Valuable reference to rudder markings of many pilots, including aircraft type and unit.

On 13 September 1931 the Schneider Trophy was won outright for Britain on Southampton Water by Flt Lt John Boothman flying Supermarine S6B, S1595, with a record-breaking average speed of 379.08mph. Ralph Pegram relates the story of the Schneider Trophy competitions and describes the development of British high-speed seaplane designs. He examines the anatomy of the S6B (including the Rolls-Royce R engine), as well as giving rare insights into its flying characteristics and how it was maintained, operated and - of course - raced in the final competition.

The ATL-98 Carvair is a truly unusual aircraft. Converted from 19 C-54 World War II transport planes and two DC-4 airliners into a small fleet of air ferries by Aviation Traders of Southend, England, the Carvair allowed commercial air passengers to accompany their automobiles onboard the aircraft. The planes were dispersed throughout the world, operating for 75 airlines and transporting cars, royalty, rock groups, refugees, whales, rockets, military vehicles, gold, and even nuclear material. After more than 45 years, two Carvairs were in 2008 still in service. This comprehensive history of the ATL-98 Carvair, begins with corporate histories and profiles of key players, including William Patterson, Donald Douglas, and Freddie Laker. Four chapters illustrate the evolution of the car-ferry as a viable aircraft, the history of Aviation Traders, engineering details incorporated into the Carvair's production, and major Carvair operators. Chapters on each of the fleet's 21 planes provide individual histories and anecdotes. Seven appendices provide several kinds of data and the book is fully indexed.

Originally published during the early part of the twentieth century, the Cambridge Manuals of Science and Literature were designed to provide concise introductions to a broad range of topics. They were written by experts for the general reader and combined a comprehensive approach to knowledge with an emphasis on accessibility. Aerial Locomotion by E. H. Harper and Allan Ferguson was first published in 1911. The volume presents a statement of the technical principles underlying aeronautics. An introduction by G. H. Bryan is also included.

Among the iconic aircraft of World War II, the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt not only was physically the biggest single-engine fighter, it also had an enormous impact on history. In terms of its combat effectiveness, P-47 fliers destroyed 7,067 hostile aircraft, with about half of those "kills" recorded during aerial combat. Thunderbolt pilots reported destroying 6,000 enemy tanks, 68,000 trucks, 86,000 railway cars, and 9,000 locomotives. For a single-engine fighter, such a tally is definitely one for the history books. The history of this iconic aircraft is presented through carefully researched archival photos, as well as photographs of preserved examples, thereby illustrating not only the combat use of the Thunderbolt, but also the details of its design and construction. Large, clear photos, coupled with descriptive and informative captions, put the reader on the airfield and in the sky with this historic aircraft. Part of the Legends of Warfare series.

A pioneering aviator and advocate of women's equality, Amelia Earhart was, and continues to be, an inspiration to people the world over. Her fierce determination to break records and push the boundaries of aviation led her to become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean in 1932, as well as the first person (man or woman) to fly solo the trans-Pacific flight from Hawaii to California in 1935. Not content to leave it at that, Amelia set her sights on becoming the first woman to circumnavigate the world, but her brave attempt was cut short when she and her navigator, Fred Noonan, vanished over the Pacific Ocean on the final stretch of the challenge in 1937. Eighty years on and our fascination with Amelia Earhart continues. Here, Mike Roussel charts her life and experiences, exploring the investigations and theories surrounding her mysterious disappearance and revealing the naturally courageous spirit that made her one of the most daring of twentieth-century women.

From ABDUL to ZEKE, this handbook covers all Allied designations for Japanese Navy/Army aircraft of WWII. Each aircraft is presented alphabetically according to its code name, and is also cross-referenced to its official (long) designations and project (short) designations.

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.

That's one small step for man... The Moon has always fascinated humans, and thoughts on how to get there occupied minds for hundreds of years. During the space race, setting foot on the Moon was the ultimate goal and the Apollo missions to the Moon are amongst the most successful and well-remembered manned space flights that NASA ever accomplished. In Project Apollo Norman Ferguson reveals fascinating facts and figures, and recounts amazing stories about the astronauts and their spacecraft, and how they made the giant leap for mankind.

This book covers the use and development of one the Luftwaffe's largest planes, the Messerschmitt Me 321/323.

The Corsair no doubt appears at the top of the list of mythical aircraft which have left their mark on aviation history. As I am more particularly an illustrator, I have given priority to the illustrations and iconography, followed by explanations which are deliberately concise but as rigorous as possible.
The aim was to tell the thirty year story of the Corsair's extraordinary career from its baptism of fire in the Pacific to African skies, passing through the Far-East and a less martial but nonetheless virile interlude in the colorful and exhilarating world of the Pylon Races. This book, which is actually the reissue, substantially increased of the previous edition published in 2003 and now out of print, does not claim to be exhaustive and is destined as much to the enlightened amateur as to the neophyte, in whom perhaps will appear a new love for the fabulous Bent wing Bird.

Lockheed's SR-71 Blackbird is one of the most iconic and famous jets ever built. Assembled in secret at Lockheed's Skunkworks, the Blackbird's vital statistics remain phenomenal decades later. It holds the airspeed record for a manned jet aircraft, operated at an altitude other aircraft could barely touch and was a marvel of technical engineering. Drawing on declassified material, leading SR-71 expert Paul Crickmore reveals the history of the most fascinating of aircraft, accompanied by a range of fantastic illustrations, photographs and facts about the world's most secret spy plane.

This book is a concise, illustrated history of the US Navy and Marine Corps most versatile jet strike fighter, the Boeing F/A-18 A-D Legacy Hornet. Presenting a historical perspective of the Legacy Hornet from its origins through todays use in the fleet, this edition explores the aircrafts various model upgrades and variants. The F/A-18 began as a less expensive complement to the Grumman F-14 Tomcat and Grumman A-6 Intruder, and was a replacement for the McDonnell-Douglas F-4 Phantom II and LTV A-7 Corsair II. The Hornet evolved into a capable multi-mission strike fighter, performing fighter, suppression of enemy air defense, and light attack missions. This volume features a number of high-quality images that highlight the aircraft throughout its Navy and Marine Corps career.

This book, the first in a multi-volume history of German aviation, provides a comprehensive and detailed analysis of of jet aircraft design and development in Germany. The solid description, unique photo material, historical documents, numerous drawings and complete data tables - published for the first time - make this book not only a gripping story but also an indispensable reference work for anyone with an interest in the development of aviation. In August 1939 in Germany a small propellerless aircraft took off on its maiden flight under conditions of utmost secrecy: the world's first jet aircraft. Apart from Ernst Heinkel, Hans Joachim Pabst von Ohain (inventor of the turbojet engine) and a small circle of their co-workers, no one suspected the profound effect that the successful flight of the tiny He 178 would have on aviation. Spurred on by Heinkel's success, very high speed aircraft were also put into the air by Messerschmitt, Arado and Junkers. On the other hand the designers of jet engines initially encountered almost insuperable problems, for in wartime high-quality raw materials such as nickel, cobalt and molybdenum were unobtainable and substitute materials had to be used in their place. But the designers, who were rushing ahead with their own projects, found a way around this with the help of experienced test pilots: in 1940 the Heinkel 280, the first twin-engined jet aircraft, was flown without engines as a towed glider; Messerschmitt installed an auxiliary piston engine in the nose of its twin-engined Me 262; Arado equipped its twin-engined Ar 234 with jet engines intended for ground tests only. The test pilots became accustomed to landing on just one working engine or none at all. In spite of shortages of strategic materials and the use of replacements, jet engines reached the production stage by the end of the war. But it was only possible to put small numbers of the very high speed aircraft into service, too late to have any decisive effect on the war. The development work on these first jet aircraft led to a tremendous technological leap forward; it was the beginning of advanced technology in aircraft design.

The RAF Halton Apprenticeship Scheme has a deserved reputation for excellence. The brainchild of MRAF Hugh Trenchard, the founder of the Royal Air Force, it took the 'traditional' idea of an apprenticeship and interpreted it in a novel way. It allowed teenage boys from any social background or geography to learn a technical trade that would equip them for their future lives, within and beyond the RAF. It also gave the best an opportunity to become pilots and break into the once public-school-dominated officer class. Of the 50,000 boys trained as apprentices, seventeen won the Sword of Honour at Cranwell, and more than 1,200 were commissioned with 110 achieving Air Rank. Eighteen have been knighted, with well over 1,000 others being honoured at various levels of state. More than a hundred Halton Boys served as pilots in the Battle of Britain (and many more as airframe/engine fitters and armourers), including the mercurial Don Finlay, the former Olympic hurdler. Others like Gerry Blacklock and Pat Connolly flew bombers on perilous missions over Western Europe or took part in the famous 'Dams' Raid. Then there were the three men murdered for their part in the Great Escape, and those who battled and survived years as prisoners of the Japanese in the Far East. In the jet era, ex-apprentice Graham Hulse became an 'ace' in Korea, serving with an American fighter squadron, and Mike Hines went on to become OC 617 Squadron after having first flown operations during the Suez crisis. Others like Charles Owen became a pioneer commercial jet pilot, and Peter Goodwin had the misfortune of being captured in the first Gulf War and used as a human shield. Some forged successful careers beyond the RAF, like Lawrie Haynes, who was on the main board at Rolls-Royce and is now chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund, and Eugene Borysuik - one of the many Polish apprentices trained at Halton, who enjoyed a successful career at GEC. And there were many others beyond air and ground crew including policemen, government officials and even bishops whose careers started with the Halton family. This is the story of Halton told through and by the boys who were there and who are still proud to be called 'Trenchard Brats'.

1930-1940 era Junkers aircraft in its civilian and wartime roles.

Richly illustrated with paintings by noted aviation artists, this informative tribute to one hundred years of aviation ranges from the Wright brothers' first successful flight in 1903 to the present day, capturing the extraordinary innovations in aricraft and aviation technology over the past century.

The Albatross was the premier fixed-wing rescue aircraft for the U.S. Air Force and Coast Guard. Its very colorful history begins in 1946 and spans nearly a quarter of a century, including service with twenty-two foreign nations. With a total of 466 built by Grumman, more than eighty examples still thrive on the civil register. The Albatross also saw extensive service in the Korean and Vietnam wars. The fascinating history of this unique aircraft is complemented by over 200 photographs including many in color showing the great variations in color schemes and markings.

On 19 July 1989, while United Airlines flight 232 wallowed drunkenly northwest of the airport at Sioux City, Iowa, hundreds of fire and rescue workers waited. The plane slammed onto the runway, broke into pieces and burst into a fireball. The rescue workers did not move: nobody could survive that crash. And then people began walking out of the field lining the runway. Miraculously, 184 of 296 passengers lived-138, unhurt. Laurence Gonzales, interviewed dozens of the survivors of Flight 232. He takes the reader through the detective work that found the fatal flaw in an exploded titanium fan disk. More powerful still is the heroism he found: pilots flying a plane with no controls; flight attendants keeping their calm in the face of certain death; passengers sacrificing themselves to save others.

Ever since man has taken to the air, flight has exerted a strong, almost irresistible, appeal on many to follow a life of flying-not only to allow it to be more than just a hobby, but to make it one's avocation. Many who have followed this call have written of this journey and how they pursued the various forms of flying - their first flight, their first job flying for hire, and a look back at their career.
In The Outer Whorl, Essays by an Airline Pilot, Neal Schier takes a slightly different tact in recounting his pursuit of flying, because paradoxically, flight itself was just one of the attractions that led him to follow the call that so many before him had heeded. His path was not the simple, almost linear progression, which has marked many aviators' careers. Neal, in a continuum of twenty related essays, examines the unease of a quotidian life in a sterile office and the desperation that set in at a young age to pursue something outside of a normal career path. To see the world and learn of one's strengths and weaknesses while forging a profound appreciation for his fellow crew members.
Through this pursuit came a deep appreciation for the allure inherent in aviation and a respect for the uncertainty that flits and flickers behind the beautiful mask that flight wears. This appreciation extends far beyond just the attraction of flight however, as he charts the admiration of strength and resolve that he finds in his fellow pilots, flight attendants, and other airline employees after the horrors of 9/11-an admiration won by the close work in an airliner's cockpit during hours of fatigue, stress, and challenge.
Introspectively, but not solipsistically so, Neal traces his development first as a military aviator and then as a commercial airline pilot. His nontechnical writing puts the reader alongside him in the cockpit as a witness to the mind-set of a pilot as he charts a course around the world-a course that often leads to self-examination and what one learns about self and others. His narrative details what it was like to lose nearly twenty years of work as his airline struggled with bankruptcy and near liquidation. He raises the question if the turbulence of the career was worth the years of sacrifice and dedication and thus, touches on an idea that thousands of the wondering and wandering souls of aviation continue to ask. His reflection and memories bring a surprising answer that is framed from the recurring themes of beauty, appreciation, and admiration.

Along with the Bf 109, the Fw 190 was a stalwart of the Luftwaffe and one of the top fighters of WWII.

When Winston Churchill delivered his famous 'Iron Curtain' speech in 1946, he mentioned two words now engrained in Anglo-American terminology - 'special relationship'. Nowhere is the 'special relationship' more evident than in the scores of airfields used by the United States Army Air Forces during the Second World War. Today, just a handful remain in active service. Yet they continue to bind the United Kingdom and United States together. US Air Force Bases in the UK examines the history and continuing use of modern-day British airfields by the US Air Force. It also chronicles the many others that survived the Second World War, but not the passage of time. While most have been reclaimed by agriculture, one thing that still endures is the 'special relationship'. This book retraces its concrete paths.