The 20th century saw air power transformed from novelists' fantasy into stark reality. From string and canvas to precision weaponry and stealth, air power has progressed to become not only the weapon of first political choice, but often the only conceivable option. This rapid development has given rise to considerable debate and controversy with those holding entrenched views rarely slow to shout their case. Many myths have grown over the period, ranging from the once much vaunted ability of air power to win wars alone through to its impact as a coercive tool.
This volume examines the theory and practice of air power from its earliest inception. The contributors have been drawn from academia and the military and represent some of the world's leading proponents on the subject. All significant eras on air power employment are examined: some are evidently turning points, while others represent continuous development. Perhaps more importantly, the book highlights the areas that could be considered to be significant, and invites the reader to enter the debate as to whether it constitutes a continuum, a turning point, or indeed a revolution.
The expert analysis in this volume will serve as a guide to past perceptions and will help to equip current analysts for the 21st century.

A gripping history of the brave men and women who aided downed Americans to safety. A valued source of information on the European underground resistance groups of WWII. Rare photographs, maps, and war documents complete this legacy.

The true story documenting the short range history of the bomber force. Told in three parts, it demonstrates the versatility of the military pilot and observer and is a credit to the training they receive, coupled with the experience each one of them acquired.

The daring, low-level mission to the oil refineries of Ploesti has long been considered one of the most significant missions of World War II. The Allies were determined to annihilate the very source of the fuel which fed the German war machine.

In Desert Fire: The Untold Story of the Air Mission That Cut Off Hitler's Oil, John Blundell, distinguished veteran of the 98th Bomb Group, provides not only an insider's point of view on the critical mission in Europe and North Africa but also compelling photos of the heroes and hardships faced by America's Force of Freedom,"" the 98th Bomb Group. Alma Joyce Hahn of the Benton Courier describes the book as ""an adventure story you will laugh, you will wipe a tear away; you will be inspired.""""

"Winged History: The Life and Times of Kenneth L. Chastain, Aviator, Updated Edition" is a must read for anyone interested in 20th century American aviation history. The visually documented chronicle, written by Chastain's only son, Ken Jr., traces the life of an American pilot over a period of 37 years and aircraft from early wood and fabric, small horsepower biplanes to the advanced Boeing 707 jetliner. In addition, Ken Jr. adds his intimate perspective on being the son of a professional pilot. Like most pilots of his era, Ken Sr flew military aircraft during World War II. "Winged History" details major milestones in American political and technological history, interwoven with Chastain's historical aviation adventures, and now updated to include even more interesting and insightful information.

Feb 22, 1944-July 21, 1944

The history of seven unique American combat "aces" of World War II and Korea.

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.

Silent Heroes is an amazing tribute to the bravery of American servicemen during the early years of World War II. The author has compiled his extensive research on many of the American pilots and crews that went down over occupied Czechoslovakia during February through July of 1944 and produced a touching book worthy of the soldiers it describes. Silent Heroes, Volume I is not about just one unit, but rather it is about the 8th - 9th & 15th Air Force aircrafts lost over occupied Czechoslovakia in 1944.

This study explains how Westland dominated British helicopter production and why government funding and support failed to generate competitive "all-British" alternatives. In doing so, the book evaluates broader historiographic assumptions about the purported "failure" of british aircraft procurement during the early post-war period and considers the scope and limitations of licensed production as a government-mandated procurement strategy.

Written by award-winning Canadian radio-journalist Ray E. Zink, this is the true story of Joe Maloney, a B-24 tail gunner during WWII. After training, Joe was attached to the 15th Air Force, 415th Squadron based in southern Italy. Joe partakes in countless missions until one fateful day in 1944 during a bombing run to Steyr, Autstria. Riddled with flak and bullets, Maggie's Drawers, his B-24, receives a fatal hit. Her crew was forced to bail out over Yugoslavia. The story unfolds as Joe's crewmates are reunited on the ground, and are led by Allied Partisans to the free-zone. This is a gripping story of American boys trapped behind enemy lines, and a heroic group of locals who risked their lives to save them.

This volume deals with the development of Britain's air defences during the years leading up to the outbreak of World War II, and the development of the system during the early period of the war, leading up to the Battle of Britain. Originally classified as "secret," this report was written during the war as an internal Air Ministry history by Cecil James, a historian working for the Air Historical Branch.
The report describes the development of Fighter Command and the air defence network, often called the "Dowding System," and in doing so makes it clear how much of the groundwork for success was laid down in the 1920s by those working at a time when radar had yet to be developed. It was indeed the integration of technological advances such as radar and reasonably efficient radio telephones that allowed the defences to keep pace with the ever-increasing speed and sophistication of bomber aircraft. The result was the world's first truly integrated air defence network, designed to give its commanders botha picture of the enemy's air attacks as they developed and a sophisticated command system to assign and control the defending forces sent up to meet the enemy in the air.

This work examines the evolution of the RAF's operational requirements for its home defence air force - for bombers to mount a deterrent counter offensive and for fighters to provide direct defence of Britain. It discusses the management processes, policies and decisions relevant to operational requirements on the basis of a detailed study of Air Ministry papers of the time. By tracing the development of operational requirements, the author exposes the thinking behind the RAF's quest for effective fighter and bomber aircraft. He describes the ideas and concepts of air warfare that were adopted in the 1920s, and shows how these evolved into the Air Staff's requirements for the aircraft which the RAF entered and fought in World War II.

This study considers the complex interplay of factors that shaped and formed the selection, retention, abandonment, and development of the system of flying fields and air bases for the U.S. Army Air Corps and its predecessor organizations over the three decades preceding WWII--a period that has been only cursorily examined from the point of view of ground facilities. No previous works have focused on the question of why air bases are located where they are. Author Jerold E. Brown has consulted an abundance of source materials to create the comprehensive eight-chapter volume: printed hearings, documents, and reports generated by Congress; maps, blueprints, staff studies, the correspondence of the Office of the Chief Signal Officer, and several hundred volumes of the Constructing Quartermaster Completion Reports in the National Archives; and unit histories and typescript field histories. Hundreds of articles on the construction and operation of airfields, many written by serving officers, as well as technical manuals, and correspondence of the Office of the Chief of Air Service and Chief of the Air Corps were only part of the data surveyed in preparing the fact-filled text. Eight period photos of airfields from Alaska to Texas, six maps, seven figures, and eight tables complement such chapters as Plans, Parade Grounds, and Politics and Air Bases, Plans, and Preparations. This history of the development of early airfields should help to correct previously held views and assumptions on the subject based on a lack of in-depth research in this area and will be a real treasure trove of information for scholars of Military History.

Human Resource Management in the British Armed Forces continues to grow in importance. A great deal of emphasis has now been placed on people issues and these will grow in importance, particularly for the services, as the full effects of the Human Rights Act 1998 and implications of the Macpherson Report begin to hit home.

This is the second volume of the classified history of air defence in Great Britain. Written while World War II was still being fought, the account has an analysis of the defensive tactics of Fighter Command, and attempts a day-by-day analysis of the action as it took place.

Years before Charles Lindbergh's flight from New York to Paris electrified the nation, a group of daredevil pilots, most of them veterans of the World War I, brought aviation to the masses by competing in the sensational transcontinental air race of 1919. The contest awakened Americans to the practical possibilities of flight, yet despite its significance, it has until now been all but forgotten. In The Great Air Race, journalist and amateur pilot John Lancaster finally reclaims this landmark event and the unheralded aviators who competed to be the fastest man in America. His thrilling chronicle opens with the race's impresario, Brigadier General Billy Mitchell, who believed the nation's future was in the skies. Mitchell's contest-critics called it a stunt-was a risky undertaking, given that the DH-4s and Fokkers the contestants flew were almost comically ill-suited for long-distance travel: engines caught fire in flight; crude flight instruments were of little help in clouds and fog; and the brakeless planes were prone to nosing over on landing. Yet the aviators possessed an almost inhuman disregard for their own safety, braving blizzards and mechanical failure as they landed in remote cornfields or at the edges of cliffs. Among the most talented were Belvin "The Flying Parson" Maynard, whose dog, Trixie, shared the rear cockpit with his mechanic, and John Donaldson, a war hero who twice escaped German imprisonment. Jockeying reporters made much of their rivalries, and the crowds along the race's route exploded, with everyday Americans eager to catch their first glimpse of airplanes and the mythic "birdmen" who flew them. The race was a test of endurance that many pilots didn't finish: some dropped out from sheer exhaustion, while others, betrayed by their engines or their instincts, perished. For all its tragedy, Lancaster argues, the race galvanized the nation to embrace the technology of flight. A thrilling tale of men and their machines, The Great Air Race offers a new origin point for commercial aviation in the United States, even as it greatly expands our pantheon of aviation heroes.

In 1937, Dornier obtained a patent for a plane with two engines in the fuselage, driving the pull and push propellers. The design was marked P.59, and its concepts were refined in 1939 in the P.59-05 variant, after which the design was put in a drawer. This type of plane was not needed at the time. Nevertheless, limited experimental work was carried out, the result of which was a small Goppingen Go-9 plane, with an aerodynamic system obtained from P.59, as well as three-support landing gear with a front wheel and an engine driving a push propeller through a long shaft. The results of these experiments were used when designing the P.231 aircraft in several variants - also combining piston and jet propulsion. When in 1942 the RLM announced the requirements for a high-speed multipurpose aircraft, the equivalent of the British Mosquito, Dornier proposed the P.231 as a rather unusual answer. Despite the risks posed by the different P.231 concept, Dornier was commissioned to build several prototypes.

This book covers the complete development history of those variants of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 powered by inline engines. The first Fw 190 equipped with a Daimler Benz liquid-cooled engine took to the air in early 1942, followed six months later by another powered by a Jumo 213. Production of the Fw 190 C, Fw 190 D and Ta 153 was delayed by the German air ministry. Not until 1944, by which time Germany had lost control of the air, did the Fw 190 D-9, an interim fighter powered by the Jumo 213 A, enter production. The Fw 190 D-9 proved an immediate success, largely due to an excellent prototype test program under Dipl.Ing. Hans Sander. The type quickly entered service with the Luftwaffe and more than 1,700 examples were completed by the end of the war. The Fw 190 D-9 gave rise to a number of improved variants with the more powerful Jumo 213 F engine and a heavier armament, however only a handful of the D-11 and D-13 versions were completed. With a maximum speed of 750 km/h, the Fw 190 D-12 powered by the new Jumo 213 EB would have represented the apex of Fw 190 development. The proposed Fw 190 D-14 and D-15, both powered by improved versions of the dive-bombers 603, came too late to see service with the Luftwaffe.

This first of two volumes on the Supermarine Spitfire covers the design, testing, development, and early WWII combat use of the famed British fighter aircraft's initial variants. The Spitfire in its original marques up to the Mk. VII provided a platform that allowed the Royal Air Force to challenge the German Luftwaffe's Messerschmitt Bf 109 and Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighters during the 1939-1942 period of WWII. The book also covers the Seafire Marques I to III, which provided similarly valuable service for the British Navy's Fleet Air Arm.

Warfare in the first half of the 20th century was fundamentally and irrovocably altered by the birth and subsequent development of air power. This work assesses the role of air power in changing the face of battle on land and sea. Utilizing late-1990s research, the author demonstrates that the phenomenon of air power was both a cause and a crucial accelerating factor contributing to the theory and practice of total war. For instance, the expansion of warfare to the homefront was a direct result of bombing and indirectly due to the extent of national economic mobilization required to support first rate air power status. In addition, the move away from the principle of total war with the onset of the Cold War and the replacement of air power by ICBMs is thoroughly examined. This work should provide students of international history, war studies, defence and strategic studies with an insight into 20th-century warfare.

In the light of new archival material the editors take a fresh look at Russian aviation in the twentieth century. Presenting a comprehensive view of Russian aviation, from its genesis in the late czarist period to the present era, the approach is essentially chronological with a major emphasis on the evolution of military aviation. The contributions are diverse, with appropriate attention to civilian and institutional themes.