.

The BE was easy to fly and very stable - but it was difficult to manoeuvre and very easy to shoot down. Tarrant Tabor - The Tabor was grotesque, a massive misfit of an experimental bomber that predictably came to grief on its first flight. Avro Manchester - The twin-engined Manchester would fly all the way to Berlin and back - only to burst into flames over its own base.

Messerschmitt Me 210 - The Me 210 was developed as a successor to Goering's Destroyer, the Bf110.

It was a disaster with a phenomenal accident rate. Martin B-26 Marauder - They called the B-26 the Widow-maker, fast and powerful, with some savage characteristics. Reichenberg IV - a manned version of the V-1 flying bomb, was a desperation weapon, its pilots intended to fly suicide missions against Allied shipping. Tu-144 - Rushed prematurely into its test programme to beat the Anglo-French Concorde, the TU-144 was intended to be Russia's supersonic dream.