"It was a moment of revelation for me. I was seventeen when I learned to fly, just a stupid kid, and if I knew then what I know now, I wouldn't have done it. I didn't necessarily regret it, in fact quite the opposite; I love to fly. I love everything about it. I just suddenly realized that I'm not inherently brave enough of a person to have put myself through all that I've endured while chasing the clouds. I was a kid so squarely risk averse that I demanded everyone get their money back after playing cards for pennies and nickels. I was a kid who was intimidated by the challenges involved with earning Boy Scout badges or the honor roll. If I had been offered a safe, effortless, and boring destiny, to never have to face the unknown, I would've taken it and probably never looked back."

Bud Davidson recalls his own 25 years of volunteering. Using interviews, the story builds on the experiences of many others that led a small weekend fly-in to become an international multi-million dollar event. Sources include little known debates that are documented in the minutes of Board and Executive Committee meetings. He has compiled a record of the transition from a small membership convention to an internationally recognized exposition some consider the second largest aviation event in the world. The stories related here have been verified by documents and photos portraying the experiences of volunteers who return each year, something many have done for the entire life of this unique event.

An in-depth history of the time when airpower became the great equalizer, changing military strategy forever and bringing once-safe targets in reach. Military Aircraft, 1919-1945: An Illustrated History of Their Impact covers a crucial era in modern warfare technology. Ranging from the development of airpower doctrines in the aftermath of World War I to the aircraft and missions that put those doctrines into action during World War II, it provides an expert summing-up of the decades when the use of aircraft in battle came of age. In chapters covering both the history of air power and specific types of aircraft (fighters, bombers, reconnaissance and auxiliary planes), Military Aircraft, 1919-1945 introduces key theorists and designers, describes important changes in technology and production, and recreates spectacular episodes from Pearl Harbor to the London Blitz to the Enola Gay. Readers will see the dramatic impact of the first generation of modern military aircraft on land and sea. They will also see how the expansion of war to the skies brought economic opportunity to some home fronts, and looming terror and devastation to others. Comparative charts of aircraft production of the major powers during the interwar years and the Second World War Approximately 80 photographs and tables of the most important aircraft of the era, organized by type and by country

Come take a flight with Pan Am Captain Bill Travis - from Tennessee farm boy to high school dropout, working in the Detroit car factories, to professional pilot and captain for Pan Am. Hear from the cockpit of a Pan Am Boeing 747 what really goes on behind the scenes: the banter, the problem passengers, the celebrities, the scary moments. This is not a story of how one man got lucky and achieved his dream - Bill had a method - and in this book he shares it with the reader alongside the fascinating story of his life. Much more than just a reminiscing retiree, Captain Bill shares the secrets of his success - a success that continues to this day. Not a man to slow down, Bill followed up his piloting with a career as a professional musician, running his own 17-piece dance orchestra in San Francisco. Now living in Phoenix, Arizona, Bill divides his time between managing his own real estate business and writing. Read his first book, "Pan Am Captain: Aiming High" and be inspired by the journey of Captain Bill Travis. He will motivate you to Aim for High Goals

Ron Gluck, bush pilot and international relations liaison, glances back in time, anecdotally revisiting flying, language gems, and conversation slices occurring from 1963 to 2007 in Papua New Guinea, Cameroon, Washington, D.C., and New York City.

He flew five thousand accident-free hours mostly in single engine planes over uncharted mountainous terrain of Papua New Guinea and later in charted Cameroon. The safety he attributes to God's grace and to superb maintenance by fellow JAARS specialists.

The incidents revisited were central to events that took place but were never scrutinized. Dismissed as coincidence, they were accepted as "how things worked out." In his review, Gluck suggests a continuing role of the Creator in the world today in ways seldom discussed, but alluded to with these questions.

Is not the living God, maker of heaven and earth, still involved in weather, ideas, timing, and answering prayers?

Doesn't He who gives life also sustain heartbeats and breathing in every living being, including those reading this profile?

"What a precious manuscript ...just now finished reading it and did not want it to end."

--Linda Hancock, librarian

"Reading your book at same time as John 7:18. You've glorified Him."

--Kenneth Gray, PhD, Economic Research Service, USDA, retired

"Your Lamnso story showed how Bible translators have given one isolated culture after another a giant step forward, reducing their speech to texts that can then be read by others. No wonder the Lamnso were thrilled, and deeply grateful "

--Robert Park, professor emeritus of law, the George Washington University

The four volumes of the encyclopedia of Cameroon 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 a contextual fashion. The first volume has a detailed text of country legislation, including national cases and materials, while the second volume focuses on international aviation law treaties, international cases and materials, and Aircraft Refueling Indemnity (Tarbox) Agreements.

Much has been written in the West on the history of the Soviet space program but few Westerners have read direct first-hand accounts of the men and women who were behind the many Russian accomplishments in exploring space. The memoir of Academician Boris Chertok, translated from the original Russian, fills that gap. In Volume 1 of "Rockets and People," Chertok described his early life as an aeronautical engineer and his adventures as a member of the Soviet team that searched postwar, occupied Germany for the remnants of the Nazi rocket program. In Volume 2, Chertok takes up the story after his return to the Soviet Union in 1946, when Stalin ordered the foundation of the postwar missile program at an old artillery factory northeast of Moscow. Chertok gives an unprecedented view into the early days of the Soviet missile program. With a keen talent for combining technical and human interests, Chertok writes of the origins and creation of the Baykonur Cosmodrome in a remote desert region of Kazakhstan. He devotes a substantial portion of Volume 2 to describing the launch of the first Sputnik satellite and the early lunar and interplanetary probes designed under legendary Chief Designer Sergey Korolev in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He ends with a detailed description of the famous R-16 catastrophe known as the "Nedelin disaster," which killed scores of engineers during preparations for a missile launch in 1960.