Matthew Willis

Matthew Willis is an author and illustrator with a passion for naval aviation that developed during childhood. His first book, published in 2007, explored the little-known Blackburn Skua, a naval dive-bomber and fighter. He has since written widely, especially on the more obscure, authoring both articles and books. In 2012, he was introduced to the family of Duncan Menzies, an important yet almost completely forgotten test pilot from the 1930s and 1940s. This encounter prompted him to drop everything and write a biography of Menzies, Flying to the Edge, which was published in 2017. As Menzies was the lead test pilot for the Fulmar, it is highly fitting that his biography be followed with this comprehensive history of the aircraft itself.

Matthew is a Council Member of the Navy Records Society. He has appeared as an expert and consultant on various television documentaries, including PBS’s The Last Days of the Battleship and Discovery’s Wings of War, and is a frequent contributor to Aeroplane magazine.