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The design talent at the drafting tables and the vision of Donald W. Douglas meant that the company was poised for its biggest success ever. Yet, by the early 1930s, [...]

During the lead-up to World War II and early German campaigns, the world viewed the Nazi regime as a well-disciplined organization, carrying out Adolf Hider's will with precision and accuracy. [...]

There are those who believe that a few shop-worn phrases are at the heart of many of America's problems in the world today. These include the most powerful and sinister [...]

People have been fascinated with giant airplanes throughout aviation history, naturally focusing on such standouts as Sikorsky's Ilya Muromets, the World War I ZeppelinStaaken R.VI, the Hughes Hercules flying boat, [...]

The aviation industry has always attracted brilliant designers. While visionaries like Kelly Johnson, Ed Heinemann, Willis Hawkins and Leroy Grumman are well known, dozens of other once-prominent aeronautical engineers have [...]

few aircraft configurations are more familiar than the delta wing, which dominated the sky for many years, and continues to do so in modified form. The delta wing provided convincing [...]

In real estate, it's location, location, location. In aircraft, it's timing, timing, timing. Some examples proving this aphorism include the Messerschmitt Me-262, Martin-Baker MB-5, Dornier Do-335, de Havilland Comet, General [...]

Late in World War II, on patrol near Elbe, Germany, RAF French ace Pierre Clostermann encountered a 'strange aircraft' that quickly broke away from his flight of Hawker Tempests. As [...]

In a very happy coincidence, the airplane and the motion picture came into their own at roughly the same time. The significance of the December 17, 1903, Wright brothers flight [...]

Luftwaffe jet-powered flying wing fighters slash through a formation of Boeing B-29s, while high overhead Lockheed P-80 Shooting Stars fly top cover. The year is 1946, and by virtue of [...]

There are man reasons why less than first-rate air raft are produced in quantity. The most dominant factor is the perceived urgency of the need. If war is threatening, or [...]

In the first 60 years of its existence, the U.S. Air Force went from the hollow shell of its World War II demobilization status to become the most powerful, most [...]

The Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company was for many years the greatest name in American aviation, the premier purveyor of fighters, bombers, trainers and transports. Its successor, the Curtiss-Wright Corporation, [...]

The time worn formulas of World War I--wood and fabric construction, open cockpits, fixed undercarriage and biplane wings--were generally discarded during the mid-1920s in favor of all-metal construction, enclosed cockpits, […]

BILLY BISHOP LONE WOLF HUNTER: The RAF Ace Re-Examined by Peter Kilduff, Grub Street, London, 2014, $39.95. The dean of World War I aviation biographers, Peter Kilduff, has outdone himself [...]

SPACE SHUTTLE Developing an Icon 1972-2013 by Dennis H. Jenkins, Specialty Press, 2017, three-volume set $169.99. While it might be presumptuous to say any book is 'the best ever written [...]

F9F PANTHER UNITS OF THE KOREAN WAR by Warren Thompson, Osprey Publishing, Oxford, UK, 2014, $22.95. The acknowledged guru of Korean War aviation, author Warren Thompson, 'has done it again.' [...]

SO I BOUGHT AN AIR FORCE: The True Story of a Gritty Midwesterner in Somoza's Nicaragua by W. W. Martin, Two Harbors Press, Minneapolis, Minn., 2013, $16.95. This is a [...]

THUD RIDGE: F-105 Thunderchief Missions Over Vietnam by Colonel Jack Broughton, USAF (ret.) Ridge was dedicated to 'Our Comrades Up North' when it was published in 1969, and he put [...]

ACES OF THE 78TH FIGHTER GROUP by Thomas McKelvey Cleaver, Osprey Publishing, Oxford, UK, 2013, $22.95. This is more than just another entry in the superb Osprey 'Aces' series, because [...]

FIGHTING COCKPITS In the Pilot's Seat of Great Military Aircraft From World War I to Today by Donald Nijboer, photography by Dan Patterson, Zenith Press, 2016, $40. Getting a good [...]

WARBIRD FACTORY North American Aviation in World War II by John Fredrickson, Jenith Press, 2015, $40. Warbird Factory is a perfect exposition of how the American public and the U.S. [...]

HOW TO BUILD A PLANE by Sasia Lacey, Illustrated by Martin Dodomka, Quatro Publishing, 2015, $14.95. If you're hoping to interest your children or grandchildren in aviation, this book is [...]

DIRIGIBLE DREAMS The Age of the Airship by C. Michael Hiam, ForeEdge, 2014, $29.95. This very well written book is welcome for its insightful treatment of the airship, which once [...]

SPANISH REPUBLICAN ACES by Rafael A. Permuy Lopez, Osprey Publishing, Oxford, UK, 2012, $22.95. Despite the Cold War, McCarthyism and the general disrepute into which communism has fallen in America, [...]

THE LAST ZERO FIGHTER: Firsthand Accounts from WWII Japanese Naval Pilots by Dan King, Pacific Press, Irvine, Calif., 2012, $24.95. This remarkable book resulted from a confluence of personal interests, [...]

JET AGE MAN: SAC B-47 and B-52 Operations in the Early Cold War by Lt. Col. Earl J. McGill, USAF (ret.), Helion & Company Ltd, UK, 2012, $49.95. This is [...]

OPEN COCKPIT by Arthur Gould Lee This is one of the best personal memoirs of World War I aviation--in many ways the nonfiction equivalent of V.M. Yeates' novel Winged Victory. [...]

PANTHER RED ONE: Memoirs of a Fighter Pilot by Air Marshal S. Raghavendran, Amazon Kindle Books, 2012, $2.99. There are many reasons for buying this absolutely fantastic book, but here [...]

AMERICAN COMBAT PLANES OF THE 20TH CENTURY by Ray Wagner The 2004 version of American Combat Planes, published by Jack Bacon and Co., is the fourth edition of Ray Wagner's [...]

INTO THE SUN: Novels of the United States Air Force by Phillip S. Meilinger, Imprint Publications, Chicago, 2011, $29.95. Colonel Phillip S. Meilinger has done us all a favor by [...]

REACH FOR THE SKY: The Story of Douglas Bader, Legless Ace of the Battle of Britain by Paul Brickhill Group Captain Sir Douglas Robert Steuart Bader, KBE, DSO, DFC, was [...]

AV-8B HARRIER II UNITS OF OPERATIONS DESERT SHIELD AND DESERT STORM by Lon Nordeen, Osprey Publishing, Oxford, England, 2011, $22.95 This book is long overdue for a variety of reasons, [...]

THE FIRST AND THE LAST: The Rise and Fall of the German Fighter Forces, 1938-1945 by Adolf Galland It is difficult to overstate the tremendous impression that Adolf Galland's The [...]

MY NEW GUINEA DIARY by Staff Sergeant Pilot Ernest C. Ford, White Stag Press, Roseville, Calif., 2010, $19.95. This book is remarkable for a number of reasons. It is filled [...]