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

Why Not? The Story of the Honourable Charles Stewart Rolls

by David Baines

From ballooning to motor racing to seeing to it that Great Britain should have the capability of building a truly great car, Rolls did a whole lot more than he is remembered for today.

Frontline and Experimental Flying with the Fleet Air Arm

by Geoffrey R Higgs

A British naval flyer relates his 35 years of service at the controls of 100 different aircraft, from single-engine propeller plane to multi-engine jet.

Fall of Eagles, Airmen of World War One

by Alex Revell

By portraying the men at the controls, and using their own voices real and imagined, this book hits a nerve that dry stats do not.

Surviving Fighter Aircraft of World War Two: A Global Guide to Location and Types

by Don Berliner

Some 4000+ of around 750,000 aircraft built for WWII survived—this first of three books offers a guided tour of what they are and where they are.

The Space Shuttle: Celebrating Thirty Years of NASA’s First Space Plane

by Piers Bizony

In the summer of 2011 NASA’s only sustained space flight program came to an end after three decades and 135 flights. This book is essentially a lavishly illustrated retrospective of the missions and orbiters.

Eagle: Henry Royce’s First Aero Engine

by Derek S Taulbut

This excellent book details the development process of Rolls-Royce’s WWI V-12 aircraft engine of complex design, extraordinary power, and uncommon reliability.

Engines and Enterprise: The Life and Work of Sir Harry Ricardo

by John Reynolds

Ricardo’s education at the privileged schools of Rugby and Cambridge, coupled with his undying love for all things mechanical, propelled him on a career path to become one of world’s leading authorities in engine research and development.

The Airplane: A History of Its Technology

by John D Anderson Jr.

Almost all such books begin with the Wright brothers—not the first to fly and certainly not the inventors of the airplane—and it is ironic to consider that none other than Wilbur W. once ruminated, in a fit of despair: “Not within a thousand years will man ever fly!”

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

Robert Taylor’s Battle of Britain: Commemorative Collection

by Robert Taylor

WWII’s Battle of Britain was the first major campaign in which aerial warfare was a, if not the, decisive factor. Its 70th anniversary in 2010 prompted this compilation book of paintings by one of the dominant names in aviation (and other military) art.

Vikings at Waterloo: The Wartime Work on the Whittle Jet Engine by the Rover Company

by David S Brooks

This is, sad to say, a dull book about an exciting topic. It concerns itself with the wartime development work on the Whittle jet engine done by the Rover, Lucas, and Rolls-Royce companies up to 1943 in the Waterloo Mill area of England.

Sänger: Germany’s Orbital Rocket Bomber in World War II

by David Myhra

Everyone knows NASA’s Space Shuttle. Many know the X-15 and -20. But few outside the rocketry community know the craft or the man that provided key theoretical underpinnings for their propulsion systems and the principle of the lifting body, Eugen Sänger.

Newer Entries »
« Older Entries