In June 1940 Billy Drake was shot down in his Hurricane over France. A German cannon shell exploded behind his head, but he survived thanks to a sheet of armor. Had he been shot down a few weeks earlier he would have been killed, because armor was considered æunnecessaryÆ. At the start of the First World War armor had also been considered æunnecessaryÆ, its weight reduced the performance of the underpowered aircraft too much, but some pilots and squadrons made and fitted their own protection. By 1918 the view of the Air Ministry had changed and it commissioned designs for an armored æTrench FighterÆ that must have a fully armored cockpit û lessons had been learned, but the price in pilots killed had been high. Between the wars performance again became the primary concern and the lessons of the First War were forgotten. So it was that the Hurricane squadrons went to France with no rear armor; and no front armor either. Soon every RAF combat aircraft was fitted with armor, saving hundreds of lives.

In this carefully researched book Michael Cox takes the reader through the development of aircraft armor from 1910 to 1945, using the stories of pilots to illustrate how vital it could be. The technology and aircraft design is also examined, with little known aircraft as the æSopwith SalamanderÆ and æFarnborough RamÆ playing an important role.