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-   -   What's your favorite aviation book? (https://vansairforce.net/community/showthread.php?t=11441)

Bob Axsom 10-22-2009 12:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob Axsom (Post 369894)
My copy of "Always Another Dawn, the story of a ROCKET TEST PILOT" arrived and I am 109 pages into the book. I have not read a book that made me feel this personal - I don't know how to describe it - feeling. It is a wonderful book I'm sure but as I read Scott Crossfield's thoughts in this book with a 1960 copy write I know he died when his Cessna 210 broke up in flight in the same storm system I was circumnavigating VFR going to Asheville and Winston Salem not too long ago. I can't help but read it in that context - sad.

Pete send the latest version of the list. jeaninebob@cox.net

Bob Axsom

The last sentence in chapter 11 is haunting.

Bob Axsom

Gerald Clabots 10-22-2009 12:30 PM

The Ravens By Christopher Robbins
Story about the secert war in Laos

rbibb 10-22-2009 07:56 PM

Fate is the Hunter
Stranger to the Ground
Wind, Sand, and Stars

Bob Axsom 11-11-2009 12:29 AM

Always Another Dawn
 
I finished reading Scott Crossfield's 1960 book and I know a lot more about the X rocket planes of the 1940s and 50s. It is not a "fun book" but a very informative one. I paid $35 for a copy which was once the property of the Madison, Wisconsin public library.

Bob Axsom

Bob Axsom 11-12-2009 12:01 AM

Anyone have a copy of Sopwith Scout by P. G. Taylor
 
Anyone have a copy of Sopwith Scout by P. G. Taylor published in 1968 they would like to convert into $25 or so? I have searched for a copy ant the cheapest I can find is $136.

Bob Axsom

Bob Axsom 01-24-2010 10:06 AM

Stephen Coonts' new book "The Disciple"
 
If you read the "Flight of the Intruder" written by Stephen Coonts you know how well he tells the story of carrier operations and Naval Aviation. In his new book "The Disciple", which is a current day spy thriller dealing with Iran's nuclear threat, there is a section describing an F-18 mission that is told as only Mr. Coonts can tell it - which is to say special.

Bob Axsom

David Paule 01-24-2010 07:03 PM

First, thanks for this discussion. Some the best books have been mentioned. Here are some that haven't been, but are nonetheless first-rate:

"The Fullness of Wings," by Gary Dorsey, describes the creation and flight of the man-powered aircraft that flew from Crete to Santorini. Non-fiction.

"The High Road to China," by Jon Cleary. Made into a movie. Fiction. Describes a flight from England to China.

"That's My Story," by Douglas Corrigan. Non-fiction. Wrong-Way Corrigan had a flight across the Atlantic that you might appreciate.

"Sagittarius Rising," by Cecil Lewis, describes flying in the first World War. It's lyrical. Non-fiction.

"Our Flight to Adventure," by Tay and Lowell Thomas, Jr. covers their trip to the middle east and Africa in a Cessna 180 in the early '50s. The book was one of the ones that got me started flying as a teenager, and I now own a Cessna 180. Non-fiction.

"The Flying Carpet," by Richard Halliburton, is pure adventure. Exciting reading to the teenager I was when I read it. Unfortunately is light on the flying and airplane end of things, but the adventure makes up for that. Non-fiction.

Finally, here's two books, both excellent, on building airplanes:

"Building Aeroplanes for 'Those Magnificent Men'," by Air Commodore Allen Wheeler. Need I say more? Non-fiction. And absolutely first-rate. Includes a discussion of the way the planes flew.

"Langley Memoir on Mechanical Flight," By Samuel Pierpont Langley and Charles M. Manly. Describes the development of the Langley Aerodrome. They discuss most details, why they were designed that way and how they were tested. This isn't a book of hindsight. It's a tale of development, and we all know how it ended. Non-fiction.

David Paule

Garage Guy 01-24-2010 07:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David Paule (Post 399609)
"Langley Memoir on Mechanical Flight," By Samuel Pierpont Langley and Charles M. Manly. Describes the development of the Langley Aerodrome. They discuss most details, why they were designed that way and how they were tested. This isn't a book of hindsight. It's a tale of development, and we all know how it ended. Non-fiction. David Paule

That one is old enough to be out of copyright and available for dowload or reading online: http://www.archive.org/details/langl...ronm00langrich

Very interesting reading...

--Paul

hevansrv7a 01-24-2010 07:29 PM

Should also include:
 
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Alo.../9780736612548


Link is to tapes.
Book is out of print - limited availability.
Synopsis

ALONE OVER THE TASMAN SEA is a story of Sir Francis Chichester's 1931 flight from New Zealand to Norfolk Island, Lord Howe Island and on to Sidney in a birdcage airplane, the wood and fiber de Havilland Moth.
In the 1930's, flight was still in its dangerous infancy. Chichester's trip, in which he had to find pin-speck islands in a remote and uncharted sea, tested not only his courage, resolution and stamina.
"For the things of which Francis Chichester writes are the things of man's old quest and spirit: danger and adventure and achievement, the sun and the wind, the many-launching waves and the steady thunder of seas on island beaches."
--------------------------------------
He developed a unique navigational method for hitting the two way points which were tiny islands where he needed to refuel. He crashed on one, rebuilt the airplane with local help and materials and continued the next year. He checked navigation with a sextant while at wave-top level, flying with his knees.

flybye 01-25-2010 02:04 AM

Alone Over The Tasman Sea
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by hevansrv7a (Post 399614)
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Alo.../9780736612548


Link is to tapes.
Book is out of print - limited availability.
Synopsis

ALONE OVER THE TASMAN SEA is a story of Sir Francis Chichester's 1931 flight from New Zealand to Norfolk Island, Lord Howe Island and on to Sidney in a birdcage airplane, the wood and fiber de Havilland Moth.
In the 1930's, flight was still in its dangerous infancy. Chichester's trip, in which he had to find pin-speck islands in a remote and uncharted sea, tested not only his courage, resolution and stamina.
"For the things of which Francis Chichester writes are the things of man's old quest and spirit: danger and adventure and achievement, the sun and the wind, the many-launching waves and the steady thunder of seas on island beaches."
--------------------------------------
He developed a unique navigational method for hitting the two way points which were tiny islands where he needed to refuel. He crashed on one, rebuilt the airplane with local help and materials and continued the next year. He checked navigation with a sextant while at wave-top level, flying with his knees.

Having read only of Francis Chichester's sailing records, it was fascinating to read what a pioneer he had been in developing navigation techniques for aviation. After his flight across the Tasman Sea, he went on in later life to teach navigation during the second World War, he won the first solo trans-Atlantic sailing race after having been diagnosed with lung cancer and given six months to live. His solo voyage around the world in 1966 is what brought him fame but you get the sense in his biography that all the skills acquired over an industrious lifetime were put to use in that one journey.


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