The airline industry is in a state of radical restructuring as its markets and key stakeholders (customers, airline labour and management groups, governments, and the financial community) adjust to the new aviation realities. Airline executives can be forgiven for being overwhelmed by technology proliferation, zestful new paradigm airlines, September 2001, business cycles, Iraq, SARS, and animal diseases. The leadership challenge for all carriers is now to select and execute appropriate business models, thinking both 'inside' and 'outside' the 'box', to turn conventional wisdom upside down to achieve dramatic increases in productivity. Some legacy carriers still need to create an effective strategy for much larger cycles that encompass major discontinuities. Burdened by past decisions, they are forced to fight with one hand tied behind their back to 'convert volume to value', to survive and prosper. Some new airlines have been at the forefront of shaping change, developing a vision of the mass-market, assessing the customer value of their core processes, and using a 'back-to-basics' business approach. Both groups should take a sideways glance at what works in other industries and implement those insights into actions.

With its low fares and friendly service, Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) was one of the most successful regional airlines in American history. Its distinctive orange, red, and white planes, complete with a beaming smile were immediately recognizable to those living on the West Coast. The airline was also known for employing beautiful and sociable flight attendants. Kenny Friedkin, the founder of PSA, started in 1949 with one leased DC-3 and expanded his fleet to serve millions of passengers each year. Although PSA is no longer in operation, its successful business model of low-priced, efficient service was copied by other airlines and today is considered the norm. In addition, former PSA employees still gather annually to relive the camaraderie they experienced as being a part of one of the most unique airlines of all time.

This is the story of dedicated men and women who are and were the backbone of aviation. They took all they had and bought 60 acres of land 35 miles from the city and proceeded to build an airport mostly with the blood, sweat and tears from their brows. None of them saw great wealth from their endeavor however, they were doing what they loved: living and sleeping with airplanes. They fueled them, repaired them, stored them and in some cases even taught in them.

It's 1918. An American pilot, flying for the Lafayette Flying Corps, finds himself fighting for his life in what could be his last dogfight. Escape seems impossible - a crash seems inevitable. He will need a lot of help and a lot of luck to survive.

Flying is sometimes defined as "hours and hours of sheer boredom punctuated by moments of stark panic." In HANGER FLYING, Lt/Col Alfred J. D'Amario shares many of those "moments of stark panic" that punctuated the 5,000 or so flying hours he accumulated during his twenty years in the Air Force. The author, who much prefers to be called Joe, takes the reader through Basic and Advanced pilot training, transition to jets, fighter gunnery and fighter bomber training and real combat in Korea. Then there are six years of "peace time" flying in Training Command followed by eleven years of Cold War missions in the six engine B-47 and eight engine B-52. But, Hanger Flying is about in-flight emergencies and hair-raising experiences, not about the hours and hours of just boring holes in the sky. Hanger Flying (the practice, not the book) is what assembled pilots do when they aren't flying. It is a "Can you top this?" exercise in story telling. And that is what the author does in this easy reading, fast paced account of many of the close calls he had both in and out of combat.

Sherwood recounts the story of American Air Force pilots in the Korean War and the development of a lasting fighter-pilot culture The United States Air Force fought as a truly independent service for the first time during the Korean War. Ruling the skies in many celebrated aerial battles, even against the advanced Soviet MiG-15, American fighter pilots reigned supreme. Yet they also destroyed virtually every major town and city in North Korea, demolished its entire crop irrigation system and killed close to one million civilians. The self-confidence and willingness to take risks which defined the lives of these men became a trademark of the fighter pilot culture, what author John Darrell Sherwood here refers to as the flight suit attitude. In Officers in Flight Suits, John Darrell Sherwood takes a closer look at the flight suit officer's life by drawing on memoirs, diaries, letters, novels, unit records, and personal papers as well as interviews with over fifty veterans who served in the Air Force in Korea. Tracing their lives from their training to the flight suit culture they developed, the author demonstrates how their unique lifestyle affected their performance in battle and their attitudes toward others, particularly women, in their off-duty activities.

The three volumes of the Encyclopaedia of International Aviation Law are intended for students, lawyers, judges, scholars, and readers of all backgrounds with an interest in aviation law and to provide the definitive corpus of relevant national and regional legislation, including global aviation treaties and legislation, to enable all readers without exception to develop the background, knowledge, and tools to understand local, regional, and international aviation law in contextual fashion.

Aviation safety is of global concern. This book is about one person's experience as a non-hypocritical safety regulator in a challenging environment. The author has found her amazing career experience interesting to share. The hazards of playing politics and being hypocritical with safety regulation are clearly reflected in this book. From the human angle, it shows the ugly face of office politics and power play and their detrimental effects on those at the receiving end. The rather slow pace of progress in the aviation regulatory entity since the author's ordeal and her subsequent forceful retirement is a lesson in why responsible authorities shouldn't be cutting their noses to spite their faces.

Boeing's 737 is indisputably the most popular and arguably the safest commercial airliner in the world. But the plane had a lethal flaw, and only after several disastrous crashes and years of painstaking investigation was the mystery of its rudder failure solved. This book tells the story of how engineers and scientists finally uncovered the defect that had been engineered into the plane.

Jim Reed has had a life of diverse adventure. From sending U-2's to the North Pole, retrieving missiles in the open ocean, and a flying and boating career that spanned the world, he has done just about everything that you could pack into one lifetime. "Turning Final" captures those adventures and shares it with all of us who dream of meeting exciting challenges. This story is about a real life pilot/sailor who accomplished things that most people only dream about while at the same time he and his lovely wife raised a family of four boys. His life truly spans the world.

"Curious about the specifications and particulars of a canvas-covered, seat-of-the-pants biplane of the fledgling U.S. Army Air Corps? Or a computer-laden, titanium-clad supersonic modern jet? Here are 327 instant portraits (complete with dimensions, weight, power plant, performance, armament) of the most famous as well as lesser-known American fighters, bombers, transports, flying boats, trainers, helicopters, and reconnaissance aircraft."--BOOK JACKET. "Each entry includes a photograph of the aircraft, service dates, manufacturer, records set, engineering and performance history, technical innovations, and even operational problems. Special attention is paid to the aircraft of America's "Golden Age, " 1919-1939, and the important technological developments that took place during that period."--BOOK JACKET.