The major air forces and armies of the world have long regarded air transport as a significant element in their operations, making possible the rapid deployment or redeployment of troops and their urgent resupply, as well as providing the means for assault on enemy-held territory.

Aircraft types operated by air transport units have been more varied than for any other form of military aviation, and have included gliders and helicopters as well as converted bombers and transport aircraft, sometimes using equipment which is available on the commercial market, but more often using specialised types developed specifically for military transport duties.

Airlift traces the history of the military 'airlines' from the first pioneering efforts of the fledgling Royal Air Force in the Middle East during the 1920s, the Russian pioneering efforts with gliders and paratroops, the massive airlift of Franco's troops from Morocco to Spain by the Luftwaffe, and the astonishing glider assault on the supposedly impregnable Belgium fortress of Eben Emael in 1940, through the wars in Vietnam and Afghanistan, and the air bridge to the Falklands. The book covers relief operations as well as overt and covert military activity, from the Berlin Airlift to the more recent international effort in Ethiopia.

International in scope and well illustrated, Airlift looks at the role of military air transport units over the years, and takes a glance forward into the future, providing an insight into the subject and an appreciation of what can, and cannot be achieved, in war and in peace.