In 1935, the intent of the Army Air Corps was to build a potential intercontinental bomber, a "Guardian of the Hemisphere"; they granted Donald Douglas a contract to build the world's largest bomber. Over the past 75 years, there have only been a few magazine articles on the gigantic Douglas XB-19 bomber, usually showing it in photos dwarfing the aircraft around it. Since the XB-19 project was top secret and there was only one example, there is little information remaining for researchers. William Wolf presents this enigmatic bomber, a "Flying Laboratory" that was the precursor to America's first intercontinental bomber, the Continental B-36 Peacemaker. Wolf has used original Douglas and Army Air Force documents and very rare (as few were needed for one bomber) Erection & Maintenance Manuals in this history, which also includes never-seen-before photos and color profiles. This volume is a must for the aviation historian, enthusiast, and modeler.

This little known Heinkel fighter design was eventually canceled yet saw service in the Spanish Civil War.

Though Bicentennial aircraft schemes and markings, along with many of the aircraft of that period, have all but faded into obscurity, this colorful volume not only preserves their images, but reflects the spirit that prevailed during that historic period in U.S. aviation history. Presented here for the first time are the vivid, patriotic colors and schemes worn by aircraft during a time when the nation, still trying to purge itself of Vietnam, was swept with overdue patriotism; a time that compelled legions in civil and military air service to proudly wave their flag by decorating the aircraft that were their livelihood, or simply their hobby. One can only marvel at the meticulously-applied designs that transformed many aircraft into flying billboards of Americana. This volume is a boon to aviation enthusiasts, historians and modelers alike. Wayne Mutza is also the author of Grumman Albatross, and Lockheed P2V Neptune (both titles are available from Schiffer Publishing Ltd.).

This new book is a detailed survey and a anew perspective on the development of Luftwaffe aircraft from 1935-1945. Special emphasis has been placed on details of weaponry, equipment and other areas that have up to now been inadequately covered. Many readers will therefore be rewarded with new insights into the area of German aircraft development, as well as the logistics of the Luftwaffe flying units.\nThe book is organized into the basic elements of the German Lutfwaffe - presenting training, pilot operations and ground crews, the individual development steps during aircraft construction, testing, pre-production models, production and finally combat usage. Numerous examples of weapons and supplemental armament, as well as diverse weapons systems and ordinance can be found throughout.\nManfred Griehl and Joachim Dressel are also the authors of Luftwaffe Airfield Equipment (available from Schiffer Publishing).

EJ Johnson's story of nine young men who overcame unbelievable odds with the 8th Air Force 490th Bomb Group flying missions over Germany during the 1944-1945 era of World War II - and lived to tell about it. After qualifying as a navigator in the Army Air Corps during World War II, E.J. Johnson went on to serve with the 490th Bomb Group of the Mighty Eighth Air Force. His crew led by Pilot Roy Hann, flew some of the most harrowing campaigns of the war including many to Berlin, the heart of the German war machine. Hann's Crew is more than a memoir, however, it is a moving tribute to the men, the missions and legacy of the unit whose courageous exploits proved vital in the conclusion of the war in Europe.

The Gloster Aircraft Company had its foundation in 1917 and in 1934 the company was taken over by Hawker Aircraft, though it continued to produce aircraft under its own name. In that same year the company produced the famous Gladiator biplane. Having no modern designs of its own in production, Gloster undertook manufacture for the parent company Hawker. During the Second World War it built more than 6,000 Hurricanes and Typhoons. The Gloster Meteor was the first operational Allied jet fighter aircraft of the Second World War, commencing operations in mid-1944, only some weeks later than the world's first operational jet, the German Messerschmitt Me 262. In 1945 a Meteor gained a World Airspeed Record of 606 mph. Meteors remained in service with several air forces and saw action in the Korean War. In 1952, the two seat, delta winged Gloster Javelin was developed as an all-weather fighter that could fly above 50,000 feet. In 1961, the company was merged with Sir W. G. Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft Limited to form Whitworth Gloster Aircraft Limited. Following re-organisation, the firm became part of the Avro Whitworth Division of Hawker Siddeley Aviation in 1963, and the name Gloster disappeared.

On June 18, 1965, thirty B-52s took part in the first Strategic Air Command B-52 bombing mission in Vietnam, a mission that, if carried out successfully, might have halted the war in its tracks. Before two of the aircraft could deliver their payload, they collided midair, killing eight men as both planes exploded over the South China Sea. In Collision Over Vietnam, Lieutenant Don Harten, a pilot in the combat mission, recounts the harrowing yet miraculous true story of how he survived the B-52 collision and how he lived through the crash of his rescue plane to fly almost 200 more missions in the war. A remarkable account of comradery, courage, and loss, Collision Over Vietnam is sure to make its name in history as did the brave men who fought in Vietnam.

If one aircraft was to represent the First World War, it could be the distinctive red Fokker Triplane of Manfred von Richthofen. With an astonishing eighty aerial victories, the Red Baron became a legend in his own, short, lifetime. Regarded as one of the most widely known fighter pilots of all time, von Richthofen is also considered to be the First World War's 'ace-of-aces'. While much is known about this German aristocrat, what this book accomplishes is a pictorial portrait of von Richthofen as has never been seen before. Through a unique collection of photographs, the life of this famous airman is laid bare. From early family photographs through to the First World War, and his initial service as a cavalry reconnaissance officer on both the Eastern and Western fronts, his flying career, and the aircraft he flew, this extensive collection provides an unrivalled window into the life of history's most celebrated fighter pilot. By 1918, von Richthofen was regarded as a national hero in Germany and respected by his enemies. However, his remarkable career came to an abrupt conclusion on 21 April 1918\. Just as the German Spring Offensive was faltering, von Richthofen's aerial armada took to the sky to engage the Sopwith Camels of 209 Squadron which had taken off to undertake an offensive patrol over the Somme. In the ensuing dogfight, von Richtofen pursued one of the Camels along the valley of the River Somme. As he crossed the Allied line he came under fire - both from the ground and from the air. Von Richtofen was fatally wounded by a single bullet which damaged his heart and lungs. Just which Allied pilot, or indeed soldier, fired the fatal shot remains in contention. Images of the stripped wreckage of his famous Fokker Triplane add a solemn, and all too graphic, coda to the life of the Red Baron.

Drones are the iconic military technology of many of today's most pressing conflicts. Drones have captured the public imagination, partly because they project lethal force in a manner that challenges accepted norms and moral understandings. Drone Wars presents a series of essays by legal scholars, journalists, government officials, military analysts, social scientists, and foreign policy experts. It addresses drones' impact on the ground, how their use adheres to and challenges the laws of war, their relationship to complex policy challenges, and the ways they help us understand the future of war. The book is a diverse and comprehensive interdisciplinary perspective on drones that covers important debates on targeted killing and civilian casualties, presents key data on drone deployment, and offers new ideas on their historical development, significance, and impact on law and policy.

A unique and little-known chapter in World War II naval aviation history concerns the exploits of the scout-observation pilots who flew from the battleships and cruisers of the U.S. Navy. To carry out their missions, they were launched from their ships by catapult. On returning, their float-equipped aircraft landed on the water and the plane and crew were crane-hoisted aboard the vessel. In compiling this work, the author culled from the naval archives many of the ships' action reports and war diaries that detail the accounts of these airmen. In addition he meticulously edited the personal records of 27 veteran airmen who related stories of intense and excruciatingly difficult missions.

The Royal Air Force was formed in 1918 to defend the skies over Britain during the First World War and made a major contribution to winning one of the largest and most devastating conflicts of the twentieth century. Yet, when the war ended, its existence as an independent air service came under threat from severe defence cuts and intense scrutiny from some quarters as to whether it was needed at all. The Second World War put paid to all the uncertainty and sealed the RAF's place in the armed services. It has since played a vital role in many large-scale conflicts, as well as in peacekeeping and international aid operations. Celebrating a century of the world's oldest independent air force, The RAF at 100 showcases vivid and evocative images from the Mirrorpix archive that trace the story of the RAF from its earliest days through wartime and peacetime and into the modern age.

This book shows why Bomber Command, in one of the largest and bloodiest campaigns of World War II, with 55,000 aircrew lost and more officer fatalities than in World War I, has received so much attention and yet is still a "lost and black sheep" among British wartime glories. This book provides a new and revisionary narrative of the campaign and is both a military history and an investigation of how the modern image has come about.

This record of incredible developments in bomber technology spans over a century of innovation. The book is divided into three sections. The first section deals with the development of bombers and the major conflicts in which bombers have been used, such as the Blitz and Dambusters missions of World War II, and the Libya raids and Gulf Wars of modern times. The second section is a comprehensive A-Z of World War bombers, 1914-45, and the third section focuses on more recent jet bombers and the latest developments in warfare. The use of 'stealth' in bomber technology was also a particularly important development during the Cold War. Each aircraft in the book is listed alphabetically by manufacturer, and is accompanied by a specification box containing information about the country of origin, first flight, powers, armaments, size, weight and performance. This fully updated illustrated reference book, with its easily accessible information, is perfect for enthusiasts in the subject.

An illustrated study of the little-known history of the failed Allied bombing campaign designed to shatter German defenses on D-Day. D-Day is one of the most written-about events in military history. One aspect of the invasion, however, continues to be ignored: the massive pre-assault bombardment by the Allied Expeditionary Air Force (AEAF), reinforced by RAF Bomber Command and the US Eighth Air Force on June 6 which sought to neutralize the German defenses along the Atlantic Wall. Unfortunately, this failed series of attacks resulted in death or injury to hundreds of soldiers, and killed many French civilians. Despite an initial successful attack performed by the Allied forces, the most crucial phase of the operation, which was the assault from the Eighth Air Force against the defenses along the Calvados coast, was disastrous. The bombers missed almost all of their targets, inflicting little damage to the German defenses, which resulted in a high number of casualties among the Allied infantry. The primary cause of this failure was that planners at Eighth Air Force Headquarters had changed aircraft drop times at the last moment, to prevent casualties amongst the landing forces, without notifying either Eisenhower or Doolittle. This book examines this generally overlooked event in detail, answering several fundamental questions: What was the AEAF supposed to accomplish along the Atlantic Wall on D-Day and why did it not achieve its bombardment objectives? Offering a new perspective on a little-known air campaign, it is packed with illustrations, maps and diagrams exploring in detail the features and ramifications of this mission.

From the lessons of the First World War, the RAF developed a fleet of modern monoplane aircraft in time for hostilities in 1939; a force that consisted of Hampdens, Whitleys, Wellingtons, Blenheims, and Battles. These aircraft and their crews were pitted against the German war machine from day one-flying into storms of flak shells and swarms of Messerschmitt fighters in their flimsy, and often poorly armed, bombers. From theatres as far apart as Norway and Syria, Java and France, the crews and their aircraft were at the front of every military operation without adequate fighter escorts and with poor equipment against stiff opposition. They were the few who bravely went on 'one way ticket' missions, that saw operational life expectancy as only a matter of hours, without hesitation or complaint.

This book is about Australian aircrew in Europe during World War II and draws on extensive field research, including over two hundred interviews with survivors. The fact that the Australians were spread so widely across so many squadrons has contributed to substantial oversights, both in the official histories and in the literature on the field. Flyers Far Away redresses this imbalance and accords those largely forgotten Australian airmen a rightful place in the history of the European air war. Flyers Far Away describes how so many Australian airmen ended up in Western Europe fighting an Allied cause, in one of the bloodiest and most unforgiving campaigns of the Second World War. Using first-hand accounts from the surviving airmen, it traces their path from recruitment in Australia to operations over the Third Reich and Axis territories. For the first time, the exploits of all Australian aircrew, in Fighter, Bomber, Coastal and Tactical Air Force Commands are brought together in one volume.

The RAF and Commonwealth air crews were bound by regulations and discipline during WWII. Survival was by no means a certainty, with casualties becoming a part of everyday life. The evolution of non-established clubs was recognised and regarded as an important area within RAF history that boosted moral. The regulations flexed to allow membership pins and badges to be worn on RAF and Commonwealth flying uniforms. This book allows the reader to experience a number of individual stories and understand the relevance of being a: - 'Goldfish' (Lives saved by the use of personal life preservers and dinghies), 'Caterpillar' (Lives saved by parachutes) or: - 'Guinea Pig' (Lives saved by pioneering surgery conducted by Archibald McIndoe at the Queen Victoria Hospital Sussex) In many instances the accounts are recalled in great detail from the official records of medals and awards. True heroism and gallant deeds supported by original photographs create an easy to read book, revealing areas of interest not previously visited in this format.

'Time Flies: Reflections of a Fighter Pilot' retells the exploits of David Hamilton's thirty years of service in the Royal Air Force. He had a wide and varied career; flying Lightnings to defend UK airspace, operating from HMS Ark Royal in F-4 Phantoms, and defending the Inner German Border from RAF Wildenwrath. In the UK MoD he was a staff officer responsible for the Eurofighter project. He served in the First Gulf War, as the commander of a Tornado F3 Squadron deployed in Saudi Arabia, and worked as General Sir Peter de la Billiere's air advisor afterwards. He flew with and was supervisor of the Red Arrows. In NATO's Brussels Headquarters, he served as a Group Captain, formulating the Rules of Engagement for the Bosnian air campaign, and then became the deputy station commander at RAF Leuchars. Hamilton also led the Tornado F3 four-ship flypast over Edinburgh Castle as the Stone of Destiny returned to Scotland on 30 November 1996, before taking early retirement from the RAF to work in the defence industry on the Eurofighter project.

This revised and expanded second edition covers USN and USMC squadrons that operated the Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber as the PB4Y-1 in the Pacific from early 1943 through September 1944 in the Central Pacific. Combat air crews consisted of eleven young men typically ages 18 to 26 led by a patrol plane commander in his early to mid-twenties. They flew alone on single-plane patrols often lasting ten or more hours. Alone on patrol there were no witnesses when an aircraft failed to return to base; they simply vanished, leaving little if any clues about their fate. Other aircrews sent to look for the missing would occasionally spot a deflated life raft floating or dye marker spreading across the waterevidence marking where a four-engine bomber and its crew had gone down.

Unique history of the first Wehrmacht bomber aircraft including the early Dornier Do F, 11, and 13 models.

During World War II, hundreds of military training installations were built throughout the United States to prepare servicemen for the rigors of overseas combat. One such installation was Camp Cooke in California, which since 1957 has become an internationally recognized missile and rocket base renamed Vandenberg Air Force Base.    This book examines the history of the camp, starting with its construction. Established some 150 miles north of Los Angeles, Cooke was designed for armored divisions, but by the end of the war hundreds of other specialized organizations trained there. It supported many USO clubs and attracted some of Hollywood's leading entertainers as well as many from radio and stage.    With the outbreak of the Korean War, Cooke supported Army National Guard and reserve units. Its large hospital cared for war evacuees and Army medical cases from other parts of the globe. When it became an Air Force base, America's first spy satellite program was conducted from there. The intelligence data collected from these missions exploded the myth of a "missile gap" with the Soviet Union. At the height of the Cold War, America's first ICBM missile equipped with a nuclear warhead was based at Vandenberg.

Much has been written about the Mosquito, but this book features the young pilots and navigators who carried out daring operations against targets in Europe. Their stories are as compelling today as they were over sixty years ago at the height of World War II. The Mosquito was for many the perfect synthesis of power and beauty and arguably the most versatile of all Allied aircraft built during the Second World War. Yet three times the Mosquito project was deleted from Britain's future military plans, only to fight its way into the air and turn in performance figures that left fellow aircraft behind and its critics dumbfounded. Altogether, 7,781 examples of the 'Wooden Wonder' would be built in no less than forty-three versions. Bomber, day fighter, night fighter, pathfinder, attack aircraft, trainer, reconnaissance aircraft - the Mosquito did it all.

Under the leadership of a dedicated pilot, the B-26 Marauder was a formidable weapon in the campaign to defeat Hitler's armies, and, in the words of his first copilot, 'Lou was the best there was. He created a spirit among the crew that made us really want to fly the mission and be disappointed if we had to abort'. This memoir begins with Captain Rehr's arrival in pre-invasion England in May 1944 and ends with the completion of Major Rehr's aircraft disarmament duties in postwar Germany in July 1945. Rehr, a squadron commander with the 323rd Bombardment Group, earned 12 air medals, five battle stars, two Distinguished Flying Crosses, and the Croix de Guerre with Silver Star. He describes his experiences, including five night-bombing missions he volunteered to fly in 1944 and accounts of attacks by Me-262 jets in late April of 1945. The narrative also recollects two summers in 1936 and 1938, when, as a teenager touring Germany, he observed the influence of Nazism. This memoir is the result of forty years of research on the combat history of the B-26, contributions from comrades, an extensive collection of rare photographs, artifacts including newspaper articles and letters, and all military records and documents relating to Rehr's part in World War II. One appendix describes where readers can find images and restorations of the B-26. A second gives brief follow-ups on the men described in the narrative, often with their remembrances of the events outlined. This entry refers to the Large Print edition. For the standard edition please see ISBN 978-0-7864-1664-6.

The 44th Bomb Group, which flew the B-24 Liberator, was the pioneer unit for what evolved from the Mighty Eighth's 2nd Bomb Wing into a full-scale Bomb (and later Air) Division. The Group amassed an impressive 343 missions and won two Distinguished Unit Citations between November 1942 and April 1945, dropping nearly 19,000 tons of ordnance in the process including the legendary August 1943 Ploesti mission. These statistics were achieved at a material cost of around 200 aircraft, and a human cost of some 2,000 airmen MIA, as the 8th USAAF focused its strategic bombing campaign in the face of determined Luftwaffe opposition.