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

A Technical & Operational  History of the Liberty Engine: Tanks, Ships and Aircraft 1917–1960

by Robert J. Neal

One of history’s most famous engines, and very possibly the one with the longest active military service life, the Liberty represents an ambitious and visionary solution to what could have become an intractable problem: too much creativity resulting in too much incompatibility.

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.

Secret US Proposals of the Cold War: Radical Concepts in Military Aircraft

by Jim Keeshen

A very different look at aircraft proposals: photos of the models and illustrations that were created to demonstrate the ideas to planners and prospective buyers.

Albatros Fighter Aircraft of WWI

by Dave Douglass

Get those paintbrushes out! This book is for modelers—or anyone who is just insatiably curious.

Flying Boat Pilot in War and Peace, Disaster and Survival

The Extraordinary Life of Captain M.J.R. ‘Roly’ Alderson

by Mark Alderson

From learning on an Avro Lynx biplane—six months after Lindbergh’s solo Atlantic crossing—to leading BOAC’s “Comet Development Unit” this book covers the whole arc of aviation development.

Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle: The Man Who Invented the Turbo-jet

by Robert L. Evans

High speed, long range, high altitude—there was a time when aircraft couldn’t achieve any of these let alone all. Whittle developed a theoretical solution, but the materials didn’t yet exist to actually build an engine. Besides, no one thought his scheme was practical. Or so they said.

Building Dutch Air Power in World War II

The Role of Lend-Lease and Aircrew Training in the United States

by Nicholas M. Sambatuk

When the Dutch lost territory to foreign invaders they sent their aircrews to the US to train. What makes the Dutch flying school different from any other is that it remained a fully autonomous Dutch base on foreign soil with limited interaction from American forces.

Building Engines for War

by Edward M. Young

In most wars, military production ramps up by drawing on existing civilian infrastructure. But the tolerances for both technical parameters and work habits may be incompatible so it is the processes themselves that first need to be calibrated.

Lockheed Constellation: A Legends of Flight Illustrated History

by Wolfgang Borgmann

A fine book with which to start your Constellation discovery, and also to appreciate big-picture factors such as how different the playbook for air travel once was—and how difficult it was to have to deal with Howard Hughes.

Ronny Bar Profiles: Spitfire, The Merlin Variants

by Ronny Bar

The book intentionally omits any sort of technical or operational detail—because that’s already been covered any which way elsewhere. Instead Ronny Bar does what he does best: show hundreds of examples in profiles to keep modelers busy for years.