The flying machines that pushed the boundaries of aerospace development. “A close-up survey of 50 of arguably the most remarkable and influential aircraft in aviation history.... Beautifully presented... this book will grace the coffee table of any aviation aficionado.” —Airforce Magazine. In December of 2019, Vancouver-based airline Harbour Air took to the sky in a 1956 De Havilland Beaver retrofitted to fly on battery power. Eschewing aviation fuel and easily able to fly commuter distances, this old new plane took the first steps of 21st-century flight. 50 Aircraft That Changed the World is about exactly this type of flight revolution. Written by the authors of the widely acclaimed Aviation Century series, it profiles 50 of history’s most influential aircraft and their pilots and designers. Now an aviation classic, the book has been reformatted to a smaller size but otherwise remains the same. It begins with the 1905 Wright Flyer III, and moves on to the birth of aerial warfare in World War I, the trailblazers of the interwar years, classic World War II aircraft, the jets of the Korean and Vietnam wars, modern commercial carriers, private jets, experimental designs and new combat fighters featuring stealth technology. Featured aircraft in 50 Aircraft That Changed the World include: Fokker E.111, Charles Lindbergh’s Ryan NYP, Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed Vega, Messerschmitt Bf 109, Supermarine Spitfire, Boeing B-17, Avro Lancaster, De Havilland Mosquito, Howard Hughes’s Lockheed Constellation, Concorde, Learjet, Boeing B-52, Rutan Voyager. Hundreds of colour and archival photographs enhance the informative and entertaining text making this an ideal choice for aviation buffs.

Featuring the collection of airplanes, art, photographs, and memorabilia of the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, this magnificently illustrated book tells the story of the beginnings of flight, through the creation of the U.S. Air Force as a separate branch of the military, to the unbelievable technological achievements of what is the preeminent air power in the world today. Here are combat aces, Medal of Honor recipients, crusty generals, and average citizens who served in the Air Force. There are philosophers, airplane designers, test pilots, rocket scientists, armorers, and grease monkeys. More than 250 color and 150 black-and-white illustrations and photos and insightful text present the story of the U.S. Air Force of yesterday, today, and tomorrow, published on the occasion of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the United States Air Force.

I bid adieu to Glasgow and my childhood slums, boarded the S.S Georgic and took residence in Hamilton, Canada, until the pristine shores of Kaslo B.C. drew me and there I settled and built my vessel, and the world lay awaiting. Unknowingly, yet those poverty years in a Clyde side shipyard prepared me, for with rusted scissors and cardboard I cut insoles for my ever leaking shoes, and with needle in hand discovered the art of darning my socks, and that needle, that had fitted so well in my young and artless fingers in fifty years would once again reside, in my now blue veined and gnarled hands.
The fifty years flew and I was in Papua New Guinea, cleared by a corrupt custom's agent and about to be thrown in jail. I quickly left only to sail into the challenging monsoons as they vied for the supremacy of the sea, while I journeyed through them to the birth place of typhoons, which left me with tattered sails, a lack of food, a voyage of 125 days that took fifty pounds of my body weight, and an experience never regretted, for it brought a light that brightened all - Epiphany.