News & Articles

Find out about the latest news from NCAP and discover in-depth stories about NCAP collections, activities and projects.

A black and white aerial photo of a landscape. Woods fill the left-hand third of the image, there are mostly fields to the right and a road cuts across the top half. Scattered across the fields are over 60 gliders. Smoke blows from right to left.

Operation Market Garden at 80: The Battle

Immortalised in the epic film A Bridge Too Far and recorded in the NCAP Collection, Operation Market Garden might have brought about the end of the Second World War in 1944.

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A black and white oblique aerial photo of a river. A network of steel girders fills the bottom third of the image. Boats are visible beyond the bridge. In the distance are industrial buildings on the left riverbank and a second bridge with 3 spans.

Operation Market Garden at 80: Reconnaissance

On the 80th anniversary of the start of the famous Operation Market Garden, we explore how aerial photographs now in the NCAP Collection played a vital role in its planning...

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The logo of the National Collection of Aerial Photography.

New Website Launch

NCAP is thrilled to announce the launch of its revamped website. 

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A historic black and white vertical aerial photo of about a dozen ships pulled up on a beach. The land beyond the beach has been divided up into a grid, and the scene is slightly obscured by clouds or smoke.

Commemorating D-Day: A Historical Perspective from Above

On the 80th anniversary of one of the most important days of the twentieth century, we look at the images in the NCAP Collection which mark this defining moment.

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A red robot arm carefully lifts a historic photographic print onto a glass scanner bed. The background is out of focus, but other robot arms and scanners are just visible. To the left, a person sits at a computer screen with their back to the camera.

Pioneering Robotic Digitisation

Read about how we are using groundbreaking technology and techniques to digitise millions of the images in the NCAP Collection.

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A colour aerial photo of an airfield, with a runway running horizontally across the image. The airfield is surrounded by trees. 6 grass-covered bunkers are to the lower left of the runway, with airfield buildings to the lower right.

Cold War Imagery Documents Global Political Events

The NCAP Collection contains millions of images relating to the Cold War, ranging from the Suez Crisis to British interests in south-east Asia and events at home such as Greenham...

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A historic black and white vertical aerial photo with the sea to the left and land to the right. There are several ships on the sea and more at piers projecting from the land. The land is heavily built-up. There are lines and annotations in red and white pencil.

Hong Kong Aerial Imagery Dating Back to 1924

The oldest imagery available through the NCAP Collections illustrates a unique and engaging view of Hong Kong. 

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A black and white oblique aerial photo of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. The grand white ceremonial arch stands in the middle of a roundabout. Trees surround the roundabout and handsome white buildings stretch into the distance.

A Brief History of Aerial Photography

Aerial photography is almost as old as photography itself. Find out more about the history of the fascinating medium which underpins the NCAP Collection.

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