Warfighters takes a first-hand look at how the U.S. Air Force creates its most elite, highly trained aircrews, and provides an inside look at the USAF Weapons School at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, one of the Air Force\s most highly classified programs. There is a detailed look at the USAF Weapons and Tactic Center and the 57th Wing both residing at Nellis, "The Home of the Fighter Pilot".\nOver an entire six month course, the authors were given unprecedented access to the leaders, instructors and students during the intense and demanding curriculm. Fly with A-10 Warthogs, E-16 Vipers, F-15E Strike Eagles and many other sophisticated aircraft as the crews put their knowledge to the test during the programs\ final two week "war".\nWarfighters also contains interviews with some of the most important figures in the history of the USAF, many of whom have fought and won in the skies over Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq.

This is the true story of one of the most successful of all United States Navy Fighting Squadrons in World War II. They were the top guns of their day and came to be feared by the Japanese fighter pilots who described them as attacks on us by wolves. Their victorious achievements are as follows: 152 Japanese planes destroyed in the air and two on the ground in only 76 days of combat; five small enemy cargo ships and 17 barges carrying troops and supplies sent to the bottom of the sea. No bomber escorted by them was lost to enemy aircraft and no ship covered by them was ever hit by bomb or aerial torpedo. The squadron had thirteen aces and two more who later went on to become aces with VF-84 (combat veterans of VF-17 composed the nucleus of this squadron). They were the first Navy squadron into combat action with the new Chance Vought Corsair and were instrumental in proving this powerful new fighter to the Navy. VF-17 were known as the Skull and Crossbones squadron and Blackburn's Irregulars - having adopted the old pirates ensign of the Jolly Roger as the squadron insignia; since World War II they have become known as the Jolly Rogers. The Skull and Crossbones Squadron is a mission by mission chronicle of all the squadron's great air battles. Also included are more than 350 photographs and detailed appendices listing all squadron aces, every confirmed victory and war diary.

The first U.S. night/all-weather fighter aircraft is chronicled, as is its use by Air Defense Command, Continental Air Command, Alaska and others.

The North American XB-70 is one of the most unusual looking aircraft in aviation history, and only two were constructed. It was originally designed as a Mach 3 high-altitude bomber, but was later used as a research aircraft. This new book by John Campbell and Garry Pape gives a short, detailed history of the XB-70, including production, flight tests, and the fatal crash of Aircraft #2 in 1965. Aircraft #1 is now at the U.S. Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB.

The international bestselling author returns with an exploration of one of the grandest obsessions of the twentieth century

'The Bomber Mafia is a case study in how dreams go awry. When some shiny new idea drops from the heavens, it does not land softly in our laps. It lands hard, on the ground, and shatters.'

In the years before the Second World War, in a sleepy air force base in central Alabama, a small group of renegade pilots put forth a radical idea. What if we made bombing so accurate that wars could be fought entirely from the air? What if we could make the brutal clashes between armies on the ground a thing of the past?

This book tells the story of what happened when that dream was put to the test. The Bomber Mafia follows the stories of a reclusive Dutch genius and his homemade computer, Winston Churchill's forbidding best friend, a team of pyromaniacal chemists at Harvard, a brilliant pilot who sang vaudeville tunes to his crew, and the bomber commander, Curtis Emerson LeMay, who would order the bloodiest attack of the Second World War.

In this tale of innovation and obsession, Gladwell asks: what happens when technology and best intentions collide in the heat of war? And what is the price of progress?

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2022 BY PUBLISHERS WEEKLY After a few billion years of bearing witness to life on Earth, of watching one hundred billion humans go about their day-to-day lives, of feeling unbelievably lonely, and of hearing its own story told by others, The Milky Way would like a chance to speak for itself. All one hundred billion stars and fifty undecillion tons of gas of it. It all began some thirteen billion years ago, when clouds of gas scattered through the universe's primordial plasma just could not keep their metaphorical hands off each other. They succumbed to their gravitational attraction, and the galaxy we know as the Milky Way was born. Since then, the galaxy has watched as dark energy pushed away its first friends, as humans mythologized its name and purpose, and as galactic archaeologists have worked to determine its true age (rude). The Milky Way has absorbed supermassive (an actual technical term) black holes, made enemies of a few galactic neighbors, and mourned the deaths of countless stars. Our home galaxy has even fallen in love. After all this time, the Milky Way finally feels that it's amassed enough experience for the juicy tell-all we've all been waiting for. Its fascinating autobiography recounts the history and future of the universe in accessible but scientific detail, presenting a summary of human astronomical knowledge thus far that is unquestionably out of this world.

The Red Taylorist traces the adult life and works of Walter Polakov, focusing on his socialist scientific management ideals and the ways these were constrained by conventionality in the USA in the first half of twentieth century. Tracing Polakov's activities and achievements, this book explores the contradictions of a prolific writer, socialist engineer and scientific management ideologue in the decades until his death in 1948. Written from a management history scholarly perspective, it presents a unique and detailed viewpoint. There have been no prior biographies on Polakov, and very few on his fellow scientific managers, consulting engineers, or like-minded public intellectuals. Moreover, perceptions of scientific management or Taylorism have tended to emphasise the negative impacts on workers, whereas Polakov's socialist commitment suggests a much more nuanced approach. Aimed at scholars of management and history of management, Diana Kelly offers a detailed narrative of this important individual, while greatly enriching understanding of the broader historical and industrial context.

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).

The McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18 Hornet is presented here showing its development, production and use by the United States Navy, Marine Corps and by various foreign air forces. Use by the Blue Angels, and the very latest model updates are included.

Richard Bueschel revises and updates his classic series of books on Japanese Naval and Army Air Force aircraft of World War II. The Japanese navy Mitsubishi/Nakajima G3M1/2/3 96 RIKKO (Nell) is presented in this volume. All variations and markings are covered in this sixth book in a multi-volume series.

Project Manhigh took humans to the threshold of space using balloons. In the 1950s, a small band of Air Force doctors were on the cutting edge of the United States' space research programs. Working at the Aeromedical Field Laboratory at Holloman Air Force Base in southern New Mexico, they used balloons to carry laboratory animals followed by human pilots above 99% of the atmosphere. Drawing upon flight reports and technical data, this book documents Project Manhigh and the high altitude flights that preceded it. The Manhigh flights were, in many ways, prototypes for future space missions. On each of the three flights, the Air Force placed a lone pilot in a sealed capsule nineteen miles above the ground. At such extreme altitudes, the pilots were well within the functional equivalent of outer space and needed the sealed capsule to survive. Manhigh existed prior to the creation of NASA and helped pave the way for human space exploration.

The 8th fought the best Zero pilots, and took the war to the enemy with P-38s over Rabaul and Hollandia.

Global Control aims to achieve a clearer understanding of the long process of globalization by focusing on the crucial role of information and control technologies. Information systems and control technologies are key to globalization and, while generally facilitating the overall trend to spatial reorganization, they also effect change through the pervasive influence of 'internal systems logic'. Thus, the author argues, the dominant institutions of states, firms and markets transform global development and are themselves transformed by key information technologies. More specifically the book identifies the key phases of modern globalization and analyses the crucial role played by different information technologies at each point in time. Peter McMahon uses theory in political economy with writing on technological developments, and also combines cutting edge theory with historical evidence which provides a new explanation of the last two and a half centuries of global development. This unique book will be of great interest to academics and researchers of political economy, globalization, innovation and science as well as international business scholars.

This important volume reviews the history of the telecommunication superhighway pointing out its beginnings in the interactive TV and broadband highway of the wired cities more than two decades ago. It explains the technological uncertainties of the superhighway and many of its futuristic services, and also gives an understandable review of the technological principles behind today's modern telecommunication networks and systems.
Recognizing that technology is only one factor in shaping the future, the author, a well-recognized telecommunications expert, analyzes the financial, policy, business, and consumer issues that undermine the superhighway. The book concludes by showing that today's switched telephone network and CATV systems already form a telecommunication superhighway carrying voice, data, image, and video communication for a wide variety of services that enable us to stay in contact with anyone anywhere on our planet.
"Highway of Dreams" is written clearly with understandable explanations for nonspecialists. It challenges the technological utopia offered by the promoters of the superhighway and suggests that consumer needs, finance, corporate culture, and policy often have far greater impact on the future than technology alone.

During the late 1930s the He 100 was the fastest aircraft, yet was used only for propaganda purposes.

Stephen Ambrose is the acknowledged dean of the historians of World War II in Europe. In three highly acclaimed, bestselling volumes, he has told the story of the bravery, steadfastness, and ingenuity of the ordinary young men, the citizen soldiers, who fought the enemy to a standstill -- the band of brothers who endured together.

The very young men who flew the B-24s over Germany in World War II against terrible odds were yet another exceptional band of brothers, and, in The Wild Blue, Ambrose recounts their extraordinary brand of heroism, skill, daring, and comradeship with the same vivid detail and affection. With his remarkable gift for bringing alive the action and tension of combat, Ambrose carries us along in the crowded, uncomfortable, and dangerous B-24s as their crews fought to the death through thick black smoke and deadly flak to reach their targets and destroy the German war machine.

A revealing genealogy of image-recognition techniques and technologies   Today’s most advanced neural networks and sophisticated image-analysis methods come from 1950s and ’60s Cold War culture—and many biases and ways of understanding the world from that era persist along with them. Aerial surveillance and reconnaissance shaped all of the technologies that we now refer to as computer vision, including facial recognition. The Birth of Computer Vision uncovers these histories and finds connections between the algorithms, people, and politics at the core of automating perception today. James E. Dobson reveals how new forms of computerized surveillance systems, high-tech policing, and automated decision-making systems have become entangled, functioning together as a new technological apparatus of social control. Tracing the development of a series of important computer-vision algorithms, he uncovers the ideas, worrisome military origins, and lingering goals reproduced within the code and the products based on it, examining how they became linked to one another and repurposed for domestic and commercial uses. Dobson includes analysis of the Shakey Project, which produced the first semi-autonomous robot, and the impact of student protest in the early 1970s at Stanford University, as well as recovering the computer vision–related aspects of Frank Rosenblatt’s Perceptron as the crucial link between machine learning and computer vision. Motivated by the ongoing use of these major algorithms and methods, The Birth of Computer Vision chronicles the foundations of computer vision and artificial intelligence, its major transformations, and the questionable legacy of its origins. Cover alt text: Two overlapping circles in cream and violet, with black background. Top is a printed circuit with camera eye; below a person at a 1977 computer.

The aim of the book is to report the recent research development of ancient glass and glazing technology and the historical-cultural exchange of the East and West along the Silk and Steppe Roads. The contents of this book are dedicated to promote the exchanges between researchers in both social and scientific fields.The scope of this book includes the new archaeological findings of ancient glass and faience in the world, the relationship of glassmaking with glazing technology, the development and application of modern techniques used for the characterization of ancient glass and glaze, compound colorants/opacifiers among ancient glass, the early exchanges of culture and techniques used between China and elsewhere along the Silk and Steppe Roads, and so on.

They were in a two-man race to break the sound barrier. It was October 1947, a time before high-speed digital computers, when predictions of what would happen to fighter planes at such speeds were nebulous. Chuck Yeager and George Welch, two great fighter pilots from World War II, were about to explore the unknown in the bright blue sky over the Mojave Desert. Aces Wild: The Race for Mach 1 is the story of these two courageous men who dueled to become the first to fly at supersonic speed, Mach 1, in an aircraft. The book attempts to set the record straight as to who actually broke the sound barrier first. One pilot, the more celebrated of the duo, is still alive today. Aces Wild also tells the story of the other aviator, George Welch, who lost his life in 1954 while once again flying beyond the technological wisdom of his day over the Mojave Desert. Aces Wild traces the story of fighter planes from the start of World War II at Pearl Harbor through the transition to jets in the 1950s. The author reveals the views of supersonic flight before and after 1947 by pilots, scientists, engineers, business interests, the government, and the media. This dramatic tale will appeal to aviation buffs and all readers, especially those who enjoyed Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff.

Winner of the Neumann Prize for the History of Mathematics.

In their second collaboration, biographers Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman present the story of Claude Shannon—one of the foremost intellects of the twentieth century and the architect of the Information Age, whose insights stand behind every computer built, email sent, video streamed, and webpage loaded. Claude Shannon was a groundbreaking polymath, a brilliant tinkerer, and a digital pioneer. He constructed the first wearable computer, outfoxed Vegas casinos, and built juggling robots. He also wrote the seminal text of the digital revolution, which has been called “the Magna Carta of the Information Age.”

In this elegantly written, exhaustively researched biography, Soni and Goodman reveal Claude Shannon’s full story for the first time. With unique access to Shannon’s family and friends, A Mind at Play brings this singular innovator and always playful genius to life.

This thorough study of the history, development and service of floatplanes carried on battleships and cruisers documents a long neglected subject for the first time in over 400 photographs. From the 1920s through World War II, aircraft operating from catapults were used for spotting gunfire and scouting ahead of the fleet. Flying these planes was unique and the dramatic launching and recovery operations are covered by both photographs and text. Colors and markings are detailed and special attention has been paid to images showing catapult and ship details for both the ship and aircraft modeler. The assignment of all aircraft by type, totals, squadrons and ship is given annually from 1942 to 1949. In addition to rare photos of all of the experimental aircraft that were tested for this purpose, an addition chapter covers floatplanes used on small ships and submarine. William Larkins is also author of The Ford Tri-Motor 1926-1992, and U.S. Navy Aircraft 1921-1941, U.S. Marine Corps Aircraft 1914-1959(both titles are available from Schiffer Publishing Ltd.).