The China Clipper was the first of three Martin M-130 four engine flying boats and shattered aviation records on its maiden six-day flight from California to the Orient in 1935; the flying boat became an instant celebrity. This lively history by Robert Gandt traces the development of the great flying boats as both a triumph of technology and a stirring human drama. He examines the political, military, and economic forces that drove its development and explains the aeronautical advances that made the aircraft possible. To fully document the story he includes interviews with flying boat pioneers and a dynamic collection of photographs, charts, and cutaway illustrations. The China Clipper remained in service until January 8, 1945, when it was destroyed in a crash in Port of Spain, Trinidad. Sixteen passengers and nine crew members were killed. About the Author Robert Gandt is a former naval officer, international airline captain, and air show performer. A resident of Port Orange, FL., he is the author of thirteen books, including Bogeys and Bandits.

The first official history of the legendary aircraft carrier that fought in World War II and Vietnam and continues to serve as a major air and space museum in New York City
The USS "Intrepid" is a warship unlike any other. Since her launching in 1943, the 27,000-ton, "Essex"-class aircraft carrier has sailed into harm's way around the globe. During World War II, she fought her way across the Pacific--Kwajalein, Truk, Peleliu, Formosa, the Philippines, Okinawa--surviving kamikaze and torpedo attacks and covering herself with glory. The famous ship endured to become a Cold War attack carrier, recovery ship for America's first astronauts, and a three-tour combatant in Vietnam.
In a riveting narrative based on archival research and interviews with surviving crewmen, authors Bill White and Robert Gandt take us inside the war in the Pacific. We join "Intrepid"'s airmen at the Battle of Leyte Gulf, in October 1944, as they gaze in awe at the apparitions beneath them: five Japanese battleships, including the dreadnoughts "Yamato" and "Musashi," plus a fleet of heavily armored cruisers and destroyers. The sky fills with multihued bursts of anti-aircraft fire. The flak, a Helldiver pilot would write in his action report, "was so thick you could get out and walk on it." Half a dozen "Intrepid" aircraft are blown from the sky, but they sink the "Musashi. "A few months later, off Okinawa, they" "again meet her sister ship, the mighty "Yamato." In a two-hour tableau of hellfire and towering explosions, "Intrepid"'s warplanes help send the super-battleship and 3,000 Japanese crewmen to the bottom of the sea.
We're next to nineteen-year-old Alonzo Swann in Gun Tub 10 aboard "Intrepid" as he peers over the breech of a 20-mm anti-aircraft gun. He's heard of kamikazes, but until today he's never seen one. Swann and his fellow gunners are among the few African Americans assigned to combat duty in the U.S. Navy of 1944. Blazing away at the diving Japanese Zero, Swann realizes with a dreadful certainty where it will strike: directly into Gun Tub 10.
The authors follow "Intrepid"'s" "journey to Vietnam. "MiG-21 high!" crackles the voice of Lt. Tony Nargi in his F-8 Crusader. It is 1968, and "Intrepid" is again at war. Launching from Yankee Station in the Tonkin Gulf, Nargi and his wingman have intercepted a flight of Russian-built supersonic fighters. Minutes later, after a swirling dogfight over North Vietnam, Nargi--and "Intrepid"--have added another downed enemy airplane to their credit.
"Intrepid: The Epic Story of America's Most Legendary Warship "brings a renowned ship to life in a stirring tribute complete with the personal recollections of those who served aboard her, dramatic photographs, time lines, maps, and vivid descriptions of "Intrepid"'s deadly conflicts. More than a numbers-and-dates narrative, "Intrepid" is the story of people--those who sailed in her, fought to keep her alive, perished in her defense--and powerfully captures the human element in this saga of American heroism.

A year and a half into her first term as President of the United States, Libby Paulsen is in a world of trouble. Her controversial agenda has placed her in a doomsday clash with a right wing cabal led by an enigmatic Air Force general. The conspirators will stop at nothing-including assassination-to remove Libby Paulsen from office. When the cabal targets Air Force One, Libby's Presidency-and her life-rest in the hands of a maverick pilot named Pete Brand, a man with whom the President shares a long-smoldering secret. The President's Pilot is a high stakes political and military thriller drawn from today's-and tomorrow's-explosive headlines.

"The Twilight Warriors" is the engrossing, page-turning saga of a tightly knit band of naval aviators who are thrust into the final--and most brutal--battle of the Pacific war: Okinawa.
April 1945. The end of World War II finally appears to be nearing. The Third Reich is collapsing in Europe, and the Americans are overpowering the once-mighty Japanese Empire in the Pacific. For a group of young pilots trained in the twilight of the war, the greatest worry is that it will end before they have a chance to face the enemy. They call themselves Tail End Charlies. They fly at the tail end of formations, stand at the tail end of chow lines, and now they are catching the tail end of the war. What they don't know is that they will be key players in the bloodiest and most difficult of naval battles--not only of World War II but in all of American history.
"The Twilight Warriors" relives the drama of the world's last great naval campaign. From the cockpit of a Corsair fighter we gaze down at the Japanese task force racing to destroy the American amphibious force at Okinawa. Through the eyes of the men on the destroyers assigned to picket ship duty, we experience the terror as wave after wave of kamikazes crash into their ships. Standing on the deck of the legendary superbattleship "Yamato, " we watch Japan's last hope for victory die in a tableau of gunfire and explosions.
Among the Tail End Charlies are men such as a twenty-two-year-old former art student who grows to manhood on the day of his first mission over Japan and his best friend, a ladies' man and intrepid fighter pilot whose life abruptly changes when his Corsair goes down off the enemy shore. Another is a young Texan lieutenant who volunteers for the most dangerous flying job in the fleet--intercepting kamikazes at night over the blackened Pacific. Their leader is a charismatic officer who rises to greatness in the crucible of Okinawa. Directing the vast armada of sea, air, and land forces is a cast of brilliant and flawed commanders--from the imperturbable admiral and master of carrier warfare to the controversial soldier assigned to command the land forces.
The fate of the Americans at Okinawa is intertwined with the lives of the "young gods"-- the honor-bound Japanese airmen who swarm like killer bees toward the U.S. ships. The kamikazes are dispatched on their deadly one-way missions by a classic samurai warrior who vows that he will follow them to a warrior's grave.
The ferocity of the Okinawa fighting stuns the world. Before it ends, the long battle will cost more American lives, ships, and aircraft than any naval engagement in U.S. history. More than simply the account of a historic battle, "The Twilight Warriors" brings to life the human side of an epic conflict. It is the story of young Americans at war in the air and on the sea--and of their enigmatic, fanatically courageous enemy.

"From the Hardcover edition."