Fighter Planes (Beginners Plus)

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Uncover the engineering behind more than 800 aircraft models, from military jets to commercial planes. This visual history book captures the fascinating story of aeroplanes and aviation, and how this groundbreaking discovery has influenced the 21st Century. But this crisp and authoritative book does much more. It includes a mini-history of the birth of aviation, cameos from Charles Rolls and Henry Royce, whose company produced the engine that took the Mustang from good to great, a thorough account of the air war in Europe from 1940 to 1945, and even the essential highlights of the war on the ground. It was equally capable of showing the Luftwaffe’s fighter force a clean pair of heels. Suddenly everyone wanted the Mosquito. By October, the newly dubbed Mustang Mk10 was ready for takeoff. It reached an astonishing 427mph at 21,000ft. Even more astonishing, as it flew higher it no longer lost speed. It gained it.

They were also equipped to carry a single passenger. “The British pilots put me in the bomb bay,” laughs Niels Bohr, played by Kenneth Branagh, in Christopher Nolan’s epic Oppenheimer.

Modern flight has opened the world up to new opportunities and paved the way to the development of advanced research and technology. But, what made it so groundbreaking? This book uncovers the stories behind the first aeroplane models, the development of flight, and brings you to present-day marvels such as the Gypsy Moth and Supermarine Spitfire. The “Tommy gun” the Air Marshal kept in the corner of his office was, it was said, only half in jest, to be used on Beaverbrook if there was any further attempt to pull the plug on the project. caption id="attachment_7496" align="alignnone" width="200" caption="Night flight captures the solitude and risk of early air mail routes."] [/caption] A classic of aviation literature, the novel Night Flight is heavily based on French aviator and writer Saint-Exupery’s experience of working as an airmail pilot, in the interwar years. The book captures the danger and loneliness of these early commercial pilots, blazing routes in the days before radar, GPS and jet engines. Vulcan 607 – Rowland White Three months later, in the same week it entered frontline service, a Mosquito recorded a top speed of 433mph at a time when the RAF’s top fighter, the Spitfire V, topped out at 370mph. As heavily armed eight-gun fighters – especially as radar-equipped night fighters – Mosquitos shot down more than 800 enemy aircraft.

Contents: Introduction - Chronology - Design and Development - Technical Specifications - The Strategic Situation - The Combatants - Combat - Statistics and Analysis - Aftermath - Bibliography - Index. Author: To try to ensure it didn’t, an expedition was sent out to explore the jungles of Central America in search of alternative sources of the lightweight wood. caption id="attachment_7492" align="alignnone" width="165" caption="Biggles Pioneer Air Fighter draws heavily on the authors WW1 experience."] [/caption] Biggles might be regarded in some quarters now as hopelessly outdated - a children’s square-jawed flying ace from a different age. However, Biggles Pioneer Air Fighter contains a collection of vignettes that draw heavily on Johns’ own first-hand flying experiences as a pilot flying DH4s with 55 Sqn in WW1, including being shot down and taken prisoner. One wonders of the tales in this book, (including a carrier messenger pigeon going through the propeller) how many of these had happened to the author himself. Propellerhead – Anthony Woodward But Beaverbrook failed to put his demand in writing and so, without formal instruction from his boss, Freeman allowed de At the same time, the French worked to improve the SPAD VII with more power and a more reliable cooling system before moving on to the twin-gunned SPAD XIII. While all that was going on, the Albatros D III became a mainstay of the German and Austro-Hungarian air services in frequent encounters with SPAD VIIs flown by French, Belgian, British, Italian and American airmen.When originally conceived, the French SPAD VII and German Albatros D II represented steps away from an emphasis on manoeuvre in aerial combat in favour of speed and durability. At the end of 1916, however, Albatros tried to have the best of both worlds. The result combined the better downward view and manoeuvrability of the Nieuport with the power and twin machine guns of the Albatros D II. There are of course other great books out there. Some of the runner-ups included Battle of Britain, Log of the Liberators and Fall of Fortresses. Our personal favorites were actually the folks who still have their father’s or grandfather’s logbooks, of which there were many.