One of the most notorious research aircraft, the Lockheed U-2 series has become known in the media over the years as a “spy” aircraft, one example flown by Frances Cary Powers having been shot down on such a mission over the Soviet Union.

The Egrett (a name taken from the three companies which developed the proof-of-concept aircraft, ie E-Systems, Grob and Garrett) is one of a series of high-altitude surveillance and research aircraft planned by E-Systems and built by Grob Aerospace, work commencing in 1986, prototype construction taking place at Mindelheim/Mattsies in West

The Dragon Fly was designed in 1985 in Italy by two archeologists, Angelo and Alfredo Castiglioni, as a two-seat light helicopter to meet a requirement they had for a survey platform or research work.

Hoffman Flugzeugbau was founded in 1981 in Friesach, Austria, to produced the H36 Dimona motor glider. By 1985 it had become a subsidiary of Simmering-Graz-Pauker AG and, after moving to Vienna, introduced the Dimona Mk II.

In the 1950s aircraft manufacturers were looking at an aircraft that was capable of passing through the ‘sound barrier’, the Mach scale having been named after Ernest Mach, an Austrian, Mach 1 being considered to be the speed of sound.