Air Combat

This one-volume anthology provides a comprehensive analysis of the role that air power has played in military conflicts over the past century. Comprising 16 essays penned by a global cadre of leading military experts, A History of Air Warfare chronologically examines the utility of air power from World War I to the second Lebanon war, campaign by campaign.

With a total of 40 victories, Oswald Boelcke was Germany's first ace in World War I-and a century later he remains a towering figure in the history of air warfare, renowned for his character, inspirational leadership, organizational genius, development of air-to-air tactics, and impact on aerial doctrine. Paving the way for modern air forces across the world with his pioneering strategies, Boelcke had a dramatic effect on his contemporaries. The famed Red Baron's mentor, instructor, squadron commander, and friend, he exerted a tremendous influence upon the German air force.

In the Spring of 1915, a Parisian playboy took to the lethal skies of World War I, becoming the world’s first fighter pilot. Never before had a lone pilot hunted down other aviators. Roland Garros’ aerial exploits unleashed unlimited air combat and changed warfare forever. Before leaving French café society for the Western Front, the young pilot set aviation records, won air races, and introduced manned flight to thrilled crowds in the USA, Europe, and Latin America. Garros scouted for the US Army, strolled as a Boulevardier, sold sports cars, played classical piano, was a lawyer, a ...

July 1967: At the Moscow Air Show, the Soviets unveiled six new state-of-the-art aircraft. From among this lineup of new fighters and interceptors stood the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 - purportedly capable of outrunning and outmaneuvering any aircraft in NATO’s inventory. Yet even before its public appearance in Moscow, the MiG-25 had been a grave concern for Western analysts.

The New York Times best-selling author of Viper Pilot and retired USAF F-16 legend Dan Hampton offers the first comprehensive popular history of combat aviation - a unique, entertaining, and action-packed look at the aces of the air and their machines, from the Red Baron and his triplane in World War I to today's technologically expert flying warriors in supersonic jets.

This insightful chronicle takes listeners inside the experiences of America's fighter pilots and bomber crews, an incredible assortment of men who, in nearly four years of warfare all over the globe, suffered over 120,000 casualties, with over 40,000 killed. Their stories span the Earth, into every corner of the combat theaters in both Europe and the Pacific. And the aircraft explored are as varied, tough, and legendary as the men who flew them.

Four days before Christmas in 1943, a badly damaged American bomber struggled to fly over wartime Germany. At its controls was a 21-year-old pilot. Half his crew lay wounded or dead. It was their first mission. Suddenly a sleek, dark shape pulled up on the bomber’s tail - a German Messerschmitt fighter. Worse, the German pilot was an ace, a man able to destroy the American bomber with the squeeze of a trigger.

David R. “Buff” Honodel was a cocky young man with an inflated self-image when he arrived in 1969 at his base in Udorn, Thailand. His war was not in Vietnam; it was a secret one in the skies of a neighboring country almost unknown in America, attacking the Ho Chi Minh Trail that fed soldiers and supplies from North Vietnam into the South. Stateside he learned the art of flying the F-4, but in combat, the bomb-loaded fighter handled differently, targets shot back, and people suffered. Inert training ordnance was replaced by lethal weapons.

For more than three decades, the Grumman F-14 Tomcat was the US Navy’s premier carrier-based, multirole fighter jet. From its harrowing combat missions over Libya to its appearance on the silver screen in movies like Top Gun and Executive Decision, the F-14 has become an icon of American air power. Now, for the first time in a single volume, Tomcat Fury explores the illustrious combat history of the F-14, from the Gulf of Sidra to the Iran-Iraq War to the skies over Afghanistan in the Global War on Terror.

A NATO reinforcement exercise held at a British airbase in West Germany brings British, American, and French fighter crews together to practice the air corridor policing mission. When a Pembroke transport aircraft engaged in a covert reconnaissance mission is intercepted by a MiG fighter and forced to land in East Germany, events escalate. Will the crew become a pawn in the relentless confrontation as the Soviets increase the rhetoric?

On August 18, 1945, US Army Sergeant Anthony J. Marchione bled to death in the clear, bright sky above Tokyo. Marchione, a gunner in the US Air Force, died, like so many before him in World War II, quietly, cradled in the arms of a buddy. Though tragic, Marchione's death would have been no more notable than any other had he not had the dubious distinction of being the last American killed in World War II combat.

"Eloquent… An uplifting, heart-rending, and terrifyingly real account of frontline air combat. A first-rate military memoir." – David Eastman, US Army retired and author. In this true story, Robert Stanek delivers a raw and unforgettable narrative, revealing what it’s like to be in war waged from the skies above. Day by day, step by step, he brings readers into the secretive world of combat fliers, and tells the story of the men and women who flew dangerous combat missions during the largest air war of the 20th century. Experience the extraordinary events through the author’s ...

From April to November 1918, the American Air Service grew from a poorly equipped, unorganized branch of the U.S. Expeditionary Forces to a fighting unit equal to its opponent in every way. Hostile Skies details the actual battle experiences of the men and boys who made up the service squadrons at the front - Raoul Lufbery, Elliot Springs, Fiorello La Guardia, and, of course, Eddie Rickenbacker.

Colonel Yuri Andrenev, a respected test pilot, is trusted to evaluate the latest Soviet fighter, the Sukhoi Su27 "Flanker", from a secret test facility near Moscow. Surely he is above suspicion. With thoughts of defection in his mind, and flying close to the inner German border, could he be tempted to make a daring escape across the most heavily defended airspace in the world?

"Eloquent… An uplifting, heart-rending, and terrifyingly real account of frontline air combat. A first-rate military memoir." – David Eastman, US Army retired and author. In this true story, Robert Stanek delivers a raw and unforgettable narrative, revealing what it’s like to be in war waged from the skies above. Day by day, step by step, he brings readers into the secretive world of combat fliers, and tells the story of the men and women who flew dangerous combat missions during the largest air war of the 20th century. Experience the extraordinary events through the author’s ...

"Eloquent… An uplifting, heart-rending, and terrifyingly real account of frontline air combat. A first-rate military memoir." – David Eastman, US Army retired and author. In this true story, Robert Stanek delivers a raw and unforgettable narrative, revealing what it’s like to be in war waged from the skies above. Day by day, step by step, he brings readers into the secretive world of combat fliers, and tells the story of the men and women who flew dangerous combat missions during the largest air war of the 20th century. Experience the extraordinary events through the author’s ...

In 1903, the Wright brothers invented the airplane, and that event changed the rules of war forever. From war to war, technology has improved in an effort to achieve the ultimate aerial war machine. Pacific Media's Combat Aircraft tell us the history from the creation of the aero plane to the end of WWII.

Flying the Jaguar bomber in a Cold War West Germany, Nick Gleason is, perhaps, at the peak of his career but he is a loner struggling with his conscience and he begins to question the morality of his role. If war in Europe breaks out, he would be tasked to deliver a thermo-nuclear weapon to a target in the East.

En 1903 los hermanos Wright inventaron el avión y ese acontecimiento cambió las reglas de la guerra para siempre. De guerra en guerra, la tecnología ha ido mejorando en un esfuerzo por conseguir la máquina de guerra aérea definitiva. El audio libro Aviones de Combate de Pacific Media nos cuenta la historia desde la creación del avión hasta el final de la Segunda Guerra Mundial.