Aircraft and aviation Books

Book SynopsisThe illustrated history of the airships that created the first golden age of air travel, with period photographs, vintage travel posters, blueprints, advertisements and colourful brochures.

Read more less

Book SynopsisWhen Billy Hobbs and his fellow Hellcat aviators from Air Group 88 lifted off from the venerable Navy carrier USS Yorktown early on the morning of August 15, 1945, they had no idea they were about to carry out the final air mission of World War II. Two hours later, Yorktown received word from Admiral Nimitz that the war had ended and that all offensive operations should cease. As they were turning back, twenty Japanese planes suddenly dove from the sky above them and began a ferocious attack. Four American pilots never returned--men who had lifted off from the carrier in wartime but were shot down during peacetime.Drawing on participant letters, diaries, and interviews, newspaper and radio accounts, and previously untapped archival records, historian and prolific author of acclaimed Pacific theater books, including Tin Can Titans and Hell from the Heavens, John Wukovits tells the story of Air Group 88''s pilots and crew through their eyes. Dogf

Read more less

Book Synopsis1961. A squadron of Vulcan aircraft, Britain''s most lethal nuclear bomber, flies towards the east coast of the United States. Highly manoeuvrable, the great delta-winged machines are also equipped with state of the art electronic warfare devices that jam American radar systems. Evading the fighters scrambled to intercept them, the British aircraft target Washington and New York, reducing them to smoking ruins. They would have done, at least, if this were not an exercise. This extraordinary raid (which actually took place) opens James Hamilton-Paterson''s remarkable novel about the lives of British pilots at the height of the Cold War, when aircrew had to be on call 24 hours a day to fly their nuclear-armed V-bombers to the Western USSR and devastate the lives of millions. This is the story of Squadron-Leader Amos McKenna, a Vulcan pilot who is suffering from desires and frustrations that are tearing his marriage apart and making him question his ultimate loyalties. Trade ReviewUnder the Radar is fascinating to read and superbly written. Hamilton-Paterson is among our finest prose stylists, and we are fortunate to have him. -- Ian Thomson Financial Times Hamilton-Paterson has written an intelligent, stylish story about a war fast fading from our collective memory. -- Antonia Senior The Times This book is a must for RAF buffs and conspiracy theorists. But more importantly it is a testament to the unsung heroes of the skies who stood between us and a nuclear strike. Daily Mail An absorbing fictionalisation of a fascinating few years ... Hamilton-Paterson has done is a terrific job recreating a credible atmosphere of the air force base, with its tensions between the old guard and the new, between the past and the future, ratchet and release, between men and women. -- Toby Clements Daily Telegraph In Empire of the Clouds, Hamilton-Paterson conjured up a magisterial account of the vanished glories of British jet aviation. While this novel is not a sequel, it focuses on a small part of that story with remarkable clarity and pathos ... As a riveting recreation of a period, it is a moving elegy with graceful prose and acute characterisation. The Lady

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisYear by year, dramatic improvements in the winning speeds – often breaking records – charted the progress made, and this eventually had a great impact on the development of fighter aircraft in the Second World War and the future of the air industry alike.

Read more less

Book SynopsisA must-have A–Z guide with fascinating facts, figures, quotes and statistics from the high-flying world of aviation, From Airbus to Zeppelin has it all. F is for Faster than the sun: which aircraft was the first to fly faster than the Earth's rotation?

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe story of brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright who were fascinated by human flight.

Read more less

Book SynopsisAn enthralling historical detective story of a dream becoming an obsession, in a post-truth world of 'alternative facts' and ‘fake news’

Read more less

Book SynopsisAir-route development in Africa was a result of Sir Alan Cobham''s 1929 flight through and round Africa in a flying-boat. Lady Cobham accompanied her husband throughout the journey. This work features Sir Alan Cobham''s account of his journey. First published in 1930, it is illustrated with over 50 photographs from the trip, from the family archive.

Read more less

Book SynopsisWelcome to the world of flying animals! It’s entertainment on the fly for the office, backyard, classroom (don’t get caught!), or anywhere there might be a party, featuring 12 Lilliputian-size models that create 69 planes altogether. From the Dragon to the Stingray, Beetlebot to the Beach Bomber, these flying creatures are vibrantly colored and gorgeously designed to resemble animals that fly, both real and imaginary. Fold up an antennaed Scarab and the sharklike Predator. Includes step-by-step folding instructions and tips on how to send each plane soaring at its full aerodynamic potential.    

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisAn inspiring and fascinating illustrated celebration of the rich and glorious history of the RAF''s Search and Rescue Force, with a foreword from HRH Prince William, Duke of Cambridge.This book is an official, fully illustrated, in-depth account of the SARF''s rich and glorious history, from its origins in World War II through to its recent withdrawal after 75 years of service. The book contains a foreword by HRH Prince William himself, plus action-packed and awe-inspiring photographs from the RAF''s archive of photographs and exclusive interviews with former crewmembers, telling their own dramatic stories.Officially endorsed by the RAF, An Illustrated History of the RAF Search and Rescue Force is the first, and only, major book of its kind written on this subject. It is an essential purchase for anyone with an interest in military history, British history, the Royal Family and those who love stories of extreme and daring rescue missions.

Read more less

Book SynopsisA year after the disappearance and commencement of the international search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, no sign of the plane has been found—no debris, no bodies, no sign of the much-talked-about black box. Richard Belzer, George Noory, and David Wayne want to know why.Scrutinizing the theories the media and politicians claim are the “most likely” reasons the plane crashed, Belzer, Noory, and Wayne argue that if a year after a huge Boeing 777 has gone missing, and there’s still no sign of it whatsoever, it’s time to think outside the box. The public needs to stop being misled.If a plane and its passengers went "missing" once, what's to stop it from happening again?Some of the theories the authors consider seem implausible on the surface, but the thorough research they've done and the continual failure of politicians, aviation authorities, and military members around the world to give any indication they're wrong makes their arguments as good—if not better—than the more widely shared ones.The title of this thought-provoking volume, Someone is Hiding Something, is a line spoken by former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad—perhaps the only government official to publicly acknowledge the true reason that neither Flight 370 nor the 239 people onboard have been found.Trade Review"...a fair and balanced presentation of the very diverse views of this tragedy of the century. It is written without fear or favor, and I salute its authors for that." —Sakinab Zaharie, sister of Captain Zaharie of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370"...a fair and balanced presentation of the very diverse views of this tragedy of the century. It is written without fear or favor, and I salute its authors for that." —Sakinab Zaharie, sister of Captain Zaharie of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn November 1919, a year after the Great War, four Australian servicemen made a unique and epoch-making journey home. In the open cockpit of a twin-engine Vickers Vimy bi-plane, brothers Ross and Keith Smith and mechanics Wally Shiers and Jim completed the 18,000-kilometre flight from Britain to Australia. The 28-day journey, part of a competition sponsored by the Australian government, made the Smith brothers internationally famous and marked Australia's emergence into the air age. Ross Smith's fame would be short-lived: he would be killed in an air accident less than three years later on the eve of an attempt to make the first ever circumnavigation of the world by air.Born on a South Australian cattle station, Smith had a relatively privileged and cosmopolitan upbringing. He was, nonetheless, working in a warehouse in Adelaide in 1914, where he would have no doubt eked out a quiet and unremarkable life were it not for the war's outbreak. Enlisting in the light horse at 22 years of age, Smith survived arduous campaigns at Gallipoli and in the Sinai Desert before volunteering for the Australian Flying Corps. Smith's feats in the skies above Palestine during 1917-18 earned him a reputation as one of the great fighter pilots of the war. By the armistice he had received the Military Cross twice and the Distinguished Flying Cross three times; he was one of only three British Empire airmen to do so during the war. Smith's skill in the cockpit also saw him assigned the Middle East theatre's only twin-engine bomber during the war's final year, a machine he used to support T. E. Lawrence 'of Arabia's' campaign against the Turks in Jordan and, after the war, survey an air-route between Cairo and Calcutta.Anzac and Aviator is the story of this extraordinary Australian and the fascinating era in which he lived, one in which aviation emerged with bewildering speed to comprehensively transform both warfare and transportation. Born a decade before powered flight and going off to war on horseback, Smith finished the conflict in command of a bomber, the weapon that would come to symbolise the totality of warfare in the twentieth century.Table of ContentsForeword Andy Thomas, NASA Astronaut (Retired)PrefaceMapsText notesPrologue: Brooklands aerodrome, Weybridge, England PART ONE: 'A DETERMINED BOY' 1892-19141 Mutooroo 2 Froggy 123 A little more eclat 4 Aviemore PART TWO: 'A BRITISHER WITH HIS BACK TO THE WALL' 1914-19165 The Great War 6 Six-bob-a-day tourists 7 Anzac 8 Life in the trenches 9 The August offensive 10 Quinn's Post 11 Cutting some ice 12 Once more out in the desert 13 The savage satisfaction of seeing them drop PART THREE: 'A LEADER BORN' 1916-191814 The coming thing 15 Hadji16 Gaza 17 Quite an airman now 18 Vengeance is only poor consolation 19 Brisfits and baggage20 Biffy and the Bloody Paralyser 21 ArmageddonPART FOUR: '14,000 MILES THROUGH THE AIR' 1918-191922 Preaching the gospel of the RAF 23 An awfully good time 24 South Asian survey 25 The great race 26 God 'elp all of us! 27 Class 5-unfit for all flying 28 Crossing the Mediterranean 29 Do your best but do nothing foolhardy 30 Chasing Poulet 31 The Far East 32 The bamboo runway 33 The supreme hour of our lives PART FIVE: 'THE FOREMOST LIVING AVIATOR' 1919-192234 Everyone has gone quite mad 35 Fame and fortune 36 Leaving an old and trusty friend 37 The aristocracy of achievement 38 Viking 39 Valhalla40 Now he belongs to the empire Epilogue Acknowledgements Note on sources Bibliography Notes Index

Read more less