Author: Derek J. Sharp Publisher: Fonthill Media ISBN: Category : History Languages : en Pages : 396
Book Description
— Historically rich in detail with previously unpublished photographs — A must-have for military enthusiasts, historians, modellers and those interested in the complexities of aircraft design and manoeuvres during the Cold War — A fascinating and eye-opening memoir that will appeal to fliers and non-fliers alike on how to fly the fastest jets in the RAF This is the remarkable and true story of Squadron Leader Derek J. Sharp and his incredible adventures. Nothing perhaps was more astonishing than his survival after striking a mallard duck at 500 mph and his subsequent return to pilot in command. That he survived to the age of thirty was astonishing; that he continued unashamedly on to a ripe old age was nothing short of a miracle. Conceivably, he followed the advice written on a fridge magnet in his kitchen: ‘Never drive faster than your guardian angel can fly’. This fascinating book follows the adventures of Sharp from schoolboy to highly respected aviator. He flew fighters and nuclear bombers, finally seeing action in the first Gulf War flying defenceless transport jets close to the Iraq border. Sharp consequently survived Saddam Hussein’s Scuds and American Patriot missiles – ‘friendly fire’ aimed directly at the author. He flew Her Majesty The Queen and lived in a time long before political correctness, the breathalyser and motorcar safety checks. He achieved all that he set out to do, and more. That would undoubtedly be his epitaph…
Author: Fonthill Media Publisher: ISBN: 9781781557242 Category : History Languages : en Pages :
Book Description
Low level flying in military aircraft at speeds of up to 500 mph and as low as 100 feet above the ground is as challenging for the pilot as it is for the photographer wishing to capture the action. This is two books in one, the main subject is about military low flying; the skills, reasons and dangers from a pilot's perspective. The writer also talks about the challenges faced, revealing how and where the images were taken from mountainsides and desert canyons to cockpits for air to air. Pilots describe their training, mission planning, systems and the aircraft they love to fly; from A-7 Corsairs and F-4 Phantoms to Tornados, Typhoons, F-15 Eagles and Gripen. They fly low to deliver weapons or gather data and evade Radar. Pilots from air forces across Europe and the United States talk about the skills they need to be effective in very dangerous flying environments, discussing the challenging conditions they face when flying fast and low over snow, the sea or through mountain ranges at night. Commanders with years of low level flying give a fascinating insight in to their most memorable sorties.
Author: Publisher: DIANE Publishing ISBN: 1428990488 Category : Languages : en Pages : 228
Book Description
In February 1999, only a few weeks before the U.S. Air Force spearheaded NATO's Allied Force air campaign against Serbia, Col. C.R. Anderegg, USAF (Ret.), visited the commander of the U.S. Air Forces in Europe. Colonel Anderegg had known Gen. John Jumper since they had served together as jet forward air controllers in Southeast Asia nearly thirty years earlier. From the vantage point of 1999, they looked back to the day in February 1970, when they first controlled a laser-guided bomb strike. In this book Anderegg takes us from "glimmers of hope" like that one through other major improvements in the Air Force that came between the Vietnam War and the Gulf War. Always central in Anderegg's account of those changes are the people who made them. This is a very personal book by an officer who participated in the transformation he describes so vividly. Much of his story revolves around the Fighter Weapons School at Nellis Air Force Base (AFB), Nevada, where he served two tours as an instructor pilot specializing in guided munitions.
Author: Steve Ladd Publisher: Air World ISBN: 1526761254 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 269
Book Description
This behind-the-scenes account of a USAF career is “an absorbing read, written with the classic humor fighter pilots seem to have” (Flight Line Book Review). From Baron von Richthofen to Robin Olds, the mystique of the fighter pilot endures. The skill, cunning, and bravery that characterizes this distinctive band of brothers is well known, but there are other dimensions to those who take to the skies to do battle that have not been given the emphasis they deserve—until now. You don’t have to be an aviation aficionado to enjoy Colonel Steve Ladd’s fascinating personal tale, woven around his twenty-eight-year career as a fighter pilot. This extremely engaging account follows a young man from basic pilot training to senior command through narratives that define a unique ethos. From the United States to Southeast Asia, Europe to the Middle East, the amusing and tongue-in-cheek to the deadly serious and poignant, this is the lifelong journey of a fighter pilot. The anecdotes are absorbing, providing an insight into life as an Air Force pilot, but, in this book, as Colonel Ladd stresses, the focus is not on fireworks or stirring tales of derring-do. Instead, this is an articulate and absorbing account of what life is really like among a rare breed of arrogant, cocky, boisterous, and fun-loving young men who readily transform into steely professionals at the controls of a fighter aircraft. “This book will appeal to a variety of readers with its Vietnam War combat stories and accounts of flying the Warthog in Cold War Europe. Fun, flying, international experiences—you won’t want to put it down.” —Aviation News
Author: Michael E. Haas Publisher: DIANE Publishing ISBN: 9780788149832 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 388
Book Description
Presenting a fascinating insider's view of U.S.A.F. special operations, this volume brings to life the critical contributions these forces have made to the exercise of air & space power. Focusing in particular on the period between the Korean War & the Indochina wars of 1950-1979, the accounts of numerous missions are profusely illustrated with photos & maps. Includes a discussion of AF operations in Europe during WWII, as well as profiles of Air Commandos who performed above & beyond the call of duty. Reflects on the need for financial & political support for restoration of the forces. Bibliography. Extensive photos & maps. Charts & tables.
Author: Donald S. Lopez, Sr. Publisher: Smithsonian Institution ISBN: 1560989165 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 254
Book Description
Fighter Pilot's Heaven presents the dramatic inside story of the American military's transition into the jet age, as told by a flyer whose life depended on its success. With colorful anecdotes about fellow pilots as well as precise technical information, Donald S. Lopez describes how it was to be “behind the stick” as a test pilot from 1945 to 1950, when the U.S. military was shifting from war to peacetime operations and from propeller to jet aircraft. An ace pilot who had served with Gen. Claire Chennault's Flying Tiger Fighter Group, Lopez was assigned at the close of World War II to the elite Proof Test Group of the Air Proving Ground Command. Located at Eglin Field (later Eglin Air Force Base) in Florida, the group determined the operational suitability of Air Force weapons systems and aircraft and tested the first operational jet, the P-80 Shooting Star. Jet fighters required new techniques, tactics, and weaponry. Lopez recounts historic test flights in the P-59, P-80, and P-84, among other planes, describing complex combat maneuvers, hair-raising landings in unusual positions, and disastrous crashes and near crashes. This memoir is peppered with lively accounts of many pilots and their colleagues, revealing how airmen coped with both exhilarating successes and sometimes tragic failures.
Author: Stephen Lee McFarland Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform ISBN: Category : History Languages : en Pages : 96
Book Description
Except in a few instances, since World War II no American soldier or sailor has been attacked by enemy air power. Conversely, no enemy soldier orsailor has acted in combat without being attacked or at least threatened by American air power. Aviators have brought the air weapon to bear against enemies while denying them the same prerogative. This is the legacy of the U.S. AirForce, purchased at great cost in both human and material resources.More often than not, aerial pioneers had to fight technological ignorance, bureaucratic opposition, public apathy, and disagreement over purpose.Every step in the evolution of air power led into new and untrodden territory, driven by humanitarian impulses; by the search for higher, faster, and farther flight; or by the conviction that the air way was the best way. Warriors have always coveted the high ground. If technology permitted them to reach it, men, women andan air force held and exploited it-from Thomas Selfridge, first among so many who gave that "last full measure of devotion"; to Women's Airforce Service Pilot Ann Baumgartner, who broke social barriers to become the first Americanwoman to pilot a jet; to Benjamin Davis, who broke racial barriers to become the first African American to command a flying group; to Chuck Yeager, a one-time non-commissioned flight officer who was the first to exceed the speed of sound; to John Levitow, who earned the Medal of Honor by throwing himself over a live flare to save his gunship crew; to John Warden, who began a revolution in air power thought and strategy that was put to spectacular use in the Gulf War.Industrialization has brought total war and air power has brought the means to overfly an enemy's defenses and attack its sources of power directly. Americans have perceived air power from the start as a more efficient means of waging war and as a symbol of the nation's commitment to technology to master challenges, minimize casualties, and defeat adversaries.
Author: General Giulio Douhet Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing ISBN: 1782898522 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 620
Book Description
In the pantheon of air power spokesmen, Giulio Douhet holds center stage. His writings, more often cited than perhaps actually read, appear as excerpts and aphorisms in the writings of numerous other air power spokesmen, advocates-and critics. Though a highly controversial figure, the very controversy that surrounds him offers to us a testimonial of the value and depth of his work, and the need for airmen today to become familiar with his thought. The progressive development of air power to the point where, today, it is more correct to refer to aerospace power has not outdated the notions of Douhet in the slightest In fact, in many ways, the kinds of technological capabilities that we enjoy as a global air power provider attest to the breadth of his vision. Douhet, together with Hugh “Boom” Trenchard of Great Britain and William “Billy” Mitchell of the United States, is justly recognized as one of the three great spokesmen of the early air power era. This reprint is offered in the spirit of continuing the dialogue that Douhet himself so perceptively began with the first edition of this book, published in 1921. Readers may well find much that they disagree with in this book, but also much that is of enduring value. The vital necessity of Douhet’s central vision-that command of the air is all important in modern warfare-has been proven throughout the history of wars in this century, from the fighting over the Somme to the air war over Kuwait and Iraq.
Author: Christopher Coville Publisher: Air World ISBN: 1399015583 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 369
Book Description
A young boy sits in the back of a Chipmunk aircraft at RAF Woodvale, near Liverpool. He has never flown in anything before. As the power goes on and the little aeroplane soars into a clear blue sky, he decides at once that this is the only thing he wants to do in life: to be an RAF pilot. Fighter Pilot: From Cold War Jets to Spitfires tells the riveting story of how a boy from Liverpool, at the height of the Cold War, joined an RAF that was largely led by veterans of the Second World War. Christopher Coville arrived at the RAF College at Cranwell to find an environment shaped by English Public School traditions, but he made the grades needed to be streamed onto fighters, and went on to fly the Lightning, Phantom and Tornado F3 in the air defense role. Christopher eventually became station commander of RAF Coningsby and while in that role flew with the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, becoming the only station commander to qualify on the Hurricane, Spitfire and Lancaster. He also qualified on helicopters and multi-engine aircraft and became responsible for the quality of the displays performed by the Red Arrows, flying with them regularly. Along the way, he steered the RAF’s biggest re-equipment programme since 1945 during a tour at the Ministry of defense and filling a challenging top NATO post during the wars in the Balkans. While this is a book about a young man from Liverpool who joined from grammar school and became a three-star Air Marshal, it is also, above all, a story written by a passionate aviator, whose affection for flying leaps out of every line, in a book which is full of excitement, deep knowledge of flying and affection for his fellow servicemen and women. But it is also a wonderful narrative about people, the great characters forged by military life, and honed by fear, exhilaration, and occasional tragedy. Fighter Pilot: From Cold War Jets to Spitfires is a unique perspective on aviation, written by a talented and dedicated pilot at the very top table of the RAF. This book culminates with his retirement, as the No.3 in the RAF, and being invited to have lunch with The Queen.
Author: Victor Vizcarra Publisher: ISBN: 9781781556450 Category : Thunderchief (Jet fighter plane) Languages : en Pages : 160
Book Description
Thud Pilot is the personal account of a combat fighter pilot who flew the Air Force's premier fighter-bomber in the most dangerous skies over North Vietnam. In the first five years of the Vietnam War, the F-105 Thunderchief conducted 75 percent of the Air Force bombing missions over North Vietnam. Thud Pilot tells the story of the courageous men who flew the F-105 from its earliest combat deployment in 1964, and on through 1966, the year of its heaviest losses. The author's more significant missions, including his ejection and rescue over North Vietnam are described in detail and are accompanied by map drawings depicting the mission routes from take-off to refueling orbits, the target, and return. The book is full of several 'firsts' in the expanding air war over North Vietnam, including 'Operation Spring High, ' the first counter Surface-to-Air-Missile (SAM) strike in the history of aerial warfare. The personal perspective from years of combat experience reveals just how the political mismanagement and inane Rules of Engagement made them as much the hunted as they were the hunters. Thud Pilot goes beyond the battle air space and shares the emotional impact on the families left behind.
Author: Derek J. Sharp
Author: Fonthill Media
Author: 
Author: Steve Ladd
Author: Michael E. Haas
Author: Donald S. Lopez, Sr.
Author: Stephen Lee McFarland
Author: General Giulio Douhet
Author: Christopher Coville
Author: Victor Vizcarra