California

Name: Aviators in Early Hollywood
Brand: Shawna Kelly
SKU: 9780738559025
Price: 17.49 USD
Availability: InStock

Plan all your California getaways with our Golden State catalog. Whip up the coast on the PCH to old San Francisco, where Gold Rush fever is slow to fade. Leave some flowers for Cecil B. DeMille and Johnny Ramone at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Get a progress report on the receding waters of the Salton Sea and the expanding minds in Northridge. From the fertile fields of Nevada County to the Venice Beach Boardwalk, experience the largesse and diversity of California's history with our California history books. [View all California books]

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Aviators in Early Hollywood

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

1910 Los Angeles International Air Meet, The

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

Los Angeles International Airport

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

San Diego International Airport, Lindbergh Field

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

Historic Aircraft Wrecks of San Diego County

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%

Moffett Field

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

San Diego Aviation Through Time

$23.99 $16.79 Save 30%

Oakland Aviation

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

Downey's Aerospace History:

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

Torrance Airport

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

Aviation in San Diego

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

San Francisco Bay Area Aviation

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

Catalina by Air

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

Grand Central Air Terminal

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

Early Aviation in Long Beach

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

Boneyard

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

San Diego's North Island

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

Aviators in Early Hollywood

9780738559025

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

Hollywood's leading aviators were heroic knights of the sky on the screen as well as in real life. These leading aviators performed aerial stunt sequences and acted, plus some wrote and directed motion pictures. Directing giant Cecil B. DeMille was so enthralled with aviation that he owned three airfields. Charlie Chaplin's family airfield also doubled as a motion-picture set. Thomas H. Ince, the famous producer who invented the studio system, owned Ince Airfield, which became the hub of Hollywood aviation. Eternal legends Rudolph Valentino, Oliver Hardy, Harry Houdini, and Mary Pickford performed in aerials. Many aviators gave their lives making motion pictures; three fatalities were incurred for Howard Hughes's great air epic, Hell's Angels. Hughes himself broke records within aircraft and film production. Aviators brought their screen work to life between films through barnstorming. The roaring in 1920s Hollywood was often aviators soaring beyond limits.

1910 Los Angeles International Air Meet, The

9780738571904

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

America's first international air meet was held January 10-20, 1910, in Los Angeles on a mesa called Dominguez Hill, situated 13.5 miles south of the plaza at the pueblo of Los Angeles. Enthusiasm for aviation grew after the first international air meet in 1909 in Rheims, France, where American aviator Glenn H. Curtiss won three prestigious speed prizes and 36,000 francs. An even more spectacular air meet, which would also invigorate the local economy, was promoted for Los Angeles. Businessman Dick Ferris, the Los Angeles Merchants and Manufacturers Association, and the Los Angeles Examiner collaborated to make it possible. Most Americans had never seen the newfangled machines that soared in the skies. Initially skeptical, they soon were awed. So began America's love affair with aviation. The air meet influenced aviation in Southern California and transportation worldwide into the 21st century.

Los Angeles International Airport

9780738555829

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

Growth on the flatlands along the western extents of Imperial Highway in the 1920s was once measured in beans, barley, and jackrabbits. After 2000, the site that became Los Angeles International Airport would be measured by the more than 60 million passengers and nearly two million tons of cargo passing through it each year. One of the world's busiest airports grew out of Mines Field and expanded quickly in the 1930s with the exploits of Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart, Howard Hughes and Will Rogers, Curtiss and Martin, and Boeing and Lockheed. After World War II, this large portion of coastal Los Angeles between El Segundo and Marina del Rey became the main airport for Greater Los Angeles. With the advent of the jet age in the town of the jet set, LAX became a nexus of international travel and a symbol of sophistication as the "Gateway to the World," a cutting-edge center for the overlapping spheres of aviation, business, politics, and entertainment.

San Diego International Airport, Lindbergh Field

9780738589084

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

Now formally known as San Diego International Airport, Lindbergh Field was named in honor of Charles Lindbergh and has been a center of aeronautic activity since its dedication in 1928. Many famous personalities and events have been associated with the airstrip, which quickly grew to include a Coast Guard Air Station, three airlines, two flying schools, and Ryan Aeronautical. In 1935, Consolidated Aircraft relocated to Lindbergh Field, transforming it into an aviation manufacturing center. Situated just three miles north of downtown San Diego, Lindbergh Field serves more than 50,000 travelers a day, making San Diego International Airport the busiest single-runway commercial airport today in the United States.

Historic Aircraft Wrecks of San Diego County

9781467118361

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%

Clear weather and a natural harbor made San Diego an early aviation hub, but success in flight came with devastating tragedies. The remains of more than four hundred aircrafts lie scattered across the county's deserts and mountains. Experts estimate that dozens more are on the ocean floor off the coast. In 1922, army pilot Charles F. Webber's DeHavilland biplane went missing over Cuyamaca Rancho State Park. In 1978, Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 178 collided midair over San Diego and crashed in the residential North Park neighborhood, claiming the lives of 144 people in what was the worst airline disaster of the era. Author and aircraft accident research specialist G. Pat Macha recounts these and other stories of astonishing survival, heroism and heartbreaking fatality.

Moffett Field

9780738531328

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

The looming immensity of Moffett Field's Hangar One, built in 1933 to house the world's largest--and last--rigid-frame dirigible, is an unforgettable South Bay landmark. The lighter-than-air Macon cost 2.5 million Depression-era dollars and could hold 100 men and five Sparrowhawk biplanes, yet its silvery bulk hovered silently or sailed up to 80 miles an hour. It drew crowds as it darkened the skies around Mountain View until it broke up in a storm two years later. Other blimp squadrons, equipped with carrier pigeons instead of biplanes, succeeded the Macon. Moffett Field has at various times served the navy, army, and the air force. Now home to the world's largest wind tunnel, the NASA Ames Research Center also supports research that blazes the frontiers of supercomputing, robotics, space sciences, astrobiology, and nanotechnology.

San Diego Aviation Through Time

9781635000894

$23.99 $16.79 Save 30%

"For well over a century, San Diego has been at the forefront of air and space innovation, development, and exploration. From the first flights by John J. Montgomery in 1883 to today's cutting-edge drone technology, San Diego has played a vital role in aviation and space technology. Today, there are over forty aerospace companies in the San Diego area, producing highly sophisticated aircraft and aircraft components for the world's aviation community.

This book documents the people and events that made San Diego's aviation heritage so unique and critically important through carefully selected photographic records, most of which are from the San Diego Air & Space Museum's archival collections. San Diego Aviation Through Time looks not only at the past, but also explores how aviation has shaped the region in the present day. Since 1961, the San Diego Air & Space Museum has been dedicated to the preservation of America's aviation heritage and to the spirit of adventure that first led us into the air and then to the outer reaches of space."

Oakland Aviation

9780738556000

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

From hot-air balloons to jets, no other place has had a more diverse and significant aviation history than the city of Oakland. Starting in the mid-1850s with balloons, the city has seen the development of many aircraft innovations, including gliders, the first powered dirigible in North America, some of the first powered airplanes, and even early flying boats. Oakland witnessed the advent of stunt flying, the first transpacific flights, and the Dole Race, as well as many early commercial aviation operations, and a host of other groundbreaking advancements.

Downey's Aerospace History:

9780738569536

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

The city of Downey has been host to one of aerospace history's most sacred sites. For more than six decades, men and women have gathered in this Los Angeles County town to make the dreams of tomorrow a reality--inventing the future and starting America's journey to the stars. A wealthy Los Angeles industrialist, E. M. Smith, began this history with the purchase of a portion of the Huynan Ranch in August 1929. His company, EMSCO Aircraft, was the first of what would become a memorable list of pioneers in aviation and space. The story of the site's aerospace history extends from North American Aviation's tenancy in 1947 to the site closure in 1999 when engineers and scientists designed and developed the aerospace technology that took man to the moon and established a permanent presence in space.

Torrance Airport

9780738546629

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

Californians were panicked by the Pearl Harbor attack of December 7, 1941, and civilian flights within 200 miles of the coast were immediately terminated. Airfields were commandeered and new ones hastily built. One of these was the Lomita Flight Strip, known today as Zamperini Field, the Torrance Municipal Airport, or TOA. This 490-acre parcel sent four squadrons of P-38 fighter pilots off to war with one commanded by the judge of the Charles Manson trial, an ex-Flying Tiger. Six other pilots became generals, two became commandants of cadets at the Air Force Academy, and one became the only fighter pilot with combat victories in both World War II and the Vietnam War. Japanese Americans returning from World War II internment camps found temporary housing at the field, and the world's largest manufacturer of civilian helicopters settled there in 1973. The first runway takeoff of a Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) aircraft was pioneered at TOA, and aerobatic champ Bob Herendeen trained at the site.

Aviation in San Diego

9780738547596

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

For nearly a century, San Diego has been a hub of aviation development, air power, and flying adventure. The city's ideal weather and protected bay allowed San Diego to have an aviation history unrivaled by any local community. From the pioneering days of Glenn Curtiss and naval aviation at North Island to the present cutting-edge aerospace technology, Aviation in San Diego captures it all. With many never-before-published photographs, Aviation in San Diego documents the people and events that made San Diego's aviation heritage unique. From Ryan to Consolidated, Curtiss to Lindbergh, and everything in between, Aviation in San Diego is the preeminent photographic record of flight in "America's Finest City."

San Francisco Bay Area Aviation

9780738547237

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

From hot-air balloons to jets, no other location has a more diverse aviation history than the San Francisco Bay Area. Aside from private and commercial airline operations, the area has housed the NACA/NASA Research Center, the prestigious Boeing School of Aeronautics, and the dirigible USS Macon. It is currently the center for antique aircraft in Northern California and has been the site of numerous flight records, including the Dole Race and Amelia Earhart's circumnavigation attempts. San Francisco was also home to the pioneer Pan American Airways flying boat, which opened the Pacific Ocean to air travel.

Catalina by Air

9780738559360

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

For years, reaching the paradise destination of Santa Catalina Island, located miles out in the Pacific Ocean, was possible primarily by steamship. But as early as 1912, the first amphibious airplane landed in Avalon Bay, and the first air-passenger service was introduced in 1919. Seaplane service thrived on Catalina, and aircraft engine roars became a distinctive memory for many residents, along with the thrill of crossing the channel by plane and landing on the water. The "Airport in the Sky" opened in 1946, with United Airlines operating DC-3s, followed by other airlines operating land-based planes. Today helicopters carry passengers across the San Pedro Channel in less than 15 minutes. This unique photographic history covers public air transportation to and from Southern California's iconic island, featuring memories and stories from residents, visitors, and airline employees.

Grand Central Air Terminal

9780738546827

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

From 1923, when it was known as the Glendale Airport, to the World War II era, when the military took it over, Grand Central Air Terminal was the main commercial airport serving Southern California and the ancestral home of what became Convair (General Dynamics) and Hughes Aircraft. The first scheduled transcontinental passenger service was flown out of Grand Central by Charles Lindbergh, with Amelia Earhart among the passengers. Grand Central had the first paved runway west of the Rocky Mountains, and was a terminal for Pickwick, TWA, American, and Pan Am's Mexican subsidiary. After Pearl Harbor, commercial operations ceased and the Army Air Corps turned Grand Central into a training center and a key element in the air defenses for Los Angeles when a Japanese invasion seemed imminent.

Early Aviation in Long Beach

9780738570839

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

By 1920, when Amelia Earhart attended Earl S. Daugherty's air circus and then took her first airplane ride with Long Beach Poly High School graduate Frank Hawks, Long Beach was already a key part of the golden age of aviation. Balloonists had parachuted onto the city's beaches in 1905 near the Pine Avenue Pier, and stunt pilots such as Frank Stites took off and landed on its sands in 1908. The Long Beach Chamber of Commerce sponsored the altitude contest won by Arch Hoxsey in the second Los Angeles Air Meet in 1910. Cal Rodgers ended the first transcontinental flight in the water near Linden Avenue on December 10, 1911. A former Army Air Corps flight instructor, Earl Daugherty was known as the "greatest stunt pilot" and owned the area's first non-beach airfield. This volume offers glimpses of early aviation at one of its core development locales, including photographs never before published of Earhart's flight instructor, John G. Montijo.

Boneyard

9781634991360

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

Boneyard: SoCal's Aircraft Graveyards at Night is a nocturnal love letter to the rarely seen aviation junkyards and derelict aircraft of the Southern California desert. Follow the author as he haunts these secretive places, painting the scenes with light during lengthy time-exposures. Let his essays shed even more light on the experience as you quietly drift through these legendary sites like a ghost in the night. Lose yourself amongst these fallen monuments to human achievement, these broken-winged angels of the Mojave. Whether you're a fan of aviation history, or creative photography, or are simply trying to understand humanity's place in the cosmos, riding to the Boneyard with Troy will be an unforgettably mind-bending journey.

San Diego's North Island

9780738547954

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

San Diego's North Island is one of the most significant venues of aviation in the world. Starting in 1911, it was the home to one of the nation's first aviation schools, founded by Glenn Curtiss, who pioneered seaplane flight. He trained the nucleus of America's future air forces there, including Lt. Theodore Ellyson, the first naval aviator. When the United States entered World War I, the government took over the island with plans to build a training center for the nation's armed forces. The new army base was named Rockwell Field, and the navy portion was named Naval Air Station San Diego. By 1937, the army had moved out, and the navy became the sole tenant. Today NAS North Island is part of the largest aerospace-industrial complex in the navy and is headquarters for the Naval Air Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet.