Kestrel Publications was founded by Terry Leversedge in 2019 to help fill a continuing void in accurate and informed Canadian military aircraft histories. Terry Leversedge was born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada while his father was serving at Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) Station Moose Jaw. He later graduated from the Royal Military College, Kingston, with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1979, and then received a Masters degree in aircraft design from the Cranfield Institute of Technology in the United Kingdom. His career in military aerospace engineering encompassed a wide number of positions at both field units and within the headquarters of the RCAF, before he retired after 35 years of service at the rank of Brigadier General. A commercially-published book author and amateur historian, he has published numerous articles as the Editor-in-Chief at Airforce magazine, the flagship publication of the Royal Canadian Air Force Association as well as in other world-wide aviation publications. And now with Kestrel Publishing, he is also the author of an expanding series of books on Canadian military aircraft subjects.

We are often asked why we chose the name “Kestrel” for our company. The name Kestrel has long affiliation with things that fly. First and foremost, it is a bird of prey of the falcon species, common to North America and elsewhere. Similarly, in aviation terms, it was a type of an aircraft engine (i.e. the Rolls-Royce Kestrel), the name for the precursor to the Harrier VTOL “jump” jet (i.e. the Hawker-Siddeley P1127 Kestrel), as well as several other different types of aircraft designs (i.e. the Miles M.9 Kestrel & the Kestrel K-350 turboprop, etc), and even the name of a US military aircraft squadron. And now, it is also the name of a book publishing company!