First Aviation

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 ...

On February 2, 2019, the skies over Maynardville, Tennessee, filled with the roar of four F/A-18F Super Hornets streaking overhead in close formation. In each aircraft were two young female flyers, executing the first all-woman Missing Man Formation flyover in Navy history in memory of Captain Rosemary Mariner - groundbreaking Navy jet pilot, inspiring commander, determined and dedicated leader - whose drive to ensure the United States military had its choice of the best America had to offer broke down barriers and opened doors for female aviators wanting to serve their country.

747 is the thrilling story behind "the Queen of the Skies" - the Boeing 747 - as told by Joe Sutter, one of the most celebrated engineers of the 20th century, who spearheaded its design and construction. Sutter's vivid narrative takes us back to a time when American technology was cutting-edge and jet travel was still glamorous and new. With wit and warmth, he gives an insider's sense of the larger than life-size personalities - and the tensions - in the aeronautical world.

Black Jet Rising The Untold Shocking True Story of America’s First Stealth Fighter It was the fighter that wasn’t supposed to exist. Born in secrecy, tested in silence, and revealed to the world only through rumor and a single grainy photograph, the F-117 Nighthawk rewrote the rules of modern war. Long before the Gulf War made it famous, this strange, angular aircraft had already prowled hostile skies, survived accidents shrouded in mystery, and carried out missions history books never recorded. A Jet Hidden in Plain Sight From the deserts of Nevada to the skies of the Middle East, the ...

With the Soviet Union's launch of the first Sputnik satellite in 1957, the Cold War soared to new heights as Americans feared losing the race into space. The X-15 Rocket Plane tells the enthralling yet little-known story of the hypersonic X-15, the winged rocket ship that met this challenge and opened the way into human-controlled spaceflight. Drawing on interviews with those who were there, Michelle Evans captures the drama and excitement of, yes, rocket science.

Howard Hughes was a true American original: legendary lover, record-setting aviator, award-winning film producer, talented inventor, ultimate eccentric, and, for much of his lifetime, the richest man in the United States. His desire for privacy was so fierce and his isolation so complete that even now, 25 years after his death, inaccurate stories continue to circulate, and many have been published as fact. Hughes explodes the illusion of his life and exposes the man behind the myth. He was a playboy whose sexual exploits with Hollywood stars were legendary.

The 1914-18 conflict narrated through the voices of the men whose combat was in the air. The empty chairs belonged, all too briefly, to the doomed young First World War airmen who failed to return from the terrifying daily aerial combats above the trenches of the Western Front. The edict of their commander in chief was the missing aviators were to be immediately replaced. Before the new faces could arrive, the departed men's vacant seats at the dinner table were sometimes poignantly occupied by their caps and boots, placed there in a sad ritual by their surviving colleagues.

Just nine years after American women finally got the right to vote, a group of trailblazers soared to new heights in the 1929 Air Derby, the first women's air race across the U.S. Follow the incredible lives of legend Amelia Earhart, who has captivated generations; Marvel Crosson, who built a plane before she even learned how to fly; Louise Thaden, who shattered jaw-dropping altitude records; and Elinor Smith, who at age 17 made headlines when she flew under the Brooklyn Bridge. Born to Fly is the gripping story of the fearless women pilots who aimed for the skies - and beyond.

1906. Harry Flashman, grandson of the famous Victorian General is about to leave Rugby under a cloud. A chip off the old block, one might say. Perhaps more than he realised. Forced to join the army, up to no good at Sandhurst and sent to India. 1914. India. Bored with garrison life, an unwise gamble leads to a flight in one of these new aeroplanes. As a result, and surprisingly smitten by aviation, Flashman returns to England via Sarajevo, intending to learn to fly. Meanwhile, Europe is convulsed. Displaying all his charming family traits, he is caught up in the start of the Great War, ...

April 1917. Bloody April, when the life expectancy of a pilot reduced to 17 days, Flashman finds himself a flight commander and back on the western front pursuing a possible traitor, trying to stay alive and work out who exactly is on his side. Shirking, sweating and shivering, our hero returns to England having completed his task and looking forward to a quiet life only to discover the worst is yet to come. Forced to change sides, he 'escapes' to Holland before being shanghaied into Jagdgeschwader 1, the Flying Circus with Richtofen as its commander. After witnessing the demise of the Red ...

Now on the race’s centennial, award-winning author David K. Randall tells the story of this riveting, long-forgotten race. Through larger-than-life characters, treacherous landings, disease, and ultimately triumph, Into Unknown Skies demonstrates how one race returned America to aviation greatness. A story of underdog teammates, bold exploration, and American ingenuity, Into Unknown Skies is an untold adventure tale showing the power of flight to bring the world together.

Clear skies ahead… Jace 'Hot Cakes' Sorensen never had to try hard for anything. Flying came easy, like he was born in the cockpit of a plane. Life was smooth and women fell all over him… except Karen. Even her name should have warned him to stay clear. Turbulence detected! Karen Marks had met with irate men all her life – but usually at a parent-teacher conference. This macho know-it-all took the cake! Why did she ever agree to help her friend for some extra cash and fill her summer break? It wasn’t worth the headache dealing with Jace. She had to put up with him for one week. ...

FROM PATENT WARS TO BACKYARD RUNWAYS At the dawn of the 20th century, powered flight was no longer a dream—it was a battlefield. Wings of Wood and Wire sweeps you into the high-stakes drama of early aviation, where Orville and Wilbur Wright’s hard-won patent clashed with Glenn Curtiss’s daring innovations, igniting courtroom battles that slowed American progress while Europe soared ahead. In the midst of lawsuits and rivalries, a new breed of aviator emerged—not the government-funded elite, but ordinary men and women determined to take to the skies on their own terms. THE WORLD’S ...

‘Without Precedent’ is the military biography of army commando and fighter pilot, Phillip Zupp. One man who served in two very different wars. During World War Two, he saw combat on the ground in the Pacific before patrolling Hiroshima and Tokyo at the war’s end. In Korea, Phillip flew 201 combat sorties amid intense ground fire and the ever-threatening MiG fighters. Peace brought an aviation career that spanned the globe and the skies above it. All the while, aviation history had overlooked this intriguing story of the search for a downed airman, a damaged jet and the first ...

"I was quite nervous. My first time. The other chaps were laughing about it, boisterous, trading banter as young men do. Meantime, I waited, imagining the things that could go wrong, going over what was expected of me." Denis Edison is twenty-two years old, a pilot in the Royal Air Force, a combat veteran. He is about to embark on a new adventure into the unknown! Flying Officer Edison will soon encounter the Vampire! An unusual short story from the author of Balloon Fall and Don't Call it Murder!

Newfoundland, 1919. Buffeted by winds, an unwieldy aircraft – made mainly from wood and stiff linen – struggled to take off from the North American island’s rocky slopes. Cramped side by side in its open cockpit were two men, freezing cold and barely able to move but resolute. They had a dream: to be the first in human history to fly, non-stop, across the Atlantic Ocean. But there were three other teams competing against them, and as the waves raged a few miles below, memories of wartime crashes resurfaced . . .

On a remote lake in Canada, Ashley and Justin seek an off-the-grid lifestyle, while two anomalies merge into one. A distant galaxy exhibits unusual characteristics in Justin's amateur telescope, and something under the lake is stirring. Soon military submarine chasers from two countries are involved, and so are astronomers from around the world. It's a race to discover the meaning of the anomalies, and Ashley and Justin take an unexpected lead in the investigations. Can a determined couple who decide to tackle a remote region bring clarity to the events that are rapidly unfolding?

Juan and Anna are flying to Mexico to visit their grandma. From the airport to the clouds, Juan and Anna are ready to take off on a fun flight.

September 1942 marked the high point of Axis conquest in World War II. In the Pacific, Japan's soldiers had seemed unstoppable. However, the tide was about to turn. On Sunday, 6 September 1942, Japanese land forces suffered their first conclusive defeat at the hands of the Allies. At Milne Bay in Papua New Guinea, a predominantly Australian force - including 75 Squadron (fresh from their action in 44 Days) - fought for two weeks to successfully defend a vital airstrip against a determined Japanese invasion.

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.