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

Spitfire Manual
 1940

by Dilip Sarkar (Editor)

From the “Forget-Me-Nots for Fighters” to many other instructional booklets and manuals for pilots of the famous Supermarine Spitfire, this book gathers many oddities not normally seen by outsiders.

Kept in the Dark

The Denial to Bomber Command of Vital Ultra and Other Intelligence During World War II

by John Stubbington

Even the casual reader will know that towards the end of WWII allied forces had the capability of intercepting coded German communications. Think Enigma and Lorenz machines, and Bletchley Park aka Station X, the UK’s main decryption establishment.

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.

Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, 50 Years of Flying

by Jarrod Cotter

Published on the occasion of the Flight’s golden anniversary, in 2007, this book is the first full account of the origins and activities of an organization (technically, it is a unit in the RAF) that is dear and near to the British, a veritable cultural touchstone.

Men of Power: The Lives of Rolls-Royce Chief Test Pilots Harvey and Jim Heyworth

by Robert Jackson

Test pilot brothers are a rarity. Both Heyworths worked for the same company, at the same time, and both became chief test pilot. Harvey, the elder of the two became the third test pilot at Hucknall, where Rolls-Royce had its flight test establishment.

A Century of Carrier Aviation: The Evolution of Ships and Shipborne Aircraft

by David Hobbs

Naval Aviators have a reputation for thinking they’re the cat’s meow. This book looks at the hardware and the environmental factors that make their jobs so challenging.

The Battle of Britain

by Kate Moore

You could go broke buying every single book about the Battle of Britain, and blind reading them all. This one is easy on the wallet, easy on they eyes, and a well-rounded overview. This book’s particular appeal lies in the sensitive weaving together of individual human voices and the maelstrom of history.

Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird

by Steve Pace

Being able to travel at an altitude of 16 miles and cover 33 miles a minute is an unmatched achievement for a manned airplane even today, some 50 years after someone first dreamt up the Blackbird. Among its many records is the faster-ever New York London time (1974): 1:54:56 hrs which translates to 1806.96 mph!

Flying the SR-71 Blackbird: In the Cockpit on a Secret Operational Mission

In the Cockpit on a Secret Operational Mission

by Col. Richard H. Graham

As aircraft historian Jay Miller rightly says in his Foreword, this book is the “missing link” in the existing literature on the Blackbird, “arguably the most significant aircraft of our time.”

Lockheed Blackbird: Beyond the Secret Missions

by Paul F Crickmore

In automotive terms the Blackbird is a veritable hot rod, doubling, almost trebling the altitude and flight envelopes of the best fighters of its day, such as the F-100 Super Sabre and F-101 Voodoo.

Sunderland Over Far-Eastern Seas: An RAF Flying Boat Navigator’s Story

by Group Captain Derek Empson

This autobiography is the first account of post-WWII operations conducted by Sunderland flying boats assigned to the British RAF’s Far East Air Force Flying Boat Wing (FEFBW). Empson was 21 and a newly minted RAF navigator on his first tour of duty with just 450 flying hours under his belt.

Avro Vulcan (Darling)

by Kev Darling

Among the several aviation books Kev Darling has done, this one is probably the topic for which he has the greatest affinity: he spent almost half his 20-year life as an RAF engineer on the Vulcan.

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