Aviation Nonfiction

The incredible story of the first African American military pilot, who went on to become a Paris nightclub impresario, a spy in the French Resistance and an American civil rights pioneer Eugene Bullard lived one of the most fascinating lives of the twentieth century. The son of a former slave...

When a pilots sends a "mayday" message, it means there is serious trouble. Discover the fascinating true tales of people who lived to tell about their own terrifying airplane disasters, and what they did to survive.

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 ...

Discover everything there is to know about flight from Ada Twist, Scientist - from information about creatures that fly to the history of aircrafts to modern technology that allows us to soar through the air faster than ever! Based on the best-selling series and the new Netflix show, this nonfiction series is perfect for the youngest scientists of tomorrow!

In February 1942, a reconnaissance party of US Army Air Force officers arrived in England. Firmly wedded to the doctrine of daylight precision bombing, they believed they could help turn the tide of the war in Europe. In the months that followed, they formed the Eighth Air Force—an organization that grew at an astonishing rate. To accommodate it, almost seventy airfields were built across the eastern counties of England. At the heart of the Eighth Air Force was its bombardment groups, each equipped with scores of heavily armed, four-engine bombers. This is the story of just one "Bomb Group".

Through clouds and over mountains and farmland... Two flies accompany listeners on an adrenaline-pumping flight over war-torn Europe as the U.S. Army Air Corps' Tuskegee airmen take on a heroic, history-making mission during World War II.

Audiobook-exclusive bonus content includes a Q&A between Tammie Jo Shults and narrator Tavia Gilbert and a recorded speech detailing the events of Flight 1380. Nerves of Steel is the captivating true story of Tammie Jo Shults’s remarkable life—from growing up the daughter of a humble rancher...

This book is the product of The Earhart Project, a thirty-four-year investigation of the Earhart tragedy by The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery. TIGHAR investigators had no agenda. They were not out to advocate, excuse, honor, or impugn. They saw the Earhart disappearance as an aviation accident and reasoned the answer to its cause and outcome should be discoverable if they could find, assemble, and analyze the relevant data.

Although Orville and Wilbur Wright are celebrated today as heroes for their revolutionary contributions to science and engineering - they are acknowledged as the first men to successfully achieve powered, piloted flight - their success was hard-earned. In fact, it took the self-taught engineers years of work and dozens of crashes before they managed a single 12-second flight! In this first installment of the brand new Epic Fails series, Ben Thompson and Erik Slader take listeners through the Wright brothers' many mishaps and misadventures as they paved the way for modern aviation.

A VANISHED BOMBER. A LEGENDARY SURVIVOR. A SEARCH THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN IMPOSSIBLE. Before history remembered Louis Zamperini as an icon of endurance, there was a day when he disappeared into the vast blue of the Pacific—swallowed without warning, without witnesses, and without mercy. Lost Beyond the Horizon pulls back the curtain on the forgotten air–sea hunt that followed, exposing the terror, courage, and staggering uncertainty that defined one of World War II’s most desperate rescue missions. This is the chapter history overlooked: a moment when technology failed, the ocean ...

The US Air Force is a powerful military force. But there is more to this high-flying military branch than you might imagine. These surprising facts about the US Air Force will amaze you.

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

Listen to the story of how Wilbur and Orville Wright developed, tested, and successfully flew the first powered airplane.

“A lost world, man-eating tribesmen, lush andimpenetrable jungles, stranded American fliers (one of them a dame withgreat gams, for heaven's sake), a startling rescue mission. . . . This is atrue story made in heaven for a writer as talented as Mitchell Zuckoff. Whew—what an utterly...

Emma Lilian Todd's mind was always soaring—she loved to solve problems. Lilian tinkered and fiddled with all sorts of objects, turning dreams into useful inventions. As a child, she took apart and reassembled clocks to figure out how they worked. As an adult, typing up patents at the U.S. Patent Office, Lilian built the inventions in her mind, including many designs for flying machines. However, they all seemed too impractical. Lilian knew she could design one that worked.

Dozens of astronauts travel to space every year, but what makes these amazing trips possible? Max Axiom has the answers. Join Max as he explores the science and engineering behind space travel.

Air travel is one of the safest methods of transportation, but when a disaster happens, it captures the public's imagination. Learn about how airplanes are built, how researchers investigate a crash, how engineers are making planes safer, and more.

When Jack Knight takes off in his biplane from North Platte, Nebraska, in 1921, hundreds of people crowd the airstrip. Is Jack transporting a famous passenger? Is he ferrying medicine for a sick child? Nope—Jack has six sacks of mail. For the past few years, biplanes like Jack's have been flying the mail only during daylight hours. Flying after dark is risky and crashes are too common, so lawmakers decide to cut funding for the US Air Mail Service. Outraged officials and pilots want to prove that flying the mail is best, so they concoct a plan—a coast-to-coast race.

In this enthralling history, internationally bestselling author Max Hastings recounts the odds-defying Operation Biting, a 1942 parachute commando raid on Northern France to steal vital components of German intelligence—one of the most thrilling British commando raids of World War II, and one...

Follow along with “Captain Bob” Young as he crosses the USA from Santa Monica to Connecticut and back in his two seater airplane. He visits old and new friends while searching for himself and discovering the good in us all.