This untold story of early jet development, surviving the collapse of the Reich, and starting over in America is recounted by Reiner Decher, whos father Siegfried was an engineer on the team that designed the engine for the Me 262. Germany built the first operational jet aircraft during World War II, the Messerschmitt Me 262. Siegfried Decher ......

Air Commodore John Langers career has been eventful to say the least. During the Second World War he flew gliders in India in preparation for airborne assaults in Burma, one of the most perilous landscapes to pass across during this time. Post-war, he served on a fighter squadron in Germany and in Malaya, where he was recommended for an AFC. ......

Unpublished, candid interviews with crucial figures in early American aviation, including Jimmy Doolittle, Alexander Seversky, George Kenney, Reuben Fleet, and many more. McCook Field was a small air base in Dayton, Ohio, that was active only from 1917 to 1927. McCook was exceptional because it was designated by the US Signal Corps / Army Air ......

The Gloster Javelin was the UKs first line of night and all-weather air defence both at home and in RAF Germany. In the 1950s, when it replaced the Meteor and Venom, this revolutionary bomber interceptor became integral to many great stories told here in terrific detail. With an unorthodox aerodynamic design, the Javelin initially had major ......

Gnat Boys relates the history of the aircraft and includes many fascinating and untold stories told by those who flew the aircraft, many of them well-known and distinguished aviators. The Folland Gnat was used by the RAF mainly in the advanced training role, in the 1960s and 70s, where it proved to be an ideal lead-in trainer for high ......

Helicopters have been going to sea with the Royal Navys Fleet Air Arm for over 70 years. Initially used for search and rescue (SAR) duties from aircraft carriers, the rapid development of both the helicopters and service experience resulted in them taking on the vital anti-submarine (and later anti-ship) attack roles. The 1956 Suez campaign saw ......

Having flown an astonishing 400 different aircraft, as a licensed Category 1 test pilot and flight test instructor for both aeroplanes and helicopters, Chris Taylor is arguably one of the best qualified and widely experienced test pilots working today anywhere in the world. After obtaining his private pilots licence at the age of just 17, Chris ......

A white-knuckle account of life in the dog-eat-dog arena of fighter combat This is the story of what it takes to make it in fighter combat. In the cockpit or crew room, the pressure is relentless, the humour merciless. Its no place for the faint-hearted. Whether landing on a pitching aircraft carrier deck at midnight, or saving heroes under ......

Glamour, danger, liberation: in a Mad Men era of commercial flight, Pan Am World Airways attracted the kind of young woman who wanted out, and wanted up

Required to have a college degree, speak two languages, and possess the political savvy of a Foreign Service officer, a jet-age stewardess serving on ......

 THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

An inspirational read celebrating the incredible young people who gave so much for this iconic British aircraft. John Nichol, bestselling author of Spitfire: A Very British Love Story

Despite the many films and television programmes over the ......

Now remarkably in its 28th edition, ever since it was first published in the 1960s every edition of Wrecks & Relics has been eagerly sought after by aviation enthusiasts, restorers and curators alike. It is renowned as the go-to source charting the highlights, changes and trends in the preservation of the aviation heritage of the British Isles. ......

This is a detailed and fully illustrated monograph which chronicles and considers the camouflage and markings of aircraft operated by the Royal Navy between 1937 and 1941. Among the types included are the Supermarine Walrus, Blackburn Shark, Blackburn Skua, Blackburn Roc, Gloster Sea Gladiator, Hawker Osprey IV, Fairey Swordfish, Fairey Seafox, ......

As a child, Dilip Sarkar was fascinated by the haunting image of an anonymous RAF Spitfire pilot. Taken minutes after landing from a Battle of Britain combat, this was Squadron Leader Brian Lane DFC, the commander of 19 Squadron, based at Fowlmere - and author of the stirring first-hand account Spitfire! The Experiences of a Fighter Pilot, ......

The world is at war-Pearl Harbor and WWII. A desire to serve, a chance to fly-he joins the navys V-5 program, the finest flight training ever devised. Come fly with him in open-cockpit biplanes, low-wing trainers, dive bombers, and fighters as he wins the gold wings of a naval aviator, an officers stripes, and the designation of carrier-based ......

Flying Camelot brings us back to the post-Vietnam era, when the US Air Force launched two new, state-of-the art fighter aircraft: the F-15 Eagle and the F-16 Fighting Falcon. It was an era when debates about aircraft superiority went public-and these were not uncontested discussions. Michael W. Hankins ......

This volume presents the history of the American jet aircraft manufacturing industry from World War II to 1972, documenting the evolution of its technology and covering the intricacies of its management, economics, and relations with the government. A valuable contribution to general aviation history, it also provides a unique opportunity to ......

Howard Hughes life ambition was to make a significant contribution to the field of aviation development. But the monumental folly of his endeavours on the HK-I Hercules meant that he came to be known and remembered to a great extent for all the wrong reasons. The Spruce Goose (a name Hughes detested) became a product of his wild fixation on ......

Just eighteen months after two Frenchmen made the worlds first ever flight, a fearless British woman hopped into a flimsy balloon and flew across the London sky for nearly an hour. Since then, many other remarkable British women have decided to defy traditional society and follow their dreams to get into the sky. For the first time, Magnificent ......

Lavishly illustrated and meticulously researched, aviation specialist Ingo Bauernfeinds new Boeing 747 history celebrates more than half a century of an enduring aviation icon that has changed commercial aviation since its maiden flight in 1969. With personal accounts written by former pilots and crew members, it covers the aircrafts early ......

The biography of Frank Whittle - RAF pilot, mathematician of genius, inventor of the jet engine and British hero.

The story of Frank Whittle - RAF pilot, mathematician of genius, inventor of the jet engine and British hero.

In 1929, a twenty-two-year-old maverick named Frank Whittle - a self-taught aeronautical obsessive and ......

No symbol better conveys the intrepid spirit of Australia than the flying kangaroo. Whether it’s glimpsed on a red-eye flight to an interstate business meeting, before leaving for adventure or holidays, or when longing to return home, that sweep of red defines air travel in Australia.

Qantas has always been about ......

In July 1962 Brian Smith joined British European Airways (BEA) as a steward. In 1991 he retired as a Senior Training Captain with British Airways. Brian describes this remarkable development, recalling some of the many hurdles and adventures along the way.

The title of the book, Straighten Up and Fly Right, seems to describe his ......

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 ......

Amelia Earharts prominence in American aviation during the 1930s obscures a crucial point: she was but one of a closely knit community of women pilots. Although the women were well known in the profession and widely publicized in the press at the time, they are largely overlooked today. Like Earhart, they wrote extensively about aviation and ......

 This book is a visual biography of the legendary Swiss aviation pioneer Alfred Comte (1895-1965). Combining historical photos and documents with texts by Comtes son (also Alfred) and grandson the photographer Michel Comte, the book is the first to comprehensively explore the aviators extraordinary life and achievements. Alfred ......

The RAF Halton Apprenticeship Scheme has a deserved reputation for excellence. The brainchild of MRAF Hugh Trenchard, the founder of the Royal Air Force, it took the traditional idea of an apprenticeship and interpreted it in a novel way. It allowed teenage boys from any social background or geography to learn a technical trade that would equip ......

This is an extraordinary story, beginning with a bare-foot colonial childhood, and indeed not speaking English until he was four, yet ending up at Cambridge, ultimately dealing at the highest levels of the Russian aviation industry. Richard Goode’s life has been a fascinating series of activities, both social and business, dealing with an ......

Britain has more successful airlines than any country in Europe. In fact, if judged proportionately against the size of her population, more than any other country in the world. The explanation lies partly in her history and partly in her people.

As an island nation which once ruled a vast empire and had to import a third of its ......

Why did the British, then the leading nation in science and technology, fall far behind in the race to develop the aeroplane before the First World War? Despite their initial advantage, they were overtaken by the Wright brothers in America, by the French and the Germans. Peter Reese, in this highly readable and highly illustrated account, ......

The Tiger Moth is one of the major aviation success stories in the history of British aviation. Developed by Geoffrey de Havilland and flown for the first time on October 26 1931, the biplane became the most important elementary trainer used by Commonwealth forces. More than 1,000 Tiger Moths were delivered before WWII, and subsequently around ......