Aircraft and aviation Books
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Lockheed Constellation: A History
Book SynopsisClarence 'Kelly' Johnson's design for the Lockheed Constellation, known affectionately as the 'Connie', produced one of the world's most iconic airliners. Lockheed had been working on the L-044 Excalibur, a four-engine, pressurised airliner, since 1937\. In 1939, Trans World Airlines, at the instigation of major stockholder Howard Hughes, requested a 40-passenger transcontinental aircraft with a range of 3,500 miles, well beyond the capabilities of the Excalibur design. TWA's requirements led to the L-049 Constellation, designed by Lockheed engineers including Kelly Johnson and Hall Hibbard. Between 1943 and 1958, Lockheed built 856 Constellations in numerous models at its Burbank, California, factory - all with the same distinctive and immediately recognisable triple-tail design and dolphin-shaped fuselage. The Constellation was used as a civil airliner and as a military and civilian air transport, seeing service in the Berlin and the Biafran airlifts. Three of them served as the presidential aircraft for Dwight D. Eisenhower. After the Second World War, TWA's trans-Atlantic service began on 6 February 1946 with a New York-Paris flight in a Constellation. Then, on 17 June 1947, Pan Am opened the first-ever scheduled round-the-world service with their L-749 Clipper America. In this revealing insight into the Lockheed Constellation, the renowned aviation historian Graham M. Simons examines its design, development and service, both military and civil. In doing so, he reveals the story of a design which, as the first pressurised airliner in widespread use, helped to usher in affordable and comfortable air travel around the world.
£35.26
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Race through the Skies: The Week the World
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£22.49
Aviation Supplies & Academics Inc The Standard Aircraft Log: ASA-SA-2
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£12.90
Aviation Supplies & Academics Inc The Standard Engine Log: ASA-SE-2
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£14.11
Aviation Supplies & Academics Inc The Standard Engine Log: ASA-SE-1
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£7.76
Aviation Supplies & Academics Inc The Standard Propeller Log: ASA-SP-L
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£8.29
Aviation Supplies & Academics Inc International Aircraft Directory: The World's
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£18.26
Aviation Supplies & Academics Inc Caravan: Cessna's Swiss Army Knife with Wings!:
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£18.41
Aviation Supplies & Academics Inc The Standard Aircraft Flight Log: ASA-SP-FLT-2
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£14.36
Aviation Supplies & Academics Inc The Standard Pilot Master Log: ASA-SP-6
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£25.71
Aviation Supplies & Academics Inc Helicopter Maneuvers Manual: A step-by-step
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£20.67
Smithsonian Books Amelia Earhart: A Biography
Book SynopsisShe died mysteriously before she was forty. Yet in the last decade of her life Amelia Earhart soared from obscurity to fame as the best-known female aviator in the world. She set record after record—among them, the first trans-Atlantic solo flight by a woman, a flight that launched Earhart on a double career as a fighter for women's rights and a tireless crusader for commercial air travel. Doris L. Rich's exhaustively researched biography downplays the “What Happened to Amelia Earhart?” myth by disclosing who Amelia Earhart really was: a woman of three centuries, born in the nineteenth, pioneering in the twentieth, and advocating ideals and dreams relevant to the twenty-first.
£14.99
Smithsonian Books The Mystery of Flight 427: Inside a Crash
Book SynopsisThe immediate human toll of the 1994 Flight 427 disaster was staggering: all 132 people aboard died on a Pennsylvania hillside. The subsequent investigation was a maze of politics, bizarre theories, and shrouded answers. Bill Adair, an award-winning journalist, was granted special access to the five-year inquiry by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) while its investigators tried to determine if the world's most widely used commercial jet, the Boeing 737, was really safe. Their findings have had wide-ranging effects on the airline industry, pilots, and even passangers. Adair takes readers behind the scenes to show who makes decisions about airline safety—and why.
£14.24
Smithsonian Books The Nation's Hangar: Aircraft Treasures of the
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£22.79
Smithsonian Books The Smithsonian Book of Air & Space Trivia
Book SynopsisWho was the first person to dine in space? How long was the Wright brothers's first successful flight? What famous aircraft was named after a grape-flavored soft drink? What toy based on an animated film accompanied astronauts on a shuttle mission in 2000? These questions and many more are answered in The Smithsonian Book of Air & Space Trivia. In addition to the canon of space and aviation information, the pages are illustrated with more than 125 objects from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's collections.
£10.99
Smithsonian Books The Flight 981 Disaster: Tragedy, Treachery, and
Book SynopsisOn June 12, 1972, a powerful explosion rocked American Airlines Flight 96 a mere five minutes after its takeoff from Detroit. The explosion ripped a gaping hole in the bottom of the aircraft and jammed the hydraulic controls. Miraculously, despite the damage and ensuing chaos, the pilots were able to land the plane safely. Less than two years later, on March 3, 1974, a sudden, forceful blowout tore through Turk Hava Yollari (THY) Flight 981 from Paris to London. THY Flight 981 was not as lucky as Flight 96; it crashed in a forest in France, and none of the 346 people onboard survived. What caused the mysterious explosions? How were they linked? Could they have been prevented? The Flight 981 Disaster addresses these questions and many more, offering a fascinating insiders' look at two dramatic aviation disasters.
£14.39
Smithsonian Books Anthony Fokker: The Flying Dutchman Who Shaped
Book SynopsisComprehensive biography of Anthony Fokker, the famed Dutch pilot and daredevil aviatorAnthony Fokker: The Flying Dutchman Who Shaped American Aviation tells the larger-than-life true story of maverick pilot and aircraft manufacturer Anthony Fokker. Fokker came from an affluent Dutch family and developed a gift for tinkering with mechanics. Despite not receiving a traditional education, he stumbled his way into aviation as a young stunt pilot in Germany in 1910. He survived a series of spectacular airplane crashes and rose to fame within a few years. A combination of industrial espionage, luck, and deception then propelled him to become Germany's leading aircraft manufacturer during World War I, making him a multimillionaire by his midtwenties.When the German Revolution swept the country in 1918 and 1919, Fokker made a spectacular escape to the United States. He set up business in New York and New Jersey in 1921, and shortly thereafter became the world's largest aircraft manufacturer. The U.S. Army and Navy acquired his machines, and his factories equipped legendary carriers such as Pan American and TWA at the dawn of commercial air transport.Yet despite his astounding success, his empire collapsed in the late 1920s after a series of ill-conceived business decisions and deeply upsetting personal dramas. In 1927, aviator Richard Byrd solicited a Fokker three-engine plane to be the first to fly non-stop across the Atlantic. The plane was damaged on a test flight and Charles Lindbergh beat him to it. Lindbergh's solo adventure in the Spirit of St. Louis earned him--and cost Fokker--a lasting place in the history books. Using previously undiscovered records and primary sources, Marc Dierikx traces Fokker's extraordinary life and celebrates his spectacular achievements.
£23.40
History Press The Early Days of Aviation in Grand Rapids
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£18.69
Casemate Publishers The Dawn of the Drone: From the Back Room Boys of
Book SynopsisIn the dark days of World War I, when flying machines, radio, and electronics were infant technologies, the first remotely controlled experimental aircraft took to the skies and unmanned radio controlled 40-foot high-speed Motor Torpedo Boats ploughed the seas in Britain. Developed by the British Army’s Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Navy these prototype weapons stemmed from an early form of television demonstrated before the war by Prof. A. M. Low. The remote control systems for these aircraft and boats were invented at RFC Secret Experimental Works commanded by Prof. Low, which was part of the organization of ‘back-room boys’ in the Munitions Inventions Department. These audacious projects of Low and his contemporaries led to the hundreds of remotely controlled Queen Bee aerial targets in the 1930s and hence to all the machines that we now call ‘drones'.Starting well before WWI and, for the lucky ones, extending well beyond it, the lives of Archibald Low and many of his contemporaries were extraordinary as were the times they lived through. They witnessed many dawns, the coming of the oil and plastics age and of domestic electricity. They experienced vast social improvements and the pasturing of the working horse in favor of motor transport. They were around for the first epic aircraft flights and with the aid of the very technologies that had enabled the development of drones, they saw air travel transformed from the precarious to the routine. It is astonishing that the origins of the first drones are not common knowledge in Britain and that the achievement of these maverick inventors is not commemorated.
£24.02
Aviation Supplies & Academics Inc Airport Management
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£49.99
Aviation Supplies & Academics Inc Flight Notes: 3-Pack Notebooks with Quick
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£11.69
Aviation Supplies & Academics Inc Aerodynamics for Aviators
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£45.33
Aviation Supplies & Academics Inc Finding Carla: The Story that Forever Changed
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£15.15
Aviation Supplies & Academics Inc The Flight Instructor's Survival Guide: true,
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£18.32
Aviation Supplies & Academics Inc The Standard UAS Operator Logbook: The Standard
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£13.94
Aviation Supplies & Academics Inc An Aviators Field Guide to Buying an Airplane
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£13.29
Aviation Supplies & Academics An Aviators Field Guide to Owning an Airplane
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£13.29
Aviation Supplies & Academics Inc Remote Pilot Airman Certification Standards
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£9.14
Aviation Supplies & Academics Inc Helicopter Flying Handbook: Faa-H-8083-21b
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£22.46
Aviation Supplies & Academics Drone Logbook
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£5.74
America Through Time Airport Airside at Bwi: Baltimore-Washington
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£20.79
Aviation Supplies & Academics Air Carrier Operations
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£44.96
Aviation Supplies & Academics Getting Started with Drones and Model Airplanes
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£26.96
Amicus Ink Airplanes
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£9.53
Amicus Ink Helicopters
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£7.99
Fonthill Media Ltd De Havilland in Hatfield: The Golden Years
Book SynopsisThe de Havilland Aircraft Co opened an aerodrome in 1930 on farmland that it acquired outside Hatfield. The company's School of Flying was the first operation to take up residence. Flying clubs moved in and recreational facilities were developed. Garden parties, aerobatic displays and national air races were hosted. Regular visitors included famous flyers, royalty and aristocracy, actors and actresses, politicians, senior military ranks and representatives from Britain's other great aircraft manufacturers. Throughout 1934, new buildings were constructed to house de Havilland's global headquarters, factory production and Aeronautical Technical School. The victory of the sleek, red Comet in the England-Australia air race would have lasting significance for the town. The legendary Tiger Moth and iconic airliners such as the Dragon Rapide came off the production lines. Increasing numbers of RAF pilots were trained by the School of Flying while the garden parties, flying displays and air races continued. Military aircraft contracts were getting larger as long shadows from Europe reached the town.
£21.31
Fonthill Media Ltd Undarkened Skies: The American Aircraft Building
Book SynopsisSoon after entering the war in April 1917 American propaganda promised that she would `Darken the skies over Europe’ by sending over `the Greatest Aerial Armada ever seen’. Encouraged by the French Government America promised to build no less than 22,000 aeroplanes within a year and to field, and to maintain, a force of 4,000 machines, all of the latest type, over the Western Front during 1918, not only to provide adequate air support for her own troops, but because she saw this as a way to use her industrial strength to bypass the squalor of the war in the trenches, and so bring an end to the stalemate of attrition into which the war had descended. However, by the time of the Armistice more than 18 months later just a few hundred American built aeroplanes had reached the war fronts and several investigations into the causes of the failure of the project were already in progress.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements; Author’s Note; Introduction; 1 Aviation in America before the War; 2 America Enters the War; 3 The US Standardised Aero Engine; 4 Preliminary Proposals; 5 The Mission to Europe; 6 Financing the Plan; 7 The Orders are Placed; 8 Curtiss JN-4; 9 Standard J-1; 10 Royal Aircraft Factory SE5a; 11 SPAD SVII and SXIII; 12 Curtiss R-4 and R-6; 13 Bristol F.2B Fighter; 14 Caproni Bombers; 15 Handley Page O/400; 16 Martin MB-1; 17 De Havilland DH.4; 18 USD-9; 19 LUSAC-11; 20 Growing Dissatisfaction; 21 The Air Service `Over There’; 22 The Situation at the End of the War; Conclusion; Appendix I The Liberty Engine; Appendix II DH.4 Statistics; Appendix III Aircraft Production Facts; Bibliography; Index.
£19.00
Fonthill Media Ltd Aircraft Carrier Impero: The Axis Powers V-1
Book SynopsisFrom late 1941 Italy had been developing a secret project with her German allies to move the V1 wunderwaffen aboard aircraft carriers. Hitler required one million victims to get the British and American governments on their knees and force them to sign an honourable ceasefire. The personal archives of Ansaldo's naval architect Lino Campagnoli (1911-1975), bring back to life the plans for a modern aircraft carrier, the unprecedented transformation of the Impero battleship into a fleet carrier. The new documentation reveals the draft terms of conversion of the last of the four Littorio class modern battleships which were in a state of advanced preparation (hull components and engines completed). In the period 1941-43 a series of plans was drawn for Impero's conversion to an aircraft carrier providing, inter alia, for the embarkation of Fi-103 (the German V1), to provide substance to Italo-German cooperation in strategic military sectors. The Kriegsmarine's underwater tests on the protection of RN Impero's incomplete hull in 1944 put an end to the dream of using her as strategic weapons carrier.
£28.50
Fonthill Media Ltd British Special Projects: Flying Wings, Deltas
Book SynopsisThis book takes a carefully considered look at the history of many lesser known but nevertheless advanced British flying wing, delta and tailless aircraft that stretch across much of the last century. The emphasis is on classified projects considered for research or military purposes, but also includes those aircraft that were built, flown and entered service. The first commercially successful British flying wing biplane was designed by John Dunne and undertook limited military duties during the First World War. Soon, the early flying wing designs gave way to sleeker boomerangs that looked impressive, but often suffered with aerodynamic shortcomings. These were followed by the arrival of advanced wartime German jet powered delta projects initiated by Dr Alexander Lippisch. They were massively influential, with most post-war scientists and engineers immediately recognised the potential for a new generation of high performance warplanes. By the late 1940s, the UK required advanced jet powered bombers capable of carrying atomic bombs over long distances. This created many unusual, often German influenced designs that finally resulted in the V-Bombers. They were followed by short lived concepts for even larger aircraft that were not only capable of delivering nuclear weapons, but powered by nuclear propulsion. At the same time, interest in variable geometry wings gathered momentum, leading to the supersonic Swallow with its impressive science-fiction appearance. Sadly this Barnes Wallace concept was too far ahead of its time to overcome a number of technical issues, but the influence on American combat aircraft was considerable. The British also pushed ahead with ideas for vertical take-off fighters and the delta wing was often the first choice for many proposals. By the 1960s, Britain was attempting to gain a foothold in the space race. Plans were drawn up for rocket launching sites within the UK and the development of exotic delta winged space fighters. The ideas were impressive, although the technology was well beyond the UK's ability to fund and develop. These were glorious times for British aircraft designers who often pushed their ideas to the boundaries of what was possible, with design studies that remain influential today.Table of ContentsIntroduction; 1 Early Flying Wings; 2 Jet Bomber Projects; 3 Post-war Fighters; 4 Pushing the Design Envelope; 5 Rocket Powered Interceptors; 6 VTO/VTOL/STOL Projects; 7 Space Ambitions; 8 Some Final Thoughts; Select Bibliography; Glossary; Index.
£33.25
Crecy Publishing Wrecks Relics 29th Edition
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£19.95
Crecy Publishing Civil Aircraft Markings 2025
Book SynopsisThe new edition of this best-selling annual publication, Civil Aircraft Markings, the 76th, achieves something rather remarkable. The book has been published annually since 1950 making this year its 75th anniversary. We can think of no other aviation title that has reached this milestone. What made the book special all those years ago when it was first conceived and published, it still retains. It remains the most accurate and concise source for up-to-date information on the rapidly changing world of civil aviation. The book provides the most complete listing available of all the aircraft currently on the UK Civil Aircraft Register; around 20,000 entries are detailed in this section ranging from historic biplanes to the latest airliners and also includes balloons, gliders, microlights and helicopters. Additionally, Civil Aircraft Markings contains the latest civil aircraft registers of Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. Civil aircraft commonly visiting the UK from around the world are also listed. It also provides the common airline flight codes, radio frequencies for major UK airfields and the complete British Aircraft Preservation Council (BAPC) register.The new 2025 edition of Civil Aircraft Markings, as with all of those which came before it, has been fully updated and has a completely new photographic section. Compiled by one of the UK''s most widely respected aviation authors, its publication is eagerly awaited every spring by a legion of civil aviation enthusiasts and aviation professionals for whom it is an essential reference source.
£15.68
Fonthill Media Ltd The Douglas DC3
Book SynopsisThe Douglas DC-3 is as iconic an aircraft design as the Mustang or the Spitfire. It has endured more than any other, with a few hundred examples still in use across the world: from Africa, to Antarctica, to the USA. Many of the DC-3''s current operators use turbine conversions of the type, with the main proponents from South Africa and Wisconsin, USA. Many fledgling US airlines blossomed due to their DC-3s, and almost every major post-war airline started running their schedules with this type; they took advantage of the surplus in military DC-3s (C-47s) after the Second World War, which had already helped to make history in operations such as the huge support for the D-Day Normandy Landings. In Douglas DC-3: 80 Glorious Years, Geoff Jones explores the rich history of the DC-3 from its beginnings in Southern California to its use across the world. Even today, numerous enthusiast organizations continue to keep DC-3s airworthy and fly them for their members. The days of DC-3 commercial operations are now nearing an end, due to the unavailability of spare parts and the scarcity of expensive avgas fuel in remote parts of the world. And yet, the legacy of the DC-3 has endured; the Airbus and Boeing operators of today have the DC-3 operations of the previous century to thank for their current success.
£20.00
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Focke-Wulf Fw 200 the Luftwaffe's Long Range
Book SynopsisOriginally built as an airliner that could carry passengers across the Atlantic for Deutsche Lufthansa, the Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor developed into the Luftwaffe's principal long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft. It was used in the North Sea and in the Atlantic, searching for Allied convoys and warships, passing on information to waiting U-boats. The Fw 200 was also capable of carrying a bomb load of up to 2,000kg, and it was claimed that Condors sank more than 300,000 tons of Allied shipping. By September 1940, one unit, KG 40 based at Bordeaux-Merignac in Occupied France, had sunk over 90,000 tons of Allied shipping. For the next three years the C-series Condors were described by Winston Churchill as 'the scourge of the Atlantic', eventually being overcome by the introduction of long-range Coastal Command aircraft, escort carriers and the deployment of Catapult-Armed Merchantman vessels. The Fw 200 also used as a troop transport, capable of carrying thirty fully-armed soldiers. one Fw 200 was even converted into a luxury, two-cabin airliner for use as Hitler's personal aeroplane.In this selection of unrivalled images collected over many years, and now part of Frontline's new War in the Air series, the operations of this famous aircraft are portrayed and brought to life through the first-hand accounts of the pilots who flew them and those that fought against them.
£18.50
Crecy Publishing Aerofax: Tupolev Tu-154: The USSR's Medium-Range
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£24.84
The University of Akron Press When Giants Roamed the Sky: Karl Arnstein and the
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£39.51
Hikoki Publications Guardians of Ukraine: The Ukrainian Air Force
Book SynopsisThe independent Ukrainian Air Force was officially established on 17 March 1992. It inherited 944 former Soviet aircraft, making it the second largest air force in Europe. With a variety of exotic combat aircraft types, including the last operational Yak-28s and Su-15s in the world, the Ukrainian Air Force became of immediate interest to both aviation enthusiasts and air defence analysts.In the mid-2000s the country''s aircraft repair plants inaugurated upgrades to enhance the combat readiness of the aircraft and helicopters of the force, however, financial problems still led to a decline in combat strength. In 2014, when the territorial disputes on the Crimean peninsula became a full-scale war with pro-Russian separatists, the Ukrainian Air Force had a fleet of 66 operational-ready planes in service. These were used in interdiction and close air support missions and during the war approximately 14 aircraft were lost.This book provides a detailed look on the organisation and combat strength of the air force''s aircraft and helicopters. Drawing on a wide range of previously unseen photographs, supplemented by specially commissioned colour artworks,Guardians of the Ukrainepresents all types of combat, transport and training aircraft, as well as helicopters previously or currently operated by the Ukrainian Air Force. The illustrations are supported by detailed captions many of which provide individual aircraft histories.
£34.95
Grub Street Publishing The Daily Telegraph Airmens Obituaries Book Two 2
Book SynopsisA compilation of one hundred mini-biographies of outstanding aviators, including men like John "Cat's Eyes" Cunningham, night fighter ace and test pilot; Ian Harvey, the BEA pilot who safely landed his airliner after a bomb had exploded onboard; Stanislaw Skalski, Polish Battle of Britain ace; Pierre Clostermann, French fighter ace; and others.
£28.24
Crecy Publishing Wrecks & Relics 25th Edition: The indispensable
Book SynopsisBritain has a wealth of museums of all sizes, all with incredible exhibits, yet the ''big'' collections tend to get the limelight. All over the UK are amazing aircraft collections, containing aircraft of world, national or regional importance, many of which the curators of the national institutions would love to have.With region-by-region coverage, the backgrounds of the formative museums of Great Britain are highlighted along with the pedigrees of their most significant exhibits. Included are such icons as the de Havilland Aircraft Museum - home of the Mosquito; the Brooklands, Museum - headquarters of Sopwith, Hawker and Vickers; the Helicopter Museum - the world''s largest rotorcraft collection and Solent Sky - shrine to flying-boats and the Spitfire. Across Britain are many local collections that helped to pioneer this country''s incredible aviation heritage and the role of enthusiasts is highlighted with a profile of the first of them all - the Northern Aircraft Preservation Society and its lineage. Among the ''regionals'' are the Dumfries and Galloway, Solway, North East, Newark, Norfolk and Suffolk, Yorkshire and Berkshire museums. Smaller collections have incredible stories to tell, for example the Martlesham Heath Control Tower Museum - the home of British flight test; the RAF Air Defence Radar Museum - devoted to the vital ''magic eye'' of the Battle of Britain, the Glenn Miller Museum - at the airfield from which the band leader departed to his doom and Fort Paul Armouries - dominated by the enormous Beverley airlifter. Over 150 museums and their most important exhibits are profiled with over 250 photographs, both archive and in full colour. Like the other titles in the series, Britain''s Local Aviation Treasures is a unique reference for anyone interested in Britain''s aviation heritage and it provides inspiration for a tour of discovery of the ''unknown'' gems of the UK
£18.00
