![]() |
I read a pretty good one about Skylab a long time ago, and can't seem to find it on the bookshelf right now. It was probably "A House in Space" by Cooper.
There's an excellent book from an American who worked on MIR. This one is more recent, called "Off the Planet" by Linenger. It's a very good book. Dave |
aviation books - best of
"Flights of Passage", Samuel Hynes (captures perfectly the feeling of being an aviator in 1944-45, a young man coming of age during the end of the global conflagration)
"Tumult in the Clouds", James Goodson (Delves into the amazing characters of the men/boys of the famous 4th FG. He actually knew J.G. Magee, and first saw the "High Flight" poem pinned on a hanger wall at an RAF training station) |
Air Disaster (Vol. 1) (978-1875671113): Macarthur Job
and Volumes 2 and 3. Excellent clinical analysis of airline accidents from around the world by a world renown safety analyst/writer, but written in such a way as to be difficult to put down. John |
Fighter Pilot - Robin Olds
Just wanted to thank everyone for recommending this book.. I'm almost done and it has to be one of my favorite books of all time.. I can't help but think about his escapades in WWII/Korea and how they apply to our current obsession with improving safety in the community. Robin would have the crew chief walk him through the start procedures for a new aircraft and just jump in go.. w/o knowing approach speeds, stall characteristics, limitations, and sometimes how to work the radios, etc.. Those guys would have to figure it out and adjust, more often than not testing these aircraft limitations in actual combat (ie, finding out the hard way a P-38 will tuck its nose and lose total elevator authority in a steep dive approaching Mach 1). If a guy has one bad rivet in his bird these days he gets reemed for it in the online community. ;)
Quote:
|
Homesteading Space: The Skylab Story - Final Report
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob Axsom I worked on Skylab for around 7 months as the MDAC-E resident rep at Eagle Picher in Joplin, MO for the development, fabrication, test and acceptance of the large NiCad batteries in the Airlock Module for power on the dark side. So after reading a couple of books leading up to the point in time when Skylab became the US space program I thought I would find something covering the Skylab project. I went to Amazon and ordered Homesteading Space: the Skylab Story by David Hitt, Owen Garriott and Joe Kerwin, copyrighted in 2008. It is 517 pages long and it has no detail index at the back that would make it useful as a reference book. I am only on page 88 and it is so directionless that I can only force myself to read a couple of pages at a time. It is like a committee collected information from various sources and organized it chronologically and published it. I will read it because I worked on the project but I think I made a poor choice - there must be a better book covering the Skylab Project. I will update this in a few months when I finish the book (hopefully). Bob Axsom 9-28-11 now on page 307 and the feeling is much the same but at least it is out of the MSFC back patting phase and is into the second crew part of the mission. I can only read a couple of pages at a time but I recognize the value of the content and appreciate the effort made to get it in print - it's just hard to read. Once during a design review on a much later project a board member stated that the project needed to review the flight operational failure causes of several prior missions flown by the US, Russia and Japan and to present the results of the investigation to the operations personnel to make them aware of the past failures in an effort to avoid similar mistakes. If no one documents this stuff in any form it is impossible to do such research. The project for which this was done had the lowest command error rate of any mission being flown in the three plus years it was flying. The book has value but it is not overly enjoyable. I will keep reading and update later. Finished - I may be the only private citizen that has read the whole thing. The latter part of the book is better but it is a hard read. The part covering the third crew is OK, the Science chapter is better and Alan Bean's transcribed notes from his private inflight log is even a little better. It is a limited view from the inflight operational side of the space project and I am predjudiced a little against that shallow view. However, I have a much better appreciation of the project that I had when it flew back in 1973. Bob Axsom |
Bob,
See message 331. There is a better book on Skylab and a decent one on MIR, too.. Dave |
Best Aviation Books
Anything by Ernest K. Gann
God is my Co-Pilot by Robert Scott Flight of the Intruder and Intruders by Stephen Coonts Not necessarity a strictly aviation book, but the biography of John Boyd, arguably the best fighter pilot of the modern era. |
The Last Explorer by Simon Nasht
This book details the life and almost unbelievable exploits of the Australian, Sir Hubert Wilkins and includes lots of amazing aviating. In particular he was the first to conceive of, and use aircraft in the polar regions. With Ben Eielson ( American Aviation Hall of Fame) as the pilot they were the first to fly an aircraft (Lockheed Vega) over the Arctic Ice Cap from Point Barrow to Norway. Wilkins was a superb navigator and managed to navigate directly to their destination through thunderstorms and blizzards using dead reckoning and sextant sightings and with the compass shifting through more than 300 degrees of magnetic variation. The American Geographical Society described this as a "feat in navigation which can be confidently declared unparalleled in the history of flying". He had lots of other "Firsts" in aviation but aviation was only part of this incredible man's life. For instance he was held in high regard by the American Military. In 1959 the nuclear powered submarine Skate became the first submarine to surface at the Pole, where it held a memorial service and scattered the ashes of the Australian, Sir Hubert Wilkins. See Amazon Books for a brief description and reader reviews. Fin 9A |
Just Ordered My Copy - Thanks
Quote:
Bob Axsom |
"One Good Run: The Legend of Burt Munro" by Tim Hanna
As the cover states "The Amazing life story of the Motorcycling Speed Legend who inspired the hit movie "The World's Fastest Indian". If you missed the movie becuase of the poor distribution - well, you missed a great one. So how is this an aviation book, well did you know he built a glider from bamboo in his youth - it's in there. But more importantly it goes deep enough to capture the focus and dedication one can give to developing a high performance speed machine. On page 110 after a paragraph telling of the birth of his son it goes on for several pages describing in fastenating detail how he made new heads for the engine and a little later on, connecting rods just a step or two short of mining the ore himself. Maybe this will appeal more to those that have already built their RVs and are modifying them for speed than those that are still working on the original build. If you are modifying your RV for speed, this will inspire you by this man's relentless pursuit of excellence with modest resources.
Bob Axsom |
| All times are GMT -6. The time now is 09:13 AM. |