Archive for Items Categorized 'Aviation', only excerpts shown, click title for full entry.

L.A. Birdmen, West Coast Aviators and the First Airshow in America

by Richard J. Goodrich

This small book could have had any number of titles. The story really begins in San Francisco, and years before the 1910 L.A. Meet. The Wright Bros mainly come off as obstructionists. From pilots to makers to business groups, conflict abounds. Happy reading.

Rising Ground and No Room to Turn, A Biography 

by Vivien Eyers

When you design, build, and fly your own aircraft—especially if they were never certified—you’ll have some stories to tell. While the protagonist really had no inclination to do that he left enough material behind for his sister to give it a whirl.

The Avro Shackleton: The Long-Serving ‘Growler’

by Jason Nicholas Moore

The Shack is indeed named after the polar explorer because they both went on far-away and long-lasting missions to inhospitable places. It entered service in 1951 and stuck around for 40 years and of all the books about it, this is the most comprehensive.

American Eagles, A History of the United States Air Force (2nd Ed.)

by Daniel Patterson & Clinton Terry

It’s the 75th anniversary of the USAF and the 100th of the NMUSAF so of course there needs to be a book! This is an update of the 50th anniversary book that had been written by a high-ranking British RAF officer.

The Last Enemy

by Richard Hillary

After being shot down in the Battle of Britain this Spitfire pilot endured pioneering plastic surgery to rebuild his face and hands. While recovering, he wrote this memoir, then returned to flying again. Two months later was shot down again, at 23. This time he died.

Sea Flight: The Wartime Memoirs of a Fleet Air Arm Pilot

by Hugh Popham

The first published memoir by a British WW II fighter pilot. Not a story of fly-boy derring-do but quiet reflection.

Half Century, Baby! Fifty Years of the Grumman F-14 Tomcat

by David Parsons and Mads Bangsø

This is one of the top books on the subject, thanks to the authenticity and competence of the many people who were interviewed for it.

GHOSTS 2024 Calendars, The Great War & A Time Remembered

by Philip Makanna

If you didn’t know these are photographs you’d swear they must be paintings. Some of these air-to-air shots look completely impossible to capture while everything is moving any which way.

The Nature of World War I Aircraft, Collected Essays 

by Javier Arango

Reading about vintage aircraft is one thing, and for many the closest they will get, but Arango had the means and the mindset to actually experience them, first by restoring or recreating them and then flying them—and then writing about it.

101 Hours in a Zeppelin

Ernst August Lehman and the Dream of Transatlantic Flight, 1917

by Robert S. Pohl

Primarily based on a large trove of letters by a civilian scientist who field-tested new concepts on military airships this book explores a familiar subject from a new angle.

Flying and Preserving Historic Aircraft, The Memoirs of David Ogilvy

by David Ogilvy

Can’t tell roll from bank? Ever put a fuel-soaked rag into your carb intake to encourage combustion? Ever piloted a 1910 triplane, or the first British jet? Ogilvy’s highly polished prose will transport you into the cockpit.

Airway to the East 1918–1920 and the Collapse of No.1 Aerial Route RAF

by Clive Semple

The Arab-Israeli conflict is in the news every day. This book revisits a story related to it but buried since 1919 and deals with early long-distance flying in general.

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