Operation LUSTY: The Race for Hitler’s Secret Technology

Graham M. Simons

Jul 2016 · Pen and Sword

About this ebook

Graham Simons has been granted access to a staggering archive; a wealth of fascinating documentation that has never before seen the light of day. Category 1, top secret documents, prepared by the Director of Technical Services at Wright Field in 1945, feature lists of aircraft, radar equipment, and other military and aviation accessories that the United States and the Allies lusted after in the dying days of The Second World War and during the post-War period, when enemy secrets were more hungrily sought than ever. Details of information gleaned over the course of Operation LUSTY (LUftwaffe Secret TechnologY) are included in the form of reports, tables, and typed transcripts of conversations. Photographs also feature in this visual publication that seeks to consolidate all the various scraps of documentation filed around this time in an effort to create an authentic impression of events as they unfolded during the course of this mammoth retrieval operation.

About the author

English professional aviation writer, publisher and historian Graham M Simons is one of the founders of the world famous aviation museum at Duxford near Cambridge where his interest was piqued watching the making of the ‘Battle of Britain’ film there in the late 1960’s and from the days when you could go ‘aircraft spotting’ at London Heathrow and other airports. From this, and with an engineering background, he progressed to membership of a number of aviation societies, including sitting on the British Aviation Preservation Council, eventually taking the position of Engineering Director with one group. Here he was responsible for overseeing the restoration of a De Havilland DH89 Dragon Rapide airliner to flying condition and placing this aircraft - with official approval — in the colours and markings of the first aircraft of what was then the Kings Flight. It was during this period that he was contacted by Ian Allen Ltd to write the first ever history of this classic De Havilland type. Other titles rapidly followed and with a growing number of contacts in both the military and airliners, Graham turned professional in 1987, combining his love of writing with his skills in production to create and publish aviation histories focussed on a variety of subjects. He is the author of Howard Hughes and the Spruce Goose, Comet! The World’s First Jet Airliner, The Airbus A380: A History, and De Havilland Enterprises: A History, amongst many others published by Pen and Sword Books.