Andrew Brookes completed RAF pilot training after graduating from Leeds University. Following recce and strike tours on Victors, Canberras and Vulcans during which he logged 3,500 flying hours, he joined the tri-service policy and plans staff of Commander British Forces, Hong Kong.

After being in charge of the multi-engine, helicopter and flying training desks in the RAF Inspectorate of Flight Safety, he was appointed as the last operational RAF commander at the Greenham Common cruise missile base.

He studied International Relations at Downing College, Cambridge, before becoming a group director at the RAF Advanced Staff College. From 1999-2009 he was aerospace specialist at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Chris Davey has illustrated more than 25 titles for Osprey's Aircraft of the Aces, Combat Aircraft and Elite Units series since 1994.

Based in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, and one of the last traditional airbrush artists in the business, he has become the artist of choice for both USAAF fighters and RAF subject matter, proving his undoubted skill when dealing with large aircraft subjects such as the Halifax and Sunderland.