Aviation
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1001 Flying Facts & Firsts
A popular assemblage of aero- and astronautical facts, photos, chronologies.
50 Aircraft That Changed the World
In this book, the authors of the widely acclaimed Aviation Century series profile 50 of history's most influential aircraft, their pilots and designers.
They begin with the Wright Brothers' 1905 Flyer, then move on to the birth of aerial warfare in World War I, the trailblazers of the interwar years, classic World War II aircraft, the jets of the Korean and Vietnam wars, modern commercial carriers, private jets, experimental designs and new combat fighters featuring stealth technology.
Featured aircraft in 50 Aircraft That Changed the World include:
Fokker E.111
Charles Lindbergh's Ryan NYP
Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Vega
Messerschmitt Bf 109
Supermarine Spitfire
Boeing B-17
Avro Lancaster
De Havilland Mosquito
Howard Hughes's Lockheed Constellation
Concorde
Learjet
Boeing B-52
Rutan Voyager
Hundreds of color and archival photographs enhance the informative and entertaining text.
617 Squadron: The Dambusters at War
This is a collection of stories from the aircrew themselves garnered through his membership of the wartime 617 Squadron Reunion Association, rather than from official records. The story of Tom McLean in particular is amazing.
A Collector’s Guide to Air Memorabilia
Detailed handbook outlining the various items that can be collected. Individual chapters look at equipment, uniforms and dress, full size aeronautica, medals, printed ephemera, etc.
A Gentlemen’s Agreement: Newfoundland And The Struggle For Transatlantic Air Supremacy
The early 1930s were desperate years for Newfoundland, a decade of mass unemployment and looming economic collapse. But it was also a time of great hope for aviation, as aircraft companies raced to build planes that could fly great distances--including across the Atlantic Ocean. No country on either side of the Atlantic wanted to be left behind in the competition for prime landing sites, a situation that placed Newfoundland in the crosshairs for those seeking supremacy in transatlantic flight. Competition for the island's aviation rights was fierce; nations and companies engaged in deals, double-deals, and under-the-radar "Gentlemen's Agreements" in efforts to take control of aviation's greatest prize. Newfoundland's ruling politicians and merchant class, however, were poorly prepared and, in attempting to exercise the Dominion's role in the greater community of nations, unintentionally initiated Newfoundland's loss of independence. Author Robert C. Stone has meticulously researched and unraveled these muddled plots, demonstrating how Newfoundland was, for a time, the most important country in the world--and then gave it all away.
A History of 413 Squadron
Since its birth during World War II, Tusker Squadron has served Canada with pride and distinction. From Ceylon to the Arctic, Europe to the Maritimes, it has watched over the waves for more than fifty years.
The men and women of 413 Squadron have dedicated their lives to saving others, including F/L L.J. Birchall - the Saviour of Ceylon - who successfully warned the Allies of the Japanese invasion before being captured. They have patrolled the Indian Ocean, mapped Canada s North, fought in two wars and conducted all-weather interception. Today, they continue to serve faithfully by carrying out invaluable search and rescue duties along the Atlantic and eastern Arctic coasts.
This is their story, brought to life through numerous archival photos and the words of those who served.
A Wolf’s Moon: A Helicopter Pilot’s Story
Set in the glorious mountains and plains of the Yukon, Northwest Territories, Alberta and British Columbia, A Wolf's Moon is a gripping account of Hank Sands' adventures during his 18 years piloting helicopters.
In Wood Buffalo National Park, Hank finds himself skinny dipping with a one-ton buffalo. Near Stewart, BC, he flies over an avalanche path with a bundle of dynamite fused to blow at any second, but it is lodged, unreachable, outside on the cargo rack. In an isolated Yukon tent camp, a mad Irishman threatens to chop everyone up with an axe. At another tent camp, a pack of wolves holds everyone in awe. High in the Bugaboos, Hank stares half-blind as explosive fuel drips from a damaged fuel tank onto the red-hot turbo charger of his crashed helicopter. Near Telegraph Creek, BC, a very large and legendary grizzly sends him running for his life. A raging forest fire threatening Fort Resolution, NWT, kindles a love story. In Port Alberni, BC, Hank flies into a 130,000-volt powerline. These are but a few from this collection of incredible yet true tales.
Hank Sands has had a varied life. He joined the RCAF in 1956 and piloted the Canadian-built CF-100 all-weather fighter for 3 years out of Comox, BC, followed by a ground tour as a radar controller in Beaver Bank, Nova Scotia. On leaving the Air Force in 1964, he trained on helicopters and flew them for 18 years. Retiring from flying in 1982, he spent a short time in the restaurant business before working as a teaching assistant for severely fragile children in the Cowichan School District.
In 2001, Hank and his wife, Linda, moved to Victoria, BC, to spend time with children and grandchildren. He's spent the past decade walking, acting, writing and renovating a 1945 house. He has four children, one step-child, nine grandchildren and one great-grandchild who all love Papa Hank's stories.
A Wolf’s Moon: A Helicopter Pilot’s Story
Set in the glorious mountains and plains of the Yukon, Northwest Territories, Alberta and British Columbia, A Wolf's Moon is a gripping account of Hank Sands' adventures during his 18 years piloting helicopters.
In Wood Buffalo National Park, Hank finds himself skinny dipping with a one-ton buffalo. Near Stewart, BC, he flies over an avalanche path with a bundle of dynamite fused to blow at any second, but it is lodged, unreachable, outside on the cargo rack. In an isolated Yukon tent camp, a mad Irishman threatens to chop everyone up with an axe. At another tent camp, a pack of wolves holds everyone in awe. High in the Bugaboos, Hank stares half-blind as explosive fuel drips from a damaged fuel tank onto the red-hot turbo charger of his crashed helicopter. Near Telegraph Creek, BC, a very large and legendary grizzly sends him running for his life. A raging forest fire threatening Fort Resolution, NWT, kindles a love story. In Port Alberni, BC, Hank flies into a 130,000-volt powerline. These are but a few from this collection of incredible yet true tales.
A-10 Thunderbolt II (Warbirds Illustrated No. 40)
It seems generous to call the Fairchild Republic A-10 a fighter, at least by modern standards: whilst most modern fighters are capable of performing an air-to-air mission, the A-10 is limited to the glamourless close air support role. The A-10 does not carry a radar, it cannot rely on high speed for pursuit or escape, and it cannot climb high into the stratosphere beyond the range of ground-based weapons. The A-10 seems to be better classed with the medium bombers of the Second World War such as the North American B-25 Mitchell!
In fact, specifications for the A-10 closely parallel those of the Mitchell: wing span, length and height are almost identical. The A-10's empty weight is only 700lb greater, but with a maximum load the A-10 weighs almost six tons more than the B-25H's eighteen tons. At those weights, the A-10 carries 16,000lb of ordnance compared with the B-25H's 3,2001b. (Much of the B-25's maximum weight was accounted for by five additional crew members and defensive armaments, though there may well be times that an A-10 driver would wish for a tail gunner.) Both aircraft are known for large cannon. The B-25H's 75mm gun was slow-firing and inaccurate and soon discarded in combat use, but the 30mm cannon of the A-10 is a powerful and accurate weapon. With a top speed in the same class as the Mustang or Spitfire, it would seem that the A-10 would have been quite a contender forty years ago!
Since the Second World War, many in the US Air Force have been calling for an aircraft with just these capabilities, and now there is no other aircraft able accurately to deliver as much ordnance to the front lines as can the A-10 Expecting to take hits, it is designed to survive and fly, to be easily repaired, and to fight again. As for defending itself, an F-14 pilot once told me about trying to make gun passes on an A-10: as he moved in, the A-10 pilot turned and reversed. The Navy pilot still seemed amazed as he recounted the story: 'As I flashed by, I could see him turn with me. That big old gun was pointed right at my helmet all the way!'
The majority of the photographs in this book have come from the USAF and Fairchild Republic (with my old friend Theron Rinehart, now retired).
Aces High
A collection of over 250 full color photographs by some of the world's best aviation photographers attempting to capture the components of modern military air power. From the tactical jet fighters and strategic bombers to the spy planes, drones and ground support helicopters, to the tankers, transports and target tugs -- here are the people and technology that combine to create the immense power of a modern air force. Introduction by Walter J. Boyne, the former Director of the National Air and Space Museum of the Simthsonian Institurtion.
Aces Over the Oceans: The Great Pilots of World War II
Aces Over the Oceans draws on interviews with American, German, and British naval fighter pilots to give accounts of the missions flown and the air battles fought over the Pacific Ocean, the North Atlantic, and the North and Norwegian Seas during World War II.
Aeroflot: An Airline and its Aircraft: An Illustrated History of the World’s Largest Airline
This is a history of the Soviet airline that, in the latter 1960s, became the biggest in the world, measured by passenger boardings and passenger-miles flown. Most of this air traffic was on the vast and complex domestic network, many of whose sub-divisions alone would equate in size to a very large airline. Most of the domestic passengers have flown at very cheap fares, in the aerial equivalent of long-distance bus services, almost as a public utility. The extent of the achievement in bringing the benefits of air transport to more than 3,500 communities, otherwise dependent upon long and arduous surface transport, often over long distances, has not been generally realized. Neither have the pioneering efforts of Aeroflot been fully recognized in the West, nor have the enterprising efforts of its Polar Aviation affiliate been fully remembered. The trans-Polar flights of Chkalov and Gomov are a distant memory. This has resulted partly from the extreme difficulty in obtaining information from behind what was once described as the Iron Curtain. Until Mikhail Gorbachev swept restrictions aside with his policies of glasnost and perestroika, the sparse data available gave only a sporadic glimpse of Aeroflots work. This book now offers a panorama of the seventy years of considerable and continuous achievement. It records the development of the world's first transport aircraft in 1913, the first bomber/transport to be put into series production, the world's first sustained jet airline service and the world's largest turboprop airliner. It describes the world's largest helicopters and the world's largest cargo jet aircraft. At the other end of the scale of magnitude, Aeroflot operates about 2,500 of the diminutive piston-engined biplane which is the world's most produced commercial transport aircraft in history. As this book is published, the former Soviet airline is undergoing a metamorphosis. But nothing can erase the fascination of Aeroflot's historical record -- and incidentally, it is a great story.
Air Canada: The History
Begun as a social experiment in 1937, Air Canada has evolved into one of the worldÂ’s greatest airlines.
Air Canada: The History explores a modern miracle that has made commercial air travel in our country an everyday occurrence. The airline was born in 1937 as "Trans Canada Airlines," a ward of the Canadian National Railway. Renamed "Air Canada" in 1964 to reflect its status as a jet-age airline, it survived devastating air crashes, financial deficits, self-serving politicians, strikes, privatization, and the Airbus scandal.
It was reviled in the nineties by the likes of Peter Newman, who joked, "If God had meant Man to fly, he wouldnÂ’t have invented Air Canada." Today it is a much loved national icon. Fortunate at times to be run by great CEOs like Gordon McGregor and Claude Taylor, Air Canada has fought off a hostile takeover, merged with its arch-rival Canadian Airlines, and touched countless lives during its 75-year history.
This is its story.
Air War over the Pacific (Warbirds Illustrated No. 36)
Robert C. Stern (ISBN 10 – 0853687358) Softcover 68 pages
AIRCOM: Canada’s Air Force
AIRCOM is a visual feast that shows all the aircraft operated by Air Command. It also focuses upon the people who make the air force work, and on their many bases. A special section deals with Canada's Hornets in the Persian Gulf War.
Aircraft Versus Aircraft: The Illustrated Story of Fighter Pilot Combat from 1914 to the Present Day
As soon as the first aeroplane had proved its value in war it became a target, and the fighter pilot was born. This book tells the story of the men and the aircraft in which they fought, from the rudimentary beginnings of tactics to the sophisticated technology of the present day.
Airlines of the Orient
This book celebrates, with vivid color photography, the airlines and aircraft that transport travelers to, from, and within the Orient. From the long-haul giants that traverse the Himalayan heights and vast Pacific Ocean to busy commuter regional jets, these aircraft allow millions to explore Eastern lands that were once remote and mysterious.
Airshow USA
This pictorial highlights the aishows and aircraft in the United States such as Oshkosh and Reno.
Allison Power of Excellence 1915-1990: Allison Gas Turbine Division
The Allison Gas Turbine Division of the General Motors Corporation is one of the largest manufacturers of aircraft engines for medium-sized aircraft. While not as large as companies like Pratt & Whitney, Rolls-Royce, or General Electric, Allison has played an important role in the development of aviation. Its engines have been found on aircraft including the Lockheed P-38, C-130 Hercules, Curtiss P-40, Lockheed F-94, and Convair 580.
This book tells the story of the unique company from 1915 to 1990.
Amelia: A Life of the Aviation Legend
What happened to Amelia Earhart? Her disappearance over the Pacific Ocean in 1937 continues to confound investigators. Here, the authors provide new insights into the mystery as well as a full biography of the world's most revered aviatrix.
America’s Drug Enforcement Air Force: Customs, Coast Guard, CAP, DEA, and DoD Airborne Drug Busters
This is a photographic history of America's Drug Enforcement Air Force.
Contents cover the aircraft and tactics used by Customs, the Coast Guard, DEA, and DoD Airborne Drug Busters in America's never-ending war on drugs.
America’s Stealth Fighters and Bombers: B-2, F-117, YF-22, and YF-23
See the F-117, B-2, YF-22 and YF-23 in nearly 100 color photos. Close-ups, detail shots, in-flight action photos, refueling, missile firings, even NASA and Air Force One stealth planes. See the F-117 in action in the Gulf War, stealth planes in production, people and patches, and the latest B-2 and YF-22 and 23 shots.
American Air Power: The First 75 Years
A thoroughly engrossing and exceptionally well-written account of American military aviation from the delivery of the first military craft by the Wright brothers in 1909, right up to the present. All the dimensions of America's air involvement are explored in depth, the technological, strategic, tactical, and political considerations that have shaped our nation's air defence policies and practices, the aircraft, the airmen, and the decision makers, the stories behind the headlines, how aviation developed in the Army, Navy, Marines, and finally in a separate Air Force, it's all here, generously illustrated with dozens of photos from military and private archives!
American Aviation: An Illustrated History
From the first hot air balloons that hovered above France in 1783 to the most recent flights of the Space Shuttle Endeavor, this volume delivers a comprehensive look at the wondrous history of American aviation. Thorough enough to serve as a college text, readable enough to be enjoyed by aviation buffs, this is a general reference that will delight anyone with an interest in aviation history.
American Warbirds
This is a photographic history of American military aircraft.
Contents cover:
Superfort
Bomber force
Hot pursuits
Top trainers
Cargo classics
An Illustrated History of the RAF
This comprehensive and fully illustrated history of the RAF is surely an achievement that few, if any, other books, have been able to match. From the early day of balloons and experimental flying machines, through two world wars, international incidents for the 'Cold War' to the Falklands campaign and beyond, this outstanding volume, two years in the making, follows the development of the Royal Air Force right up to the present day. An immensely readable text is accompanied by over 600 photographs, many never published before. This is exciting and essential reading for historians and aviation and military enthusiasts, and is a fitting tribute to the many gallant airmen who offered and so often gave their lives in the service of their country.
And I Shall Fly: The Flying Memoirs of Z. Lewis Leigh
Z. Lewis Leigh was the first pilot to work for Trans Canada Airlines in 1937. During World War II, Leigh joined the Royal Canadian Air Force. His first assignment was anti-submarine flying, but was transferred to Transport Command in 1942 where he would beremembered for his excellent administrative abilities, revolutionizing how Transport Command operated. Leigh continued in RCAF service until 1957.
These memoirs chronicle the years he spent devoted to flying.
Antique & Classic Airplanes
David Davies & Mike Vines Softcover 128 pages
Apache: Multi-Purpose Attack Helicopter
A pictoral history of the Apache attack helicopter.
Argentine Air Forces in the Falklands Conflict (Warbirds Illustrated No. 45)
This book contains photographs of Argentine aircraft and pilots prior to and during the Falklands Conflict.
At the Controls: The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Book of Cockpits
This is perhaps the finest collection of cockpit photographs in existence. The National Air and Space Museum holds the world's premier collection of historic aircraft, but visitors to the museum must maintain a respectful distance. In At the Controls, NASM photographers Eric Long and Mark Avino use creative lighting techniques andphotography to duplicate the sensation of actually being at the controls inside the cockpit of 45 legendary aircraft, with access not only to the instrument panels but to the consoles as well. The reader experiences a pilot's-eye view.
Aviation Century: The Golden Age
Aviation Century The Golden Age is filled with tales of romance and adventure, of daring and bravado, as pilots break records, astound the public and prepare for war on a global scale. Their achievements became the stuff of legend, and their aircraft revered artifacts of a Golden Age.
Between the World Wars a new wave of aviation pioneers took the technological advances forged in the heat of battle and applied them to aircraft in exciting new ways. An unprecedented growth in the manufacture of affordable light aircraft occurred, providing ambitious, extraordinary individuals with the means to conquer the sky.
Aviators raced to be the first to fly over oceans, cross jungles and ice caps, look down on the continents' highest peaks, and travel distances faster than ever before. Many aviators died trying to achieve aeronautical immortality.
Aerial daredevils entertained a wide audience through flying circuses and air shows. The spirit of adventure thrived after World War II with larger air shows and more thrilling aerobatics.
In this book Dan Patterson's photographs of preserved and restored aircraft in museum and private collections are combined with rare archival photographs.
Forewords for Aviation Century The Golden Age are by aviation legends Alex Henshaw and Tom Poberezny.
Aviation Century: War and Peace in the Air
War and Peace in the Air, the final book in the acclaimed five-volume Aviation Century series, explores the influence of aviation in the major wars and minor conflicts since World War II. The authors also examine the dangers of flight, including airborne disasters, accident investigations and threats from terrorism, and speculate on the myriad ways in which aviation will change in the near and far future. Included are:
- The introduction of the jet engine and the changes it brought in training, logistics and administration
- Improvements in weaponry, avionics and aircraft systems in the transformation of basic bombers and fighters
- The history of flight safety, from the first air fatality in 1908 to the disaster-prevention tactics introduced to defeat modern terrorist threats
- Profiles of 21st century aircraft, plus the future in aviation -- including collision avoidance systems, computer-driven air-traffic control, and the return of supersonic travel.
Rare archival photographs and newly photographed color images add to the entertaining and informative text. All the current photographs have been shot on site or in museums, collections or the field.
Aviation Century: Wings of Change
The fourth volume in the Aviation Century series is the dramatic story of the worldshrinking developments in commercial aviation through the end of the twentieth century, in which airliners grew from frail biplanes to huge Jumbo jets. In the process, advanced air travel brought with it worldwide political, economic and social change. In 2004 commercial airlines carried an estimated 1.6 billion passengers.
Each new generation of transport aircraft has brought greater reliability, economy and safety, and increased global commerce through technological advances. Each day millions of shipments now travel by air between continents via sophisticated air cargo and air express systems.
Other chapters in Winds of Change examine:
- The wider world of aeronautics
- Private aircraft (personal planes as well as ultralights, sailplanes, hang gliders and parasails)
- Lighter-than-air flight (Zeppelins, blimps, hot-air balloons)
- Rotary wings (helicopters and related craft)
- The challenges of research and development (from sketch pad to computers; designers, builders and test pilots).