Military

Name: World War II Aeronautical Research at Langley
Brand: Mark A. Chambers
SKU: 9781467149846
Price: 17.99 USD
Availability: InStock

The Military American history book series explores American military history through the lens of a specific state, county, or city. Learn how Milwaukee’s Harley-Davidson’s factories churned out military motorbikes in World War II. Take a trip on a U-boat off the Outer Banks. Return to the “largest all-American fight” on Kings Mountain during the American Revolution. From the French and Indian Wars in Maine to the secret genesis of Area 51 during the Cold War, these American military history books reveal the influence of war on our communities. [View all Military books]

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World War II Aeronautical Research at Langley

Paperback

$23.99 $17.99 Save 25%

History of Submarine Warfare along the Jersey Shore, A

Paperback

$21.99 $16.49 Save 25%

Hoosier Aviator Paul Baer

Paperback

$21.99 $16.49 Save 25%

The Secret Genesis of Area 51

Paperback

$21.99 $16.49 Save 25%

Central Coast Aviators in World War II

Paperback

$21.99 $16.49 Save 25%

World War II Aeronautical Research at Langley

9781467149846

$23.99 $17.99 Save 25%

The effort to win the war began at home—and for the researchers at Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, enhancing America’s military aviation arsenal was the key to victory.

Formed in 1915, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics established itself over the next 25 years as one of the world’s finest research organizations. When World War II began in 1939, the NACA employed a mere 500 workers and maintained a budget slightly in excess of $4 million. To meet the demands of the war, a special partnership was quickly forged between NACA researchers, industry designers, and military planners. The Langley laboratory possessed world class aeronautical research facilities and flight research operations, making it ideally suited to help America win the war.

Military historian Mark Chambers tells the story of the monumental task of developing the planes that spurred Allied victory in World War II.

History of Submarine Warfare along the Jersey Shore, A

9781467135269

$21.99 $16.49 Save 25%

The ingenious people of the Garden State were instrumental in the early development of the submarine. The first American submarine sank off Fort Lee in 1776, and the first successful one adopted by the U.S. Navy was invented by Paterson's John Holland at the end of the nineteenth century. Those early vessels were tested in the Passaic River and on the Jersey City waterfront. Today, the only surviving Union Civil War submarine, built in Newark, sits in the National Guard Militia Museum in Sea Girt. In 1918, the technology pioneered there was turned against the Jersey Shore when U-151 went on a one-day ship-sinking rampage. A World War II U-boat offensive torpedoed numerous ships off the coast, leaving oil-soaked beaches strewn with wreckage. Authors Joseph G. Bilby and Harry Ziegler reveal the remarkable history of submarines off the New Jersey coastline.

Hoosier Aviator Paul Baer

9781467138499

$21.99 $16.49 Save 25%

Indiana native Paul Baer was an American pilot of many firsts. Born into a modest midwestern family in the late 1800s, Baer grew up short and shy in Fort Wayne. Not short on ambition, he volunteered to join a new breed of combatant: the fighter pilot. Dogfighting in the skies over France during World War I, Baer earned a giant reputation as the first-ever American to shoot down an enemy plane and the first to earn the title of combat ace for earning five victories—before being shot down himself. Author Tony Garel-Frantzen celebrates the 100th anniversary of Baer's aerial heroics with rarely seen images, a previously unpublished POW letter from Baer himself and a look at the restless raptor's life of roaming.

The Secret Genesis of Area 51

9781467138055

$21.99 $16.49 Save 25%

The man “who has done more than anyone to lift the veil of secrecy . . . about what’s unfolded out there in the desert” reveals the origins of Area 51 (KLAS 8 News Now).

In 1955, the Central Intelligence Agency established a clandestine base of operations in the Nevada desert with a mission to protect the United States from a growing communist threat. Special projects at Area 51 were shrouded in mystery, and the first was one of the world’s most famous spy planes, the U-2. It fueled half-truths, rumors and legends for more than half a century. Now with many details of that endeavor declassified, the real story can finally be told.

Author and Area 51 veteran TD Barnes sifts fact from fiction in one of America’s most protected origin stories.

Central Coast Aviators in World War II

9781467139526

$21.99 $16.49 Save 25%

A tribute to the heroism shown by military pilots and aircrew from rural California towns who risked their lives and made their mark on American history.

During World War II, thousands of volunteer combat aviators trained at places like Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo and Hancock Field in Santa Maria. Some air cadets and WASPs—young women pilots—lost their lives in training accidents. The graduates would go on to fight in both the Pacific and European theaters.

They faced flak bursts and collisions that resulted in horrifying explosions and were sent on strafing runs that made them targets in a lethal shooting gallery. Downed airmen encountered both unexpected kindness and cruel deprivation as prisoners of war.

Through interviews and official records, Jim Gregory tells the stories of heroic Central Coast veterans who fought a war that stretched from New Guinea to North Africa.