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

Alan Bristow, Helicopter Pioneer: The Autobiography

by Alan Bristow and Patrick Malone

Even if helicopters are not your thing, read this book for the sheer audaciousness of its protagonist. If you have an interest in (British) politics, realize that it is Bristow’s role in the “Westland Affair” that embarrassed the Thatcher government and almost caused its fall.

R-2800, P&W’s Dependable Masterpiece

by Graham White

There are many storied aircraft engines, some indelibly associated with events that changed world history and thus known to the proverbial “man in the street.” White explains here why, in terms of manufacturing, performance, and maintenance, Pratt & Whitney’s R-2800 is “the finest aircraft engine ever produced.” \

Pegasus, The Heart of the Harrier

by Andrew Dow

Being one of the most innovative gas turbine aircraft engines ever developed, it is gratifying to see a book dedicated to the Rolls-Royce Pegasus, arguably the world’s first successful VTOL aircraft engine. VTOL has been an aviation goal for decades with many failures along the way.

Ferdinand Porsche, Genesis of Genius: Road, Racing and Aviation Innovation 1900 to 1933

by Karl Ludvigsen

For a paltry $100 you are getting a veritable education in matters political, economical, scientific, and psychological. It isn’t just about a precocious youth and ambitious engineer, but about the world and times he lived in.

A Drive in the Clouds: The Story of the Aerocar

by Jake Schultz

All too often writers of transportation articles and books do a fine job of telling the automotive/train/plane story, but fall short when trying to convey the human side. Not Schultz.

100 Years of Brooklands: The Birthplace of British Motorsport & Aviation

by Allan Winn and John Pulford

Commissioned by the Brooklands Museum on the occasion of the famed circuit’s centenary in 2007, this book tells its story mainly in photos divided into three main sections by type of motivation—cars, motorcycles, and aircraft

Ford in the Service of America: Mass Production for the Military during the World Wars

Mass Production for the Military during the World Wars

by Timothy J O’Callaghan

WWII lies two-thirds of a century in the past. It must be incomprehensible to those not alive then, that there was a time when virtually all the resources of our domestic life were directed towards a single goal; victory over clearly identified enemies.

Leydenfrost, The Baron of Aviation Art

by Hampton and Howard Wayt

Leydenfrost was a Hungarian artist who emigrated to America in the mid-1920s with three equally talented countrymen, Bela Lugosi, Peter Lorre and Paul Lucas. While his friends went on to Hollywood, Leydenfrost stayed in New York illustrating books.

The Horten Brothers and Their All-Wing Aircraft

by David Myhra

WWII left the world with a number of very technologically advanced German twin-jet aircraft designs. The young Hortons were right there and made a mighty contribution.

Flying Freestyle: An RAF Fast Jet Pilot’s Story

by Jerry Pook

This is a book for real flying enthusiasts. Jerry Pook has that ability as a writer to describe his remarkable flying experiences in a dramatic way that puts you in the cockpit with him during his many varied missions.

Yesterday We Were in America: Alcock and Brown, First to Fly the Atlantic Non-stop

by Brendan Lynch

“Yesterday We Were in America!” Imagine saying that at a cocktail party—in 1919. This is the phrase pilot Alcock kept repeating to the crew of the Marconi radio station near which he had landed, and who simply would not believe him!

The Silverplate Bombers: A History and Registry of the Enola Gay and Other B-29s Configured to Carry Atomic Bombs

by Richard H Campbell

Nicknamed after the codeword for the project, B-29 Superfortress bombers in Silverplate configuration were the first planes ever to carry nuclear payloads. Here’s the complete story.

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