The story of aviation since 1945 has been one of constant endeavour and courage. Men probing the frontiers of knowledge strove to attain new heights and speeds, inevitably losing their lives during peace and war as high-flying spy aircraft of East and West ferreted out electronic intelligence. The still unresolved incident of an American Hercules aircraft, lured across the Russian border and deliberately shot down infamously left the fate of most of the crew members unknown. Robert Jackson investigates the case of the West German F-104 Starfighter which raced across Europe, its pilot dead at the controls; the giant USAF B-52 bomber, destroyed by a missile fired by an American fighter; the brilliant Russian airborne operation in 1968, which overwhelmed Czechoslovakia in a few hours, and the great air battles over Sinai in 1967, when Israel’s pilots smashed vastly superior enemy forces.