Aviation War History

The P-38 Lightning was one of the fastest operational fighters of World War II, famous for its successes in North Africa and the Pacific. In The P-38 Lightning and the Men Who Flew It, Wolfgang W. E. Samuel shares the stories of the young men who climbed into the cockpits of the P-38 to fight for freedom, and of those who created, tested, and deployed these fearsome machines. The P-38 was the product of the Lockheed Corporation, the first fighter they ever built, principally conceptualized by Kelly Johnson, whose design was to meet Air Corps specifications. But it was no easy plane to fly.

Based on official American, French, and German documents, histories, personal memoirs, and the author's interviews with several of the story's key participants, Escape from Paris crosses the traditional lines of World War II history with tense drama of air combat over Europe, the intrigue of occupied Paris, and courageous American and Allied pilots and French resistance fighters pitted against Nazi thugs. All of this set in one of the world's most beautiful and captivating cities.

The Cold War drove military innovation and none more than the need to spy on Soviet Bloc countries in the 1950s. The best way to spy other than tap phones and have agents on the ground was from the air. For this several cutting edge aircraft were designed and built by the legendary Kelly Johnson and Lockheed Skunk works – which pushed the boundaries of technology. At the same time a secret airbase to test these revolutionary aircraft in the form of Area 51 came into being. Follow the exciting true story of some very famous aircraft that would fly faster and higher than anything seen ...

Summer 1944: Yugoslavia is locked in a war within a war. In addition to fighting the German occupation, warring factions battle each other. Hundreds of Allied airmen have been shot down over this volatile region, among them American lieutenant Bill Bogdonavich. Though grateful to the locals who are risking their lives to shelter and protect him from German troops, Bogdonavich dreams of the impossible: escape.

Military drones have been part of wars for more than 100 years. Today’s military unmanned aerial vehicles are packed with sensors, high-quality cameras, and even weapons. With each UAV flight, military members are kept safe away from war zones. Young listeners will learn how both aerial and underwater military drones operate and get inside details about some of the missions they’ve completed.

There were no mission limits for a pilot in the Pacific during World War II; unlike in Europe, you flew until it was time to go home. So it was for James "Jug" Curran, all the way from New Guinea to the Philippines with the 348th Fighter Group, the first P-47 Thunderbolt outfit in the Pacific. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Curran volunteered to try flying in the blue yonder and trained as an Army fighter pilot. He got his wish to fly the P-47 in the Pacific, going into combat in August 1943, in New Guinea, and later helping start the "Black Rams" fighter squadron.

The Millionaires' Unit is the story of a gilded generation of young men from the zenith of privilege: a Rockerfeller; the son of the head of the Union Pacific Railroad; several who counted friends and relatives among presidents and statesmen of the day. They had it all and, remarkably by modern standards, they were prepared to risk it all to fight a distant war in France.

On February 21, 1943, Pan American Airways' celebrated seaplane, the Yankee Clipper, took off from New York's Marine Air Terminal and island-hopped its way across the Atlantic Ocean. Arriving at Lisbon the following evening, it crashed in the Tagus River, killing twenty-four of its thirty-nine passengers and crew. Americans in a World at War traces the backstories of seven worldly Americans aboard that plane, their personal histories, their politics, and the paths that led them toward war.

To see a video on this book, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxexnqdlUv8. This is the second and final part of a novel of the Union Balloon Corps in the Civil War, the world's first Air Force. At the start of the Civil War, Nathaniel Curry is a fifteen-year-old telegraph operator in Richmond. He travels to Washington to see a balloon demonstration and finds himself, entirely by accident, assisting Thaddeus Lowe in directing artillery fire on a Confederate emplacement – the first use of an aircraft in warfare. A pariah back in Virginia, Nathaniel joins the nascent Union Balloon Corps,...

World War I saw the advent of combat aviation. Pilots from all over the world took to the skies in open-air biplanes armed with machine guns. They were daredevil pioneers. Newspapers filled pages with stories on the danger and heroism of aerial combat. The romance of hunting and evading enemies in the clouds turned ace fighter pilots into the equivalent of modern knights. This book contains first-hand history of the dawn of combat aviation in the First World War.

Before becoming an instructor in the Navy's Topgun program, Dave "Bio" Baranek was just another kid with a dream. Upon graduating from college, he joined the Navy with the goal of becoming a fighter pilot. But, his eyesight waning, he knew that he would never be able to reach that goal. Undaunted, he plowed ahead and found his niche as a radar intercept operator in the backseat of the sleek, new Grumman F-14 Tomcat.

From the author of bestselling Sisters in Captivity, seven remarkable stories of men who served from WWI to Korea–their wartime exploits and achievements through aviation.

On the morning of October 24, 1944, in the Sibuyan Sea amidst the Philippine Islands, VT-18, a close-knit squadron of six young American torpedo bomber pilots, departed the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid on a search and destroy mission. Their target: the super-battleship Musashi, the pride of the Imperial Japanese Navy. The pilots were tasked with preventing the immense enemy warship and the huge naval armada of which she was a part from inflicting unspeakable damage.

The tiny ex-mercenary company Alto Group struggled to get recognition for their six engine heavy transport aircraft (built to an "acquired" design) at their Northern Michigan factory by delivering F4F Wildcat fighters and two M-3 Stuart tanks to Wake Island after December 7th. Answering a call from a man they only met once, they mount a new mission to give logistical support to battered remnants of USAAF Far Eastern forces that have retreated to Australia and New Guinea.Using close air support tricks they learned fighting in South America in the Gran Chao War, they support the troops ...

Concealed deep within China's inland borders is one of the most secret airplanes ever flown, known as Devil Dragon. She's sleek, unbelievably fast, and mysterious - her test pilots have one mission in mind: make her test flights successful for operational use as soon as possible. Or sooner. But when strange transmissions of pilots are recorded without an aircraft appearing on radar and bizarre cell phone signals are detected at towers hundreds of miles apart, Ford Stevens is asked to take on the most dangerous assignment of his life.

December 7, 1941. The Japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbor and the United States was sucked into World War II. The nation was furious, and the public demanded revenge. Back home, Colonel James Doolittle of the United States Airforce was tasked with organizing a raid on Japan. On April 18, 1942, 16 B-25B Mitchell bombers were flown from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet off the coast of Japan. The daring mission was successful in creating fear within the hearts of the enemy and won support for the military back home. This is the story of The Doolittle Raid.

A Nazi's Nazi, SS Generalleutnant von Bassenheim has no intention of surrendering. And Lieutenant Commander Atsugi, an Imperial pilot with nothing left to live for, wants nothing less than total revenge. With Axis powers facing defeat, the two men set out on a suicide mission in a submarine aircraft carrier with two nuclear weapons on board and two Seiran fighters destined to drop their loads on American cities. In a cat-and-mouse game spanning the globe, one OSS officer and a team of naval aviators and ship commanders hunt the rogue submarine.

A pilot of calculated courage, "Trap" entered the Navy when test pilots were more like stuntmen than engineers. Airplanes had not yet come into their own as weapons of war, and they had an undeveloped role in the fleet. His vision and leadership shaped the evolution of naval aviation through its formative years and beyond. When the threat of war in 1940 raised an alarm over the Navy's deficiency in aircraft - especially fighters - Trap was appointed to lead the Flight Test Section to direct the development of all-new Navy airplanes.

Stalingrad ranks as one of the most infamous, savage and emotive battles of the 20th century. It has consumed military historians since the 1950s and has inspired many books and much debate. This book tells the story of the operation mounted by the Luftwaffe to supply, by airlift, the trapped and exhausted German Sixth Army at Stalingrad in the winter of 1942/43. Using previously unpublished diaries, original Luftwaffe reports and specially commissioned artwork, this gripping battle is told in detail through the eyes of the Luftwaffe commanders and pilots.

This book provides young listeners with exciting information on the most modern US military aircraft.