In this book, expert author Paul Crickmore leads the reader deeper than ever before into the 'Black World' of the A-12 and SR-71 top-secret reconnaissance mission. For the first time, detailed accounts from CIA and USAF pilots bring to life the experience of flying highly classified missions in the Blackbird, whilst Allied and former Warsaw Pact fighter pilots describe their efforts to intercept the spy-plane. Travelling more than a mile every 2 seconds and flying fifteen miles above the earth's...
In what has been described as the greatest raid of all, Operation Chariot saw heavy destruction of the enemy-occupied port of St Nazaire by British forces. Winged Chariot examines the role that the RAF played during this epic raid on 28th March 1942. With focus on the planning and actions of the operation, Peter Lush explores the three functions carried out by the RAF; the sweeping of the Bay of Biscay, the diversionary raid and protecting the withdrawing survivors. He also outlines the import...
From September 1940 until May 1941, Britain - especially Greater London - suffered heavily under a barrage of day and night-time raids by the then mighty Luftwaffe; raids which killed some 20,000 people and destroyed or damaged one million homes during what came to be known as the London Blitz. A baby blitz' followed, from January to May 1944, which was destined to be the final manned bomber offensive by a much depleted Luftwaffe. Afterwards, there came the last gasp, the final blitz on London,...
Duke started WWII as a fighter pilot with 92 Squadron at RAF Biggin Hill. Awarded the DSO, he became an RAF test pilot towards the end of the war, and continued as a peacetime test pilot with the Hawker Aviation Company. Published in 2003, marking the 50th anniversary of the Hawker Hunter’s world speed record.
William M. Leary Jr.'s study combines history with personal drama to reconstruct an important chapter in the early years of aviation. He has conducted intensive research in American governmental archives, the Hoover Institution, and numerous libraries throughout the United States, in addition to obtaining access to the records of Pan American Airways (who bought out CNAC in 1933). His history of CNAC offers insights into the history of modern China and sheds light on several key aspects of Sino-...
This fascinating account of the development of aviation in Alaska examines the daring missions of pilots who initially opened up the territory for military positioning and later for trade and tourism. Early Alaskan military and bush pilots navigated some of the highest and most rugged terrain on earth, taking off and landing on glaciers, mudflats, and active volcanoes. Although they were consistently portrayed by industry leaders and lawmakers alike as cowboys—and their planes compared to sett...
Between July and October 1940, in what became known as the Battle of Britain, a nation held its breath while the pilots of the Royal Air Force battled Hitler's Luftwaffe in the skies above England. A huge number of airmen lost their lives in this hard-fought episode and in the four years of air campaigns that followed, and those who survived faced terrifying risks; as Prime Minister Winston Churchill put it, 'Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few'. In this be...
The story of A.V. Roe and Company Ltd (Avro) begins in the very earliest years of aviation, only three years after man's first powered flight. Alliot Verdon Roe was one of Britain's pioneer aviators and in 1910 he founded the company that bears his name. Famous for well-designed, reliable aeroplanes, Avro's greatest achievements were two bombers - the Lancaster and the Vulcan, which captivate public imagination to this day. Avro expert Harry Holmes has written the complete history of this much-l...
A book of cutaways of aircraft from aerospace manufacturer Lockheed Martin. Aircraft illustrated include the Hudson bomber, Constellation, P3 Orion anti-submarine plane and the gigantic Galaxy transport, to the SR-71 spyplane, the world's fastest air-breathing aircraft.
Airbus Wide-bodied Jetliners (Osprey Civil Aircraft S.)
by Robbie Shaw
Concentrating solely on Airbus's wide-bodied airliners - the A300, A310, A330 and A340 - the book presents detailed histories of all the variants, the airlines that flew them and the colour schemes they wore, both standard and one-off designs.
This handsomely illustrated book, published in celebration of the 100th anniversary of powered flight, tells the story of the brothers whose ingenuity and ambition left an indelible mark on aviation's history. Aided by over 100 rarely seen photographs from the Wright brothers' personal collection, Kitty Hawk and Beyond details not only the historic first flight of December 17, 1903 but also describes the founding of Wright Company; the Wrights' celebrated tour of Italy and Germany; Wilbur's unti...
The Story of Transatlantic Flight (Airlife's Classics S.)
by David Beaty
The Atlantic had proved a graveyard for many ships, and when the first butterfly craft began to fly it, all the omens warned that it would swallow up planes as well. Opening with a passenger in the 1970s who is taking off in a jumbo jet, this text unfolds the tapestry of what went before.