Aviation History
Showing 81–109 of 109 results
Sun ‘n Fun: Florida’s Aviation Extravaganza
First held in 1974 as a regional fly-in by the Lakeland, Florida Chapter the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) for sport aviation enthusiasts, it was named the Mid-Winter Sun 'n Fun the following year and by 1978 the event had become the second largest fly-in in the USA In 1980 the event was held in March instead of January and the grow of the week-long fly-in began to escalate to the proportions which are described and illustrated in this book. The 10th anniversary Sun n Fun 1984 saw 480 show aircraft register and a general attendance of over 100,000 people for the first time. Permanent facilities for the fly-in at Lakeland airport were then starting to appear or enter the planning stages. The year 1988 saw yet another date change, this time to mid-April to take advantage of slightly better weather and improved accommodation for the many thousands of visitors who were now converging on Lakeland each year from every US State and 37 other countries world- wide. Sun n Fun is big, but not too big. It's still fun and, blended with traditional Southern hospitality, the event has rapidly established itself one of the world's premier aviation 'happenings'.
The American Aircraft Factory in World War II
Few industrial phenomena have been as dramatic as the United States mid-20th-century shift from peacetime to wartime production. The American Aircraft Factory in World War II documents the production of legendary warbirds by companies like Boeing, North American, Curtiss, Consolidated, Douglas, Grumman, and Lockheed. It was a production unmatched by any other country and a crucial part of why the allies won the war.
Author Bill Yenne considers the prewar governmental acts that got the plants rolling, as well as the gender shift that occurred as women entered the work force like never before. He also describes the construction of mega-factories like Willow Run, factory design considerations, and the postwar conversion back to peacetime production. Illustrated with 175 period photographsincluding 50 rare color photos never before seen in print.
The Balloonists: The History of the First Aeronauts
First published in 1966 as The Aeronauts: A History of Ballooning 1783-1903, this book is a complete history of balloons and the intrepid men who flew in them. Beginning in 1783, the year in which balloons first took flight, it ends in 1903, the year in which the Wright Brothers first heavier-than-air flight at Kittyhawk changed the history of aviation for ever. The exploits of balloonists attracted the attention and admiration of the masses like nothing before: within weeks of the first flights, its form featured in designs of wallpaper and fabrics, in jewels and on snuff boxes, and as balloon clocks and chandeliers. The aeronauts themselves became heroes of their time. From the first flight, by the Montgolfier brothers in a balloon of paper and cloth, through the first Channel crossing by air, showman aeronauts, female aeronauts, efforts to cross the Atlantic and the use of balloons in war, this is a wholly fascinating and riveting book. Lightly and entertainingly written, it includes lively extracts from journals and contemporary accounts, as well as engravings of the period. This new edition has a foreword by one of the foremost aeronauts of today, Don Cameron.
Sale!
not rated
Original price was: $35.99.$17.99Current price is: $17.99.
Add to cart
The Flight: Charles Lindbergh’s Daring and Immortal 1927 Transatlantic Crossing
On the rainy morning of May 20, 1927, a little-known American pilot named Charles A. Lindbergh climbed into his single-engine monoplane, Spirit of St. Louis, and prepared to take off from a small airfield on Long Island, New York. Despite his inexperience, the twenty-five-year-old Lindbergh had never before flown over open water, he was determined to win the $25,000 Orteig Prize promised since 1919 to the first pilot to fly nonstop between New York and Paris, a terrifying adventure that had already claimed six men's lives. Ahead of him lay a 3,600-mile solo journey across the vast north Atlantic and into the unknown; his survival rested on his skill, courage, and an unassuming little aircraft with no front window.
Only 500 people showed up to see him off. Thirty-three and a half hours later, a crowd of more than 100,000 mobbed Spirit as the audacious young American touched down in Paris, having acheived the seemingly impossible. Overnight, as he navigated by the stars through storms across the featureless ocean, news of his attempt had circled the globe, making him an international celebrity by the time he reached Europe. He returned to the United States a national hero, feted with ticker-tape parades that drew millions, bestowed every possible award from the Medal of Honor to Time's "Man of the Year" (the first to be so named), commemorated on a U.S. postage stamp within months, and celebrated as the embodiment of the twentieth century and America's place in it.
Acclaimed aviation historian Dan Hampton's The Flight is a long-overdue, flyer's-eye narrative of Lindbergh's legendary journey. A decorated fighter pilot who flew more than 150 combat missions in an F-16 and made numerous transatlantic crossings, Hampton draws on his unique perspective to bring alive the danger, uncertainty, and heroic accomplishment of Lindbergh's crossing. Hampton's deeply researched telling also incorporates a trove of primary sources, including Lindbergh's own personal diary and writings, as well as family letters and untapped aviation archives that fill out this legendary story as never before.
The Guinness Book of Aircraft: Records Facts and Feats
A good guide to aircraft records of the past century.
The Hardest Day: Battle of Britain: 18 August 1940
This is the story of one single day in the Battle of Britain. Sunday 18 August 1940 saw the Luftwaffe launch three major air assaults on Britain and the events of that day changed the destiny of the war. Alfred Price gives a compelling minute-by-minute account of that hardest day as experienced by those involved RAF and Luftwaffe aircrew, behind-the-scenes planners and strategists, and members of the public above whose towns and villages the battle was waged. The authors exhaustive research was indeed timely because many of those he interviewed during the 1970s are no longer alive.
The History of Aviation in Thailand
Niels Lumholdt & William Warren Hardcover 100 pages Out of Print. New old stock.
The Pictorial History of Fighter Aircraft
Fighter aircraft and their pilots are the knights on grand steeds of the aerial battlefield. This was just as true in skies over Europe in 1914 as it is in the skies of the Middle East or other such world trouble spots.
In terms of speed and power, fighters have always been on the leading edge of aviation technology. These planes and their pilots also operate—as always—on the leading edge of danger, in that rarified environment where the heat of battle meets the cool nerves that are essential to survival.
Fighters can be—and frequently have been—adapted to a variety of roles, but their raison d'etre is fighting other airplanes. Like the mounts ridden by the knights of the Middle Ages, and indeed like the knights themselves, fighters are bred to fight, bred to win.
A fighter aircraft must serve its pilot almost as though it were an extension of his hand and mind. It must give the pilot the maximum in clean unobstructed vision. In World War 1, the pilot sat in an open cockpit with a very good view of the entire hemisphere above him. Over the years, the cockpit became more and more enclosed until, by the early 1940s, the pilot's field of view was compromised by a lattice-work grid. By the 1970s, however, advancements in Plexiglas technology caught up, and bubble canopies (including one-piece bubble canopies on American F-I6s) reappeared. To become an extension of the pilot himself, the fighter airplane not only must give him a clear field of view, it must give him a clear field of action. It must respond instantly to his every whim. To do this, it must be very maneuverable; and to be very maneuverable a fighter must be very unstable. Stability is the characteristic most sought for the airliners in which most people travel, but the chariot of the fighter pilot must be just the opposite—unstable to the point of being almost dangerous yet capable of spins, loops and power dives that no airliner would ever undertake.
Like the medieval knight with whom we have compared him, the fighter pilot is a specialized breed. So is his airplane. They fly and fight in a world far removed from the rest of the battlefield. It is a distant yet deadly world where survival depends on a pilot's ability to apply his skills in one-on-one com-bat against someone who aspires to the very same skills. In this world, the pilot's only assets are his own ability to do his job with speed and precision, and the ability of his steed to respond to, and support, him.
This is the story—in pictures and words of the successive generations of airplanes that have been the outposts on the leading edge of aviation technology, the silver birds that have carried successive generations of the twentieth century's most daring aerial warriors.
Sale!
not rated
Original price was: $19.00.$9.99Current price is: $9.99.
Add to cart
The RAF: 1918-2018
For a hundred years the Royal Air Force has been at the forefront of the UK's defences. In the 1920s and 1930s, the RAF protected Britain's empire; during the Second World War it played a key role in defeating the Axis; and through the 1950s and 1960s it was a key part of Britain's nuclear deterrent. Julian Hale examines the history of the RAF through its organisation, personnel, aircraft and campaigns, from the biplanes of the First World War, through its 'Finest Hour' in 1940 and the dawn of the jet age to today's hi-tech aircraft and the emerging role of the unmanned aerial vehicle. Enriched with personal accounts and a wealth of photographs, this book provides a concise introduction to the world's first air force.
The Risk Takers: Racing & Record-Setting Aircraft: A Unique Pictorial Record
Illustrates and analyses the pioneering achievements in aviation racing and record-setting aircraft. There are short biographies of the key pilots and designers with pictures of the aircraft described. Focuses upon two distinct but complementary aspects of aviation. Why "The Risk Takers?" There were a staggering 32 aviation fatalities in 1910; CS Rolls (co-founder of Rolls-Royce) was the first to perform a non-stop return crossing of the English Channel; but his Wright Flyer would break up in mid-air a month later. This book illustrates and analyzes all such pioneering achievements in precise technical detail; with short biographies of the key pilots and designers.
The Smithsonian Book of Flight
Walter Boyne, former Director of the National Air and Space Museum, has worked with the Smithsonian Institution to produce this masterfully written and beautifully illustrated single-volume history of flight, a loving tribute to eight decades of aircraft and the men and women who designed, built, and flew them. The book chronicles the rapid evolution of aviation technology, from the Wright Flyer of 1903 to Paul MacCready's Gossamer Condor, from the first balloons and gliders to the Concorde. But most of all it focuses on the meaning of flight for the human spirit—the inventiveness, the craftsmanship, the daring achievements, the adventure.
Using hundreds of historical pictures, as well as specially commissioned photography and art from the National Air and Space Museum, The Smithsonian Book of Flight marries text and imagery to create an overwhelming experience, an authentic evocation of the romance of flight, and of the ingenuity, the camaraderie and pride of the sponsors, builders and pilots who carried through this global revolution in transportation and communication. The book contains the best collection of flight images ever included in a single volume of this scope.
The Story of the Boeing Company (Revised & Updated Edition)
In the early years of the twentieth century, William Edward Boeing summed up his new companys mission: "To let no new improvement in flying and flying equipment pass us by." And sure enough, in the century since, nothing and no one has outflown Boeing. The Story of the Boeing Company, the tale of the plane-maker to the world, unfolds on a fittingly grand scale in this book that is at once the history of one company and the story of an industry. Lavishly illustrated, this book showcases historic aircraft that made the companys namethe B-17 Flying Fortress, the B-29 Stratofortress of World War II, and the B-52 Superfortress that still soldiers on over 50 years after its debut to the 707 jetliner that revolutionized commercial flight and the mammoth 747. Fully updated, it includes the 787 Dreamliner, Airborne Laser Testbed (ALTB), and EA-18G Airborne Electronic Attack Aircraft.
The Tiger Moth Story
The Tiger Moth is one of the major aviation success stories. Developed by Geoffrey de Havilland during the early 1930s and flown for the first time on October 26th, 1931, the biplane became the most important elementary trainer used by Commonwealth forces. More than 1,000 Tiger Moths were delivered before WWII, and subsequently around 4,000 were built in the UK with an extra 2,000 being manufactured in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Following the end of WWII, pilots could buy and modify a Tiger Moth for recreational use or agricultural crop spraying and use it relatively cheaply. This, combined with its popularity within the aero club movement, provided employment for the Tiger Moths until the late fifties when the more modern closed cockpit aircraft forced them into retirement. The Tiger Moth Story provides a comprehensive account of the aircraft origins and development as a trainer of Commonwealth pilots in times of peace and war, as a crop duster, glider tug, aerial advertiser, bomber, coastal patrol plane and aerial ambulance as well as in frontline service. Technical narrative and drawings, handling ability and performance as seen through the eyes of the pilots including a fully updated world survey of existing aircraft combine to make The Tiger Moth Story the most comprehensive book of the aircraft. A bestseller since 1964, this edition is fully revised, updated, indexed and includes many new black and white photographs, plus a new color section.
The Wing and the Arrow
It's the beginning of the Cold War - a new and threatening power is emerging in the Soviet Union which escalates the pace in the race for the skies. This contest will pit East against West, friend against friend, and the US Wing against the Canadian Arrow.
Sale!
not rated
Original price was: $19.99.$9.00Current price is: $9.00.
Add to cart
The World’s Greatest Interceptor Aircraft
A superbly detailed examination of the 20 most important interceptor aircraft in the world today including the Sea Harrier, Mirage F1, MiG-29, JA 37 Viggen, and F-14 Tomcat. Each entry is accompanied by gatefold artwork, plus the operational history of the particular model showing how it was developed and how it has performed during service life.
Sale!
not rated
Original price was: $36.00.$17.99Current price is: $17.99.
Add to cart
The Wright Brothers
Two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize David McCullough tells the dramatic story-behind-the-story about the courageous brothers who taught the world how to fly: Wilbur and Orville Wright.
On a winter day in 1903, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, two unknown brothers from Ohio changed history. But it would take the world some time to believe what had happened: the age of flight had begun, with the first heavier-than-air, powered machine carrying a pilot.
Who were these men and how was it that they achieved what they did?
David McCullough, two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, tells the surprising, profoundly American story of Wilbur and Orville Wright.
Far more than a couple of unschooled Dayton bicycle mechanics who happened to hit on success, they were men of exceptional courage and determination, and of far-ranging intellectual interests and ceaseless curiosity, much of which they attributed to their upbringing. The house they lived in had no electricity or indoor plumbing, but there were books aplenty, supplied mainly by their preacher father, and they never stopped reading.
When they worked together, no problem seemed to be insurmountable. Wilbur was unquestionably a genius. Orville had such mechanical ingenuity as few had ever seen. That they had no more than a public high school education, little money and no contacts in high places, never stopped them in their “mission” to take to the air. Nothing did, not even the self-evident reality that every time they took off in one of their contrivances, they risked being killed.
In this thrilling book, master historian David McCullough draws on the immense riches of the Wright Papers, including private diaries, notebooks, scrapbooks, and more than a thousand letters from private family correspondence to tell the human side of the Wright Brothers’ story, including the little-known contributions of their sister, Katharine, without whom things might well have gone differently for them.
Vimana Aircraft of Ancient India & Atlantis
In this incredible volume on ancient India, authentic Indian texts such as the Ramayana and the Mahabhata are used to prove that ancient aircraft were in use more than 4000 years ago. Included is the entire 4th century BC manuscript Vimaanika Shastra plus chapters on Atlantean technology and the incredible Rama Empire of India and the devastating wars that destroyed it. Also an entire chapter on mercury vortex propulsion and mercury gyros, the power source described in the ancient Indian texts.
VTOL: Military Research Aircraft
A comprehensive history of vertical take-off and landing aircraft examines VTOL experimentation, development, and deployment, as well as the different types of VTOL aircraft from tailsitters to vectored jets.
Winged Peace: The Story of the Air Age
First published in 1944, Winged Peace is the story of aviation, and its future as seen through the eyes of Canada's leading fighter pilot ace in World War I. From Kitty Hawk to B-29 Superfortresses, Bishop shows us how the world had changed geographically, socially, economically, and politically. Bishop wrote Winged Peace during the darkest years of World War II, when Germany had perfected flight for conquest. He examines air power as an instrument for death, as well as the advances in peace and betterment for all that flight is capable of making. There is no greater testament to the imagination and resourcefulness of people than the incredible development and growth of aviation technology in this century. Bishop recognizes this and also the need for international control of air power: 'holding under closest control the means to destruction inherent in aviation and developing our aviation for the good of all mean and the peace of world.
Winged Warfare: The Illustrared Classic Autobiography of Canadian World War I Ace Billy Bishop
Billy Bishop enlisted as an infantryman at the outbreak of World War I. He soon transferred to the Royal Flying Corps where flying came as naturally to him as breathing. In this classic autobiography, Billy Bishop vividly recreates the early days when the 'airborne jalopy' was getting its trial run. He describes the tiny Nieuport Scout, armed with a single Lewis gun, in which he had to dodge the 'Archies' (anti-aircraft batteries) and fight the scarlet tri-winged Fokkers flown by the formidable Baron von Richthofen and his squadron. The heroic memoir that portrays a real Canadian hero facing a skilled and determined enemy - Winged Warfare gets more exciting with every take off.
Wings Across Canada: An Illustrated History of Canadian Aviation
From the eccentric Fairey Battle to the lethal-looking CF-18, from modern airliners that have no defects (and no character) to the classic North Star (which had both), here is the ultimate line-up of the aircraft that have served Canadians in the last century. With over one hundred photographs of fifty historic planes, Wings Across Canada is a retrospective of Canadas aeronautical technology. This book does not compare the planes, nor claim that all are "classics" in the traditional sense of the word. Instead, it is a celebration of a love affair with aircraft that all served a purpose in their own time.
Wings of Yesteryear: The Golden Age of Private Aircraft
A nostalgic look at the golden age of personal flight, when the incredible aircraft of the 1920s, '30s, and '40s were pushing every known limit, and doing it with flair. The impeccable style and ever-increasing performance of stunning open-cockpit and cabin-class monoplanes and biplanes such as the Curtiss Jenny, Beech Staggerwing, Stinson Reliant, Luscombe Phantom, and Spartan Executive are all captured here. A detailed text traces the evolution of the airplanes and society. An exceptional collection of the most beautiful aircraft of the era-a feast of pure nostalgia!
Wings Over the West: Russ Baker and the Rise of Pacific Western Airlines
Wings Over the West is the history of Pacific Western Airlines, founded by one of the greatest bush pilots in the world, Russ Baker.
Pacific Western Airlines was a pioneer in the aviation history and known for its ability to profitably operate short haul air routes. The company raised profits and reserves and eventually formed Canadian Airlines in 1987. In 2001, Air Canada took over the entities that Pacific Western Airlines had created.
Wings Over the Yukon: A Photographic History of Yukon Aviation
In his sixth aviation history book, author Bruce McAllister takes the reader on a photographic journey, tracing the development of aviation in the Yukon Territory. There are chapters on the very first aircraft to operate in the Yukon, how aviation linked communities, the construction of the Alaska Highway, the role of the RCMP Air section, epic search and rescue missions, the air tankers role in firefighting, the opening up of the Arctic, the glacier pilots, and aerials of the old airstrips.
Sale!
not rated
Original price was: $19.00.$8.99Current price is: $8.99.
Add to cart
Women in Aviation
This title explores the scope of women's activities in aviation, from the time of the Wright Brothers to the present day. After highlighting the earliest female aviators, as well as the trailblazers of the inter-war period such as Amy Johnson and Amelia Earhart, the book goes on to examine the experience of women in aviation during the Second World War, including the American Women Airforce Service Pilots and those flying with the Air Transport Auxiliary. The post-war years are also covered and the title emphasizes the growth in women's participation in civil and military spheres of aviation -- by the last decades of the twentieth century, women had progressed even further, undertaking many of the jobs previously reserved for men, including space flight and combat flying. From the earliest women to obtain pilot's licenses to the female astronauts of the modern day, this is a concise introduction to the development of American and British women's roles in aviation.