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

I’m Not the Only Idiot in the Cockpit

by Dennis Breen

A funny memoir that at times makes you doubt the man never had an actual accident in all his years of flying or being around aircraft in other capacities (cf. repo man!).

The VanDersarl Blériot: A Centenary Celebration

by Javier Arango & Philip Makanna

This spindly French machine made aviation history when it became the first heavier-than-air aircraft to cross the English Channel. Two American youngsters got excited. So they decided to build their own. It still flies, more than a hundred years later. See it here.

Landings in America: Two People, One Summer, and a Piper Cub

A Flying Memoir

by Peter Egan

A memoir of a 7000-mile flight across the US in a 1945 Piper. It took place 40 years ago, a boom time for private aviation in the US.

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.

Eastern Air Lines: A History, 1926–1991

by David Lee Russell

Once upon a time Eastern was the most profitable airline in the postwar era. It became Walt Disney World’s official airline. Then: strikes, fuel crisis, deregulation, management shake-ups—bankruptcy.

The Trans-Atlantic Pioneers

by Bruce Hales-Dutton

2019 marked the centenary of the first nonstop transatlantic flight. You’d think the world would be awash in books about that—but it’s not! Good thing this is a fine book, albeit bland.

Trailblazer in Flight, Britain’s First Female Jet Airline Captain

by Yvonne Pope Sintes

“Airworthiness” of a different kind is the topic here: can—should—a woman be at the helm of a commercial airliner? You’ll shudder at some of the reactions in her time (1950s), and then you’ll shudder some more because glass ceilings are still very real today.

Tupolev Tu144: The Soviet Supersonic Airliner

by Yefim Gordon, Dmitriy Komissarov, Vladimir Rigmant

This icon of Soviet national prestige did take to the skies before the Concorde but ended up having a much shorter service life. Of the few publications devoted specifically to this aircraft, this book is the most complete yet.

Transatlantic Airships: An Illustrated History

by John Christopher

From luxuriously appointed people-hauling “pond hoppers” that actually flew, to proposed atomic-powered leviathans replete with helipads this book takes a look at how to cross vast distances.

Balloonomania Belles: Daredevil Divas Who First Took to the Sky

by Sharon Wright

“Balloon influenza.” (Gesundheit) Women parachuting out of balloons, dangling from ropes beneath it or sitting on a trapeze, calmly reading a (car!) magazine while sailing through a rainstorm? Prepare to be surprised.

Dornier Do X: The Story of Claude Dornier’s Legendary Flying Boat

by Volker A. Behr

It was the biggest aircraft of its day but only three were built. It took twelve years to design—and less than half that time to withdraw them from service. What happened?

« Older Entries