Archive for Author 'Mike Jolley', only excerpts shown, click title for full entry.

The First Jet Pilot: The Story of German Test Pilot Erich Warsitz

by Lutz Warsitz

In just a few short years Warsitz went from fledgling sport flier to chief test pilot at Peenemünde West. What he knew was so valuable that the Russians hauled him off to Siberia after WWII when he wouldn’t spill the beans!

Britain’s Greatest Aircraft

by Robert Jackson

Radar, jet engine, ejector seat, VTOL—these are just some of the technologies that carry a “Made in the UK” label. The book describes the design, development, and operational highlights of 22 significant examples of British fixed-wing aircraft.

Heroes and Landmarks of British Aviation

by Richard Edwards and Peter Edwards

Higher, faster, further. This book traces the successes and failures of the men and women—and even the industry as a whole—that advanced aviation.

From Supermarine Seafire XVII to Douglas DC-10, A Lifetime of Flight

by Ronald Williams

By looking over Williams’ shoulder as he pilots a great variety of aircraft in many different parts of the world you a sense for the practical and technical aspects of commercial flight from its early piston days to the jet age.

Hitler’s Eagles: The Luftwaffe 1933–45

by Chris McNab

A good one-stop survey of both the good and the bad, the weak and the strong of an essential part of the war effort that started as a dominant air force and then deteriorated.

4 Group Bomber Command, An Operational Record

by Chris Ward

It’s difficult when dealing with numbers and statistics and lists and more lists not to forget that all these data points involve real people and real pain. Chris Ward does well on both counts.

The Four Geniuses of the Battle of Britain: Watson Watt, Henry Royce, Sydney Camm & RJ Mitchell

by David Coles & Peter Sherrard

Radar, airframes, and aero engines played a key role in this predominantly aerial engagement. This book presents bios and work histories of four of the men in the design offices in the years before the war.

Pure Luck, The Authorised Biography of Sir Thomas Sopwith

by Alan E. Branson

Camel, Pup, Hurricane, Typhoon, Tempest, Lancaster, Harrier. You know the names, now meet the man behind them and many other aviation, business, and sporting accomplishments.

Secrets of the Spitfire

by Lance Cole

Adding a new chapter to the voluminous Spitfire literature, this book tells the story of a brilliant but quiet aerodynamicist whose seminal work is only in recent years being recognized.

Ultimate Spitfires

by Peter Caygill

This book looks at the later marks of the famous airplane and their special modifications.

Vulcan Test Pilot: My Experiences in the Cockpit of a Cold War Icon

by Tony Blackman

Although there have been many books written about the Vulcan bomber program, this is the first to be authored by one of the project’s test pilots. Blackman logged over 1300 hours flying 105 of the 136 copies built and offer here a first-hand commentary

Joint Strike Fighter: Design and Development of the International Aircraft

by Gerard Keijsper

Keijper’s excellent book tells the story of how the US aerospace industry took many ideas, some good others improbable, over a quarter century of model and wind tunnel testing to create, after many iterations, a viable supersonic vertical take off fighter.