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What's your favorite aviation book?

Reading

Have to say that Tex Hill Flying Tiger was a great read that I did not want to put down. That guy was a real American Bad !@#
 
"Wager with the wind" The Don Sheldon story. I'm an Alaska and bush pilot study. Don Sheldon was landing on glaciers on "Denali" as high as 14,000 ft. as long ago as 1955. In a basically stock PA 18.
 
ANOTHER GOOD ONE

The English have a heritage of adventure.
Sir Francis Chichester has written many great books of his adventures in the Air and Sea.
His book, Flight of the Gypsy Moth, for me was inspiring. The story of his flight starting in Auckland and ending in London in a no gyro open cockpit biplane is a good read.
He did many interesting adventures, some were first time things.
 
A friend brought back "Heroes of the Horizon" from a recent trip to ANC (he recommends Title Wave Books in town). It's a great collection of stories about the early bush pilots in Alaska, from the 30s through 50s.

Log of the Liberators is still at the top of my list, though.

TODR
 
These are not necessarily my 'favorite' (which is your favorite child?) but I didn't see them posted (after a quick scan of the thread; apologies if I missed something) and I feel they're worth the reading anyway.

For non-fic: We by Charles Lindburgh, Fighter Combat by Shaw, and Frequent Flyer by Bob Reiss.

For Fiction: Airframe by Michael Crichton and The Nemesis Mission, The Ransom of Black Stealth One, and Butcher Bird all by Dean Ing.

By the way, I think the Bach books may be my real favorites with top honors going to Jonathon Livingston Seagull. I was flying model sailplanes at the time and slope soaring with the gulls near Carmel kinda made a connection.
 
Border Pilot

'Border Pilot' by M.W. Bourne is not well known but one of my favorites. A collection of short stories about the author's time spent as an ag-pilot on the Texas-Mexico border during the 70's. Writing style is incredibly down-to-earth and deceptively humorous, but really affecting. Can be read online or bought in paperback:

http://www.borderpilot.com
 
CHICKENHAWK -Robert Mason
Not mentioned often here, but in my top 5 aviation stories ever read. Everyone whom I recommended it to could not put it down till it was finished.
EJ

I had the good fortune to meet Bob Mason and most of the characters from the book in November. Great book about a great group of people.
 
As Bob said, "North Star Over My Shoulder" is really an amazing read. I recommend it to anyone is interested in "the flying life".

Mike
 
"Fate is the Hunter" is scripture.

"Hard Landing" for airline buffs.

But my sentimental favorite, "Pilot Jack Knight" by A.M. Anderson.
It was written for elementary school kids and is quite dated, but this is the book who a kindly third grade teacher gave to me when she saw a seed of passion about flying in a dazed and confused little boy whose father had just passed away. Over 16k flight hours owe themselves to the first hour spent reading that book.
 
Lindberg and Scott

... "North to the Orient" by Anne Morrow Lindbergh.

Absolutely one of my favorites, along with "Listen! The Wind!" There is another book she wrote with no flying in it that I pull out every 5 years or so when I get introspective. "Gift From the Sea." Very insightful into the stages of life we go through.

"30 Seconds over Tokyo" was an early life read for me and I have loved it ever since, along with "God Is My Co-Pilot" By Gen Scott. I also love one of Scott's other books, but cannot recall the name. Maybe it was "Damned To Glory." At one point in the book he realizes how dangerous coombat and flying is, and basically tells God "thanks for the great ride!" Sometimes when I'm flying, I get that same feeling. If it all ended here and now it was great to be alive and experience all the things I've been lucky enough to experience!

The other two books in the 5-star category are "I Could Never Be So Lucky Again" (Doolittle) and "Kill Devil Hill." The former shows what a person of character can achieve, and the later was great for the insights into the Wright Brothers investigated and solved problems. I have lent it to several other engineers who loved the book even if they did not have a particular love for aviation.

Others have already mentioned a lot of my favorites:
Illusions
Thud Ridge
Rolling Thunder
Flight of the Intruder
Kill Devil Hill
Any and all on bush pilots, especially in Alaska. I have quite a few - I'll try to add them in later.
 
Stranger to the Ground by Richard Bach

The book that set the aviation hook in me... the first paperback I ever bought (and still have), in 1964. It's one of several favorites, most already mentioned.
 
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Jans-Joachim Marseille

If it hasn't been mentioned, I really got into this book:

German Fighter Ace - Hans-Joachim Marseille by Franz Kuroski

There also are quite a few films of his exploits on U-Tube. He did not live past age 23 but had quite a full life with parties, women, American jazz and not the least, he was an outstanding fighter pilot. He was not killed in combat but came to his end when a new BF109 experienced an engine failure and the bail out a was delayed too cross enemy lines. This is a well written book on life on the other side during those terrible days.
 
My favorite

I read " Round the Bend " as a fifth grader and gave a book report on it in class( 1949 ), and know I would enjoy reading it again today.
 
"Orbit" by John Nance

I just read "Orbit". I think it was a best seller last year. Outstanding read. It's about a space tourist who gets stuck alone in orbit on a future-generation Yeager ship, when a micro-meteor puts a hole in the pilot's head.
The aviation stuff is all pretty accurate and it's a real page-turner.
 
Big Friend, Little Friend: Memoirs of a WWII Fighter Pilot

Big Friend, Little Friend: Memoirs of a WWII Fighter Pilot by Richard Turner.

Perused the listings here and didn't see this one listed. It was one of the first aviation books I read, oh, about forty years ago. (age of ten, or so). I couldn't tell you if it's my favorite because it's been so long since I read it, but it had a profound affect on me at a young age.
 
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Since one of my flight instructors was a German ace (Rolf Prigge, ace in 109's and 262's,) I have always had a fascination about that side of the war. "Stuka Pilot" was an interesting read and I haven't seen it mentioned here. 2500 plus missions is a record never to be exceeded. Or at least I would hope!

Bob Kelly
 
Doug, I just had an idea.

How about if you captured all these great book titles and created a virtual bookshelf. You could put in links to the books for sale on-line and maybe even get Amazon or Barnes & Noble to kick in some ad bucks. People could vote for their favorites and you could rank them.

And how about a separate bookshelf for "how to" books.

Same idea for all the great airplane movies from that other thread a few months ago.

Great idea
 
"Off the Planet" By Jerry Linenger.
Great book about one man's path to become an astronut and cosmonaut. Includes the time he spent on space station MIR.
 
From a Brit

"the Few"...8 American service men fought in the Battle of Brittain..These guys were prepared to surrender their citizenship for the privilage....Very well writen!

Frank
 
"Bill Lear - Stormy Genius"

Just thought of the Bill Lear book. Very interesting, and lots of insight into how he got a lot done with a few key people. Shows the good and the bad side of him.
 
Boyd: the fighter pilot who changed the art of war

a book about an amazing person - if you liked Fountainhead and you fly, you'll love this.
 
For fodrv7

Peter
You may like to read
Sopwith Scout 7309
by Sir Gordon TAYLOR
(ISBN: 030493139X)

An excellent account of his RFC flying in WWI.

Regards
John Russell
Melbourne
Victoria 3121
 
For Pilot's Eyes Only

It isn't my favorite aviation book and I probably never would have heard of it if the author, Ned Wilson, wasn't a friend.

However, it is a real good account of flying for Pan Am from DC-3s in South America up through being a 747 check pilot. At the end Ned addresses the sad demise of the great, historic airline.

Lots of great stories, like taking off an airliner across a grass strip in a crosswind. Some of my favorite Ned Wilson stories are not included, like the meeting down in Big Bend country about a planned new MOA. Ned was vocally against the proposal, in his cowboy hat and jeans. The chairman became annoyed and finally asked just when the last time this scruffy looking guy actually piloted an airplane. That is when Ned asked "well does bringing a 747 over from London 2 days ago count?"

Good guy and good book. He personally owned a Cessna 180 that he used to fly to Mexico a lot. I met him flying gliders.

I checked, and the book is available on Amazon.
 
$US144

Thanks John.
At $US145 from Amazon I might wait for the US $ to crash a little further.

Pete.

Peter
You may like to read
Sopwith Scout 7309
by Sir Gordon TAYLOR
(ISBN: 030493139X)

An excellent account of his RFC flying in WWI.

Regards
John Russell
Melbourne
Victoria 3121
 
bush flying helicopters

NINE LIVES OF AN ALASKA BUSH PILOT BY KEN EICHER. just finished it today. 53 years floats to helicopters, mostly rescue missions. the worst was the avalanche at granduc copper mine. book quotes..... wasnt ptetty. blowing se and snowing at 35 to 40 kts, it was a nasty, gusty day- the kind of day youd like to spend inside the house....... the story in incredible.
 
an amazing career

Check this book out - The Eighth Sea by Frank T. Courtney

This is a truely amazing life story starting with the box-kite planes he learned to fly in 1913 to the Atlas missiles he helped design in the 1960s. In this book, Frank describes his career in his own words with the enthusiasm and authority of a man who has flown every plane he could get his hands on for half a century.

If you can find a copy of this book, pick it up for a good read with alot of history of aviation.
 
Fate is the Hunter.

One of the best paragraphs ever written about instrument flight...with a great line: "...the fighting pose of a pilot in bad weather..."

(I have a few others that reside on the short list of books...Len Deighton, Fighter; Zero 3 Bravo; Night Flight by St. Exupery; a bunch of others...)
 
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Listen! The Wind observations

Absolutely one of my favorites, along with "Listen! The Wind!" QUOTE]

I normally only read books written by men because that is what I am and the perspective of the ones I choose to read is the same as mine. I feel comfortable with that but I went to abebooks.com and ordered this one for $1 because here and in publications over the years I have read recommendations on the writings of Anne Morrow Lindbergh. It is totally different than anything I have ever read about flying. The book was copyrighted in 1938 and the charts in it were drawn by Charles A. Lindbergh. It gets to a level of thought that I have never seen expressed before. I am currently on page 152 and they are preparing to leave Bathhurst and fly across the Atlantic to Brazil. Her thoughts on their departures penetrate down to my private aviator state of mind and actions.

Not as good for me as her husband's "Spirit of St. Louis" but an awefully good and unique piece of literature and history at a very personal level. Not some wantabee researce project.

Bob Axsom
 
Bob - Glad to hear you like it! It really gave me some idea of what flight meant back then, and what they went through! Even after 70 or so years flying around the world in a single engine plane is a huge accomplishment!

I agree with you on her husband's book. You may want to read his autobiography. It's pretty good too.

John
 
Boyd

I'm about 100 pages into "Boyd - The Fighter Pilot Who Changed The Art of War" and am thoroughly enjoying it. My thanks to whoever suggested it. I think several people put it in this thread.

I bought the book at the National Air and Space Museum, Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles Airport. I've been to the one downtown many times but this was my first time at the new facility. What a beautiful place and what spectacular displays and aircraft. I really enjoyed it.

I am always surprised by some things..

how flat the SR-71 is
how small the Mercury and Gemini capsules are
how big the Shuttle is
how delicate the WWI planes were
how much craftsmanship the Wright Brothers put into their aircraft
how high ballons went
how far parachutists fell
how brave the evac heli crews were (and still are), and
how graceful the Boeing 307 Stratoliner is.

If you haven't seen it, you should!

There were about 10 groups of grade school kids there, being given tours by volunteers. They were really digging the planes and the stories. Maybe some of them will be pilots or builders or NASA engineers. I think I had as much fun watching the kids as looking at the planes. Nah!
 
Bury Us Upside Down

I ordered this book from Amazon after reading Doug Reeves editorial recently. The writing style is very authentic which is unusual to me and and the photographs are personal with a very "unstaged" look about them. Some of the language is very raw but for an adult that has served in the military overseas it is something you will probably acknowledge as familiar. So far it is an interesting read about a special unit in a tough time. Having met Dick Rutan and getting an air to ground pirep from him when trying to get out of Jackson Hole an number of years ago my interest was aroused when Doug said he was part of the unit covered by the book. The man gets more fascinating even as the years would normaly dull the Voyager memory. I have a two autographed airplane photos on my wall. One is of the Voyager and written on it is "Bob - Get up to 14,000 thru the hole - It doesn't look to bad west Happy Flying Dick Rutan". That was his pirep to me in 1993.

Bob Axsom
 
The 509th Remembered

I'm watching PBS as I'm doing my nightly exercises (4-21-08) and they are showing an interview of Theodore "Dutch" Van Kirk. In the course of the interview they discussed A book by Robert Krauss entitled "The 509th Remembered". I looked on abebooks.com and there were no books found. I tried Amazon.com and they had two starting at $750. Has anyone read that book or even seen a copy. If so what comments do you have about it?

Bob Axsom
 
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Here's a few more:
Fortress Without a Roof, Morrison
The First and the Last, Galland
Flyboys, Bradley
For Fiction;
Airframe, Chrichton
Butcherbird, Ing (with plot including OSHKOSH fly-in and EAA members!) Hard to find!
 
Space not air.

Robert Krauss entitled "The 509th Remembered". I looked on abebooks.com and there were no books found. I tried Amazon.com and they had two starting at $750. Has anyone read that book or even seen a copy. If so what comments do you have about it?

Bob Axsom

Bob,
Had a look on the Australia Online site. Nothing found.

Meanwhile, I am 1/3 of the way through a newly released book, "How Apollo Flew to the Moon" by W. Davis Woods.

It describes the engineering, orbital mechanics, navigation, rocket function and design, etc., all in brilliant detail, as never before, with lots of humour, (especially the quips between the Capcom boys at Houston and the Astronauts.)

Pete.
 
Duly noted and added

Here's a few more:
Fortress Without a Roof, Morrison
The First and the Last, Galland
Flyboys, Bradley
For Fiction;
Airframe, Chrichton
Butcherbird, Ing (with plot including OSHKOSH fly-in and EAA members!) Hard to find!

Scott,
The First and the Last had already been mention but the Author was unknown.
So I have added it and the others you mentioned to the MS WORD Database list; available from [email protected]

thanks,
Pete.

PS. Why didn't you use a Lugger for your RV-8.
P.
 
My Secret War

What a great list of books in the posts dating back years! One I love and didn't see is My Secret War by Richard S. Drury. He choose the Skyraider
over jets and this book is his story of flying the A-1 over Vietnam. Alone at night dodging thunderstorms over the Trail. A great read.

Tom
 
Space Adventures

I am going to order it.

Here is some personal space history with some Capcom/Astronaut communication that you may find interesting Ref. SRTM and STS-99:

... The launch was flawless. Everything depended on the upcoming deployment of the mast.

At 17:25 the latches were open and the “milk stool” (the three legged motorized structure used for precise alignment of the Outboard Antenna after mast deployment) was clear of the end of the canister. The defining moment was at hand. At 17:28 the mid-deck video was trained on the end of the canister where the mast was supposed to emerge from its collapsed stack of short lengths of longerons, battens, cables and latches to form this incredibly stiff 60 meter structure extending the outboard antenna into perfect orientation for the mission. Out it came without hesitation, absolutely beautiful.

For several days the mast performed well but now it would have to retract and stow. Many months before, I had witnessed the –60 degree C, low temperature retraction tests at AEC Able in Goleta, California.

In the test, the mast retracted properly to within less than an inch of full stow and it would go no further. It seemed if we had a little more power we could overcome the resistance and drive it home. The motor manufacturer reluctantly authorized a higher power setting for a very limited time to be followed by no power application for a long recovery period. This was applied and a very slight movement was seen in the closure direction followed by a return toward the original position when the power was removed. The mast did not completely retract and stow. It was decided that we should try backing it out a little and try it again with the higher power and some momentum. After a short extension there was a catastrophic failure of the mast with the attendant fracture noise and the sound of many hard metal balls striking the wall of the canister like marbles in a barrel.

After a long study it was determined that when the mast was prevented from full retraction it was impossible to assure that all four corners of the mast at a given frame were properly latched. When we reversed direction one corner was latched and the adjacent one was not. The batten in the frame between these two corners was placed under tremendous tension as one corner moved out and the other was held back. The batten was pulled apart and the corner rollers were shattered dumpling the ball bearing components in the canister. From this knowledge came the flight rule that the mast would not be reversed to the deploy direction unless it was fully retracted and latched.

We determined by testing that there was an extreme increase in the wire insulation’s resistance to change when the temperature fell from –45 down to -60 C. The damaged section of the mast was rebuilt and the special ball bearing “plastic” rollers at the corners of the outer eight bays were replaced with solid bronze rollers. The retraction test was repeated at –45 C and the retraction and stow were successful. At –60 C it failed. A new test where the mast would be extended out just a couple of bays, cold soaked at –60 degrees C and then retracted was run. It worked perfectly. Thus it was concluded that the problem was caused by trying to compress wires back into the stowage space at the bottom of the canister after they had been stretched out 200 feet and frozen to –60 C. Heaters were added to the inner walls of the canister to warm the wire insulation as it retracted and the emergency mast retraction power option was also added to the design. It was determined that the mast would never see anything near –45 C let alone -60 and if we had a problem the Shuttle could be rolled to a position where the sun could be used to warm up the mast. With the design and operating procedure changes driven out by the environmental test failures SRTM was as ready for the mission as we could make it.

The following are my notes from that early morning on February 21, 2000:

- The monitor is on channel 39 and they are currently showing the deployed mast. It is shining so bright in the sun light that it is hard to make out detail.
- 0:3:40 they cut back on the brightness or the Shuttle is going into night sky because you can now barely see the mast.
- 03:49 they just announced one more data take to go and they are now over the Australian Continent. PHRR1 Removed tape C209, inserted tapeC211; PHRR2 remove tape C210, inserted tape C212.
- 03:55 mapping complete, AODA safe.
- Announcement - end of mapping.
- 03:57 Canister heater is on according to the announcer (Houston Mission Control)
- 04:05 Good picture of the mast and one of the astronauts (woman) announced, “Beginning mast stow.”
- 04:06 they just inserted a good view of the mast section near the canister. I wouldn’t be surprised if Howard Eisen asked for that.
- 04:08 now they are zooming in on the outboard antenna. It has to flip to its stow position before the retract.
- 04:23 Astronaut announced, “Go for flip” [of the outboard antenna]. Capcom said standby 5 minutes.
- “Go for Foxtrot 1” 04:24 (Capcom).
- 04:25 Flip of the outboard antenna has begun. Looks very good.
- 04:33 the flip appears complete but I’ve heard nothing.
- 04:33 Astronaut (man) said, “Go on Gulf.”
- Capcom said “Roger standby.” I’m sure the flip is complete and they are verifying that everything is OK.
- 04:41 there must be some concern or I think they would have started to retract the mast by now.
- 04:41 “Go for Gulf.” From Capcom so I guess everything is OK.
- 04:43 Go step I, hold step J.
- 04:45 Step I complete, requested hi-definition TV of retraction. Capcom said, “Copy step I complete and we’ll let you know.”
- 05:02 Houston Mission Control said it will be 17 more minutes before the start of mast retraction.
- Capcom gave OK to retract at the scheduled time. That should be 2 minutes from now.
- 05:20 there it goes, looking good, steady and smooth.
- 05:20 20 bays retracted according to Houston Mission Control. It appears to be going slower to me.
- 30 bays in at 05:27.
- 40 bays in 05:29
- 50 bays in 05:31
- 60 bays in 05:33
- I saw the seven striped batten about one bay from the canister at 05:34
- 05:35 picture back.
- 05:38 stopped motion.
- 05:39 Evaluating indication. Power off called for and complied with.
- There appears to be an anomaly. 05:44
- 05:45 HMC just said they have no indication of latch.
- It appeared to me that the cover did not close all the way.
- 06:23 still no answer. Capcom just told the astronauts that they are still studying the problem and will get back to them as soon as they can.
- 06:34 Houston called with a plan.
1- Page 1-18 seg D step 2 through 9 (unintelligible note)
2- Page 3-9 step 5-11 seg J run 30 seconds
3- Page 3-10 step K to turn mast power off if motion seen
4- Page 1-19 seg E steps 1-15 if no motion call MCC.
- They hope the heat has softened the cables so the stow can be completed.
- Power on 06:44:45. Some small movement seen at start-up then nothing but high currents were observed. This is exactly what we saw in the –60 degree C retraction test at AEC Able. No good.
- Now they are working on a new plan “B” – heaters to the limit.
- They are going to repeat the max torque.
- Astronauts suggested backing up slightly then go in.
- Houston Capcom said this was discussed and they want to focus on inward direction only for now. I’m sure this is because of our catastrophic failure of the mast when we tried this at AEC Able during the –60 degree C test.
- Power on 07:08:17. Had some movement in, then stall and back to half of the original closure distance when power was removed.
- Thinking again now.
- 07:43 new plan. Same as old max torque but three times, 15 seconds each time and 5 minute wait between.
- 07:50:37 the stow was effective on the first try!

Bob Axsom
 
Red Knight of Germany

This book is out of print. I got my copy on eBay. As the name implies, it is the biography of the the Red Baron. Interesting look into his life and "what made him tick". The author's name is Floyd Gibbons.
 
Apollo- Race to the moon- Murray and Cox

Just finished reading this book and?.it is a must read!
It has all the people that had to make the leaps of engineering challenges-
From Langley team of Caldwell Johnson (no college degree!) and Max Faget that carted the first test Mercury module out to the military launch pad on a mattress- Apollo 12 that created its own lighting hit and the controller that remembered the arcane flight numbers in his own investigation-even when his screen went bisurke- ?flight, we are still a go?. The moon or earth orbital rendezvous debate. The trials of the F1 rocket engine to make the burn dynamically stable- The crawler! The politics of James Webb and the unbelievable time line- "The fire!" and how it affected people and the project. The problems of North America and building the command module- Grumman engineering of designing the LEM- ? It could be of any shape since it is moving in a vacuum- You can have stuff hanging anywhere. We are AIR-craft designers- It did take us a while to get our minds around that LEM concept?.
If you are interested in the process of engineering aircraft- :D:D:D
This book gets into the weeds of it all in a readable fashion.
beg, barrow or steal this book! Out of print but I found it used on Amazon...
 
Apollo...

This book gets into the weeds of it all in a readable fashion.
beg, barrow or steal this book! Out of print but I found it used on Amazon...

Yup this is the best book I have yet to read that shows what it is like in "my world" of the space program. Most books on the program tend to be from an astronaut-centric point of view - this one illuminates the many dusty corners and tens of thousands of people that contribute to making the whole thing work!

Paul
 
Up there or down here.

Yup, good reading....but it was better actually being there!!:D

Paul

Being here or there? . . . . NASA puts a whole new meaning on the saying, "It's better to be down here wishing you were up there, than up there wishing you were down here."
Pete.
 
Being here or there? . . . . NASA puts a whole new meaning on the saying, "It's better to be down here wishing you were up there, than up there wishing you were down here."
Pete.

At the time, I was "down here", hoping I wouldn't be sitting before an investigation board explaining why I had to throw the SRTM cannister and mast away becasue we couldn't get it stowed....:eek::rolleyes:
 
One I love and didn't see is "My Secret War" by Richard S. Drury. He choose the Skyraider over jets and this book is his story of flying the A-1 over Vietnam. Alone at night dodging thunderstorms over the Trail. A great read.

Ditto! Yep, I'm surprised it took this long for someone to mention this one... a great read indeed. Rick Drury also wrote a column called "Flightlines" in Airways Magazine for quite a few years... looks like they've been condensed into a book called, appropriately enough, "Flightlines". Good stuff spanning his flying career from J-3 Cubs through Skyraiders to his MD-11 freight dog days.
 
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