Name: Aviators in Early Hollywood
Brand: Shawna Kelly
SKU: 9780738559025
Price: 24.99 USD
Availability: InStock

Aviators in Early Hollywood

9780738559025

$24.99

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.

Long Island Aircraft Manufacturers

9780738573366

$24.99

Take a flight with the Long Island aviation companies that helped make the industry the integral part of our world that it is today.

Significant aircraft manufacturing began on Long Island in the early 20th century and boomed during the war years. Long Islanders helped transform aviation from a dangerous sport to a viable means of transportation, while also producing a large portion of the nation's aerial arsenal in times of war.

From the first frail biplanes to the warbirds of World War II and the sleek fighters of the jet age, aviation companies on Long Island helped make aviation the the essential business it is today. During the 20th century, over 70 firms came to build aircraft on Long Island. Some of these firms lasted for decades and became famed builders of historic aircraft, such as Grumman, Republic, Curtiss, Fairchild, and Sikorsky.

Westchester County Airport

9781467124706

$24.99

Westchester County Airport is referred to by the International Air Transport Association as HPN or, more endearingly by its patrons, White Plains Airport. The airport is unique in that it has the feel of a rural or regional airport but is within the New York metro area. Today, the airport bustles with traffic, accommodating commercial airlines, business, and private aviation. The golden age of aviation gave way to a major industry with the employment of modern airports featuring lighted concrete runways and new technologies like radio. In Westchester County, this all began with a seaplane operation at Rye-Cove in the early 1920s, followed by the call for a county airport in 1928, but it did not come to fruition until 1945. World War II generated a need for an airfield at Rye Lake, and by 1945, diminished defense needs permitted the transition from military airfield to county airport.

Cover image for Westchester County Airport, isbn: 9781467124706

Flying High

9780738510224

$24.99

In the beginning of the twentieth century, women were demanding more freedom. What could bring more freedom than a chance to fly? Women went up in those early wire-and-fabric contraptions to gain independence, to make money, or to make their names as pilots. They sought to prove that women pilots could do just as well as men—and some did far better. Flying High: Pioneer Women in American Aviation tells the story of Blanche Stuart Scott, who made $5,000 a week and broke forty-one bones; of Harriet Quimby, who flew the English Channel handily and then fell to her death in five feet of water near Boston Harbor; of Ruth Law and Katherine Stinson, who set American distance flying records—all before any of them were allowed to vote. Flying High: Pioneer Women in American Aviation also tells the tales of women behind the scenes—the financiers, engineers, and factory workers—from the earliest days of flying to victory in World War II. These stories of the first female flyers are told in rare, vintage photographs, many previously unpublished, from the archives of the Glenn H. Curtiss Museum.

Cover image for Flying High, isbn: 9780738510224

San Diego's North Island

9780738547954

$24.99

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.

Aviation in Hampton Roads

9780738518206

$24.99

Flight has forever thrilled, even when it was believed that humans would never be able to slip the bonds of earth's gravity. However, with the success of balloons as a mode of transportation, man took one step closer to powered, heavier-than-air flight. On December 17, 1903, the first flight by Orville and Wilbur Wright took place in the backyard of Hampton Roads, and the course of history was forever changed. Indeed, aviation has deep roots in the region. Hot-air balloons provided reconnaissance flights here during the Civil War, and manned space flights to the moon were
developed at NASA's Langley Research Center in the 1960s. Also, in the early days of civil aviation, Norfolk was on the route map for several pioneer airlines, linking the area with major cities along the eastern seaboard. Today, the region is served by two commercial airports: Norfolk International and Newport News-Williamsburg International.

South Plains Army Airfield

9781467131339

$24.99

South Plains Army Airfield in Lubbock, Texas, was a major training base for US Army Air Force glider pilots during World War II. Approximately 80 percent of the roughly 6,000 pilots trained to fly the combat cargo glider received their advanced training and were awarded their G Wings at SPAAF, as it was known. The base was conceived, built, used, and then closed in a short five-year period during World War II. Today, little remains to remind one of the feverish and important military training program that once took place on the flat, featureless South Plains of Texas. During World War II, American military strategy and tactics included a significant airborne component. Major invasions, such as D-Day at Normandy, were preceded by huge aerial fleets carrying paratroopers and their equipment. These airborne invasion fleets sometimes exceeded well over 1,000 Allied gliders. The American airborne forces depended upon an ungainly looking aircraft, the CG-4A glider, to carry the vehicles, munitions, and reinforcements needed to survive. The pilots who flew them learned their trade at South Plains Army Airfield.

Cover image for South Plains Army Airfield, isbn: 9781467131339

Angel Flight Mid-Atlantic

9780738552965

$24.99

In 1972, two pilots--one a federal career engineer, the other the pastor of a prominent church in Washington, D.C.--discovered a common passion for flying airplanes and serving people. One day over lunch, the men conceived a flight plan, one that would undergo many changes before becoming Angel Flight Mid-Atlantic, as it is known today. Ed Boyer of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Dr. Louis Evans, pastor of the National Presbyterian Church, discussed how to pool their interests and qualifications. From its beginnings as a charitable shuttle service for religious leaders and dignitaries, to full-scale charitable air ambulance operations, to Angel Flights for ambulatory patients, the initial vision has grown into a network of over 1,500 volunteer pilots in the Mid-Atlantic region who use their private planes to fly people in need to specialized treatment. Angel Flight coordinates missions of mercy from its offices in Virginia Beach, helping patients to find "the shortest distance between home and hope."

Cover image for Angel Flight Mid-Atlantic, isbn: 9780738552965

Morristown Municipal Airport

9780738573601

$24.99

On July 8, 1929, a Morristown newspaper announced the opening of Morristown Airport on Bernardsville Road. The article stated the airport would be the home of the Country Aviation Club under the supervision of Clarence Chamberlin, the second man to fly across the Atlantic Ocean and the first to take along a passenger. The Great Depression halted any serious development of the airport until 1936, when there was serious talk of the land becoming an East Coast dirigible base for the Hindenburg. However, the destruction of the Hindenburg at Lakehurst, New Jersey, a year later squashed those plans. After World War II, Morristown Airport began to become a reality. General aviation found Morristown convenient and out of the traffic patterns of Newark Airport. The airport grew and prospered, and by July 1966, Morristown Municipal Airport (MMU) was called the VIP Stop. Today, as a general aviation reliever airport, MMU accepts private, corporate, air taxi, air ambulance, training, and military aircraft and ranks 11th in general aviation operations.