Name: Bowman Field
Brand: Charles Arrington
SKU: 9781467126991
Price: 18.74 USD
Availability: InStock

Bowman Field

9781467126991

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

Louisville's Bowman Field is Kentucky's oldest continuously operating airport and one of the oldest in the United States. Abram Hite Bowman, Robert Bob Gast, and Wallace Sidney Park are considered the founders of Bowman Field, which dates to 1920. John Bennett, Frank Holzaphel, Dick Mulloy, and Wil Paris were among those who made the airport a success. Bowman Field was the landing place of Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis in 1927. It also hosted aviatrix Ruth Nichols, who, in 1931, ended a record-setting flight when her airplane caught fire. During World War II, the airfield was repurposed as the Bowman Army Airbase and a training facility for flight nurses. In 1957, Bowman Field was the nation's busiest local traffic airport. As we approach the airfield's centennial, the Bowman Field Administration Building, built in 1929, has been hardly touched by the hands of time. Bowman Field is the airport where the past meets the future.

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Massachusetts Aviation

9781467124027

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Shortly after the Wright brothers took to the air, aviation fever gripped Massachusetts. The biggest names in the industry, including Wilbur Wright, Glenn Curtiss, and Claude Graham-White, among others, flew in for the first major air shows, further exciting the people of the Bay State about the potential of manned flight in the realms of military tactics, the expansion of commerce, and even personal transportation. By the 1920s, Massachusetts had become home to the first Naval Air Reserve Base, in Quincy; one of the first Coast Guard Air Stations, in Gloucester; and the Boston Airfield, which would become the largest international airport in New England. Within a few decades, individuals like Edward Lawrence Logan, Frank Otis, Oscar Westover, and Laurence G. Hanscomb would permanently leave their names on the Massachusetts landscape in connection with the airports and airfields still used today.

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Fort Wayne Aviation

9780738588605

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Fort Wayne is the hometown of Lt. Paul Baer, who flew with the French forces in World War I and was the first US pilot to achieve ace status. Fort Wayne is also the hometown of Arthur Art Roy Smith, who was one of the pioneer acrobatic fliers in the pre–World War I era. Smith made several trips to Japan and is credited with inspiring the Japanese to develop their own aircraft in the period between the two world wars. Prior to the onset of World War II, the US Army Air Corps purchased over 600 acres southwest of Fort Wayne and built Paul Baer Army Air Field. Today, Fort Wayne International Airport covers about 3,500 acres and has the second-longest runway in Indiana, almost 12,000 feet in length.

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New Mexico Space Trail

9780738599502

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In the Southwestern United States, the skies above New Mexico have provided an amazing stargazing experience for two millennia. Images of America: New Mexico Space Trail catalogs sites within the state that have inspired humankind to reach for the stars. The Space Trail includes various archaeoastronomy locations, such as Chaco Canyon, which Native Americans used to predict agricultural schedules according to the sun's position during the solstice. Rocket development in Roswell, missile launches in the Tularosa Basin, astronomy efforts around the state, and commercial space flights are just a few of the stops along the trail. Join the journey and discover night skies that are so dark that the Milky Way and its millions of luminous stars create shadows over the desert landscape.

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Aviation in Roanoke

9781467121606

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In 1910, an awestruck crowd at the Roanoke Fair got its first glimpse of powered flight when a Curtiss biplane soared overhead. Within the next decade, gliders were lifting off from hills in South Roanoke and cow pastures were being converted into airstrips. Once Roanoke Municipal Airport was developed in 1929, earlier local airfields such as Cook, Trout, and Horton Fields were rendered inactive. Then in 1941, when—with federal assistance— the municipal airport became Woodrum Field, the region's air travel transitioned into the modern era and brought services from major airlines to the area. Roanoke's aviation reputation continued to grow when the city played a critical role in military air travel and training during World War II, leading its airport to become one of the busiest on the East Coast. Aviation in Roanoke tells the stories of early airfields, the growth and transformation of Woodrum Field, and the adventures of Roanoke's aviation pioneers.

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St. Louis Aviation

9780738584102

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For a little more than 60 years, from 1904 to 1967, St. Louis was considered the world's air capital for balloon racers, parachutists, airship aeronauts, air-traffic controllers, scheduled airlines, solo-flight adventurers, fighter pilots, and astronauts. At many times, the United States has led the world in aviation development and technology, and St. Louis was one of the biggest contributors with many aviation firsts. A U.S. president first flew in an aircraft here. St. Louis can arguably be credited with the world's first parachute jump, along with the world's first air-traffic controller. The city was the epicenter for international balloon racing, and of course most people know that the city was home to Charles Augustus Lindbergh. The Cold War and subsequent conflicts might have turned out quite differently if a St. Louis aircraft manufacturer had not existed. The world's largest airline may have never gotten off the ground if not for a U.S. mail contract that was awarded to a St. Louis company in the mid-1920s. This book provides a brief view of these firsts in aviation, as well as the development and impact of aviation in the city and beyond.

Angel Flight Mid-Atlantic

9780738552965

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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."

Morristown Municipal Airport

9780738573601

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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.

North Carolina Aviatrix Viola Gentry

9781609496951

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Viola Gentry of Rockingham County, North Carolina, learned to fly in 1924 and quickly achieved greater heights. In 1925, the aviatrix took her first solo flight. The following year, she flew under the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges, and in 1928, she established the first officially recorded women's solo endurance flight record. She became the first federally licensed female pilot from North Carolina that same year. She was a national celebrity, and her job in a New York restaurant secured her the nickname the "Flying Cashier." Gentry became personal friends with fellow pioneers of aviation Amelia Earhart, Wiley Post and General James "Jimmy" Doolittle. After a near-fatal crash, Gentry focused her efforts on championing aviation for women and preserving its early history. Author Jennifer Bean Bower reveals the life of one of the great women in Tar Heel State history.

Hidden History of Alabama Aviation

9781467156264

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Author Billy J. Singleton sets readers on a captivating course through the history of Cotton State aviation.

From the dreamers who envisioned flight decades before the Wright Brothers achieved it at Kitty Hawk to the international space race, Alabama has been at the forefront of aviation. Delve into the obscure and forgotten stories of the state's aeronautical heritage, including an encounter over Montgomery that initiated an investigation by the Air Force, Eleanor Roosevelt's aerial tour of the Tuskegee Institute in a two-seat training aircraft and the miracle of Eastern Flight 002. Recall the lost squadron of Gunter Field, the Alabama pilot recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the most experienced aviator in history and the college administration that constructed an airport to obtain a gymnasium .

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Naval Air Station Atlantic City

9780738576701

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Few would guess Atlantic City has a rich aviation history, being instrumental in many technical advances and playing a key role in the defense of the nation. The wartime role of Naval Air Station Atlantic City, commissioned in 1943, was training naval fighter pilots as well as developing technology and procedures for ground controlled interception of enemy aircraft. After the war, Atlantic City was the site of testing new Navy aircraft as well as the development of all-weather, night-fighting, and attack capabilities. After the Navy left in 1958, the airfield became home to the Federal Aviation Administration's premier research center, a New Jersey Air National Guard jet fighter base, a US Coast Guard air station, and Atlantic City International Airport.

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Wings Over San Antonio

9780738508146

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In March 1910, Lt. Benjamin Foulois was ordered to Fort Sam Houston near San Antonio, Texas, with a used Wright Brothers aeroplane and a small contingent of enlisted men. His mission was to teach himself how to operate this primitive flying machine and begin demonstrating the practical uses it might have for the United States Army. This history is chronicled through in-depth captions and over 200 images as author Mel Brown tells the story of how San Antonio eventually became the cradle of military aviation. Mastery of the air would take time, equipment, and lives as the demanding flight path led from the early trials at Ft. Sam to the eventual establishment of four flying centers around the city. Working through trial and error, the aeronautic pioneers and first combat aviators convinced the military that the building of an American air arm was needed; thus the legend of the U.S. Air Force at San Antonio was born. Using many photographs never before published, the author tells the rich history of the air force bases in San Antonio, including Kelly, Brooks, and Randolph Fields. Also included are images of some of aviation's first heroes, such as Eddie Rickenbacker, Jimmy Doolittle, Charles Lindbergh, and Clair Chennault.

Quad City International Airport

9780738583716

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In 1922, three men were so captivated with flying they leased 30 acres of cow pasture south of Moline to serve as a landing field. Other early aviators and barnstormers began using Franing Field, and it soon became known as Moline Airport. The field hosted the Ford Reliability Tour four times, served as part of the original New York to Dallas airmail route, had passenger service as early as 1927, became one of Illinois's largest Works Progress Administration projects, weathered financial struggles and a battle with neighboring Davenport, Iowa, over which community would possess the area's commercial airport, and has enjoyed constant growth and updates for both airline and general aviation traffic. This collection of historical photographs and images will present the people, planes, events, and development of that former pastureland into today's modern Quad City International Airport, the third largest airport for passenger traffic in the state of Illinois.

Grand Central Air Terminal

9780738546827

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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.

USS Constellation

9780738505824

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Few things in our world today can be described as truly "unique," and yet, this word is aptly attributed to the USS Constellation. The last all-sail warship constructed by the United States Navy, the Constellation is the last surviving vessel afloat that actively served in the Union or Confederate Navies during the Civil War. While hundreds of battlefields commemorate the valor of the legions of soldiers who served in our nation's most divisive conflict, this ship is the last buoyant memorial to those who served their country and their cause upon the precarious seas. From her 1854 mystery-shrouded construction, through her numerous roles and assignments, to her several "restorations" over the last 40 years, this majestic vessel has a fascinating story to tell. USS Constellation: An Illustrated History, the first comprehensive account of the Constellation's journey through the years, tells this story and showcases over 200 images, including photographs, engravings, paintings, and sketches gathered from museums, archives, and private collections. These visual records, and the informative captions that accompany them, testify to the engaging tale of this seminal piece of American history, dispel the myths of her past, and set straight her record of accomplishment and endurance.

Alabama Aviation

9781467128414

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From early aerial experimenters who devoted their lives to the development of a heavier-than-air flying machine to the massive expansion of military flight training during the Second World War, the story of aviation in Alabama represents a remarkable historical legacy. In March 1910, Orville and Wilbur Wright established the nation's first civilian flying school on the grounds of what would become Maxwell Air Force Base, the center for military aerospace education and airpower doctrine. The establishment of the Wright brothers' flying school represents the first of a series of extraordinary events that propelled Alabama to the forefront of the evolution of aviation as the foundation of Pres. Franklin Roosevelt's arsenal of democracy during the Second World War.

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Yeager Airport and Charleston Aviation

9781467126397

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Yeager airport and Charleston aviation have quite a history.

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The Navy in Norco

9780738575261

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On December 8, 1941, sixty miles from the ocean, the US Navy rolled into Norco. There, on the grounds of the former Norconian Resort, the federal government built what may have been the finest and most complete World War II naval hospital in the nation. The first patients to arrive were those wounded during the attack on Pearl Harbor; they were cared for in luxurious rooms once reserved for movie stars. By 1945, approximately 5,000 sailors and Marines were being treated. In 1951, the smartest physicists, engineers, and mathematicians in the world set up laboratories in the hospital's tubercular wards and entered into the Cold War. Today the hospital is gone, but the magnificent buildings and top secret naval laboratory remain, along with thousands of photographs of one of the most historic and colorful sites in America.

Soaring and Gliding

9780738540719

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To fly as the hawk and eagle has been mankind's dream for centuries.
Modern sailplanes make soaring and gliding flight possible, and with them, humans can fly higher, faster, and farther than the greatest of birds, using only an invisible force of nature to stay aloft. The terms soaring and gliding are used interchangeably, and the sport is appealing to pilot and spectator alike. Sailplane enthusiasts have always been explorers, always looking for a more ideal site that will provide the intellectual challenges of soaring as well as the sheer beauty and relaxation the sport can offer. Michigan-based glider pilots and designers found their soaring paradise in the early 1930s when they ventured north to the Sleeping Bear Dunes area. The explorers began to promote the sport to national and international prominence, and many came to make up a veritable who's who of American aeronautics. Over a century after Octave Chanute discovered motorless flight on the Lake Michigan dunes, sailplanes, hang gliders, and paragliders still fill the skies.

Mobile Aviation

9780738586830

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Local businessman and inventor John Ellis Fowler introduced the concept of the flying machine to Mobile and South Alabama. Fowler's innovative designs mark the beginning of the remarkable aviation heritage of Alabama's port city, a legacy further enhanced by the evolution of military and civilian aviation on Alabama's Gulf Coast. A mild climate and abundance of flat terrain made the region attractive for the establishment of military flight training programs during the World War II while the availability of air, rail, and sea transportation made Mobile an ideal location for construction of a supply and repair depot to support military aviation in the Southeast. Images of Aviation: Mobile Aviation is the story of the first century of powered flight in Mobile and South Alabama.

Oakland Aviation

9780738556000

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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.

Maryland Aviation

9780738567006

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Maryland is home to a number of aviation firsts: the first manned balloon ascent in the Western Hemisphere in 1784, the first aircraft carrier during the Civil War, the first airport and flight school at College Park, and the first commuter airline. The state has also been home to a number of aircraft manufacturers. These include Glenn L. Martin in Baltimore and Kreider-Reisner, later Fairchild, in Hagerstown, as well as Ercoupe, Berliner-Joyce, North American, and Curtiss-Caproni. Numerous civilian airfields and military air bases dot the Old Line State from the mountains in the west across the Chesapeake Bay to the Eastern Shore. This collection of historic photographs from a number of sources depicts Maryland's aviation pioneers, the manufacturing companies and the famous airplanes they built, and the state's airports and bases.

Downey's Aerospace History 1947-1999

9780738569536

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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.

Cover image for Downey's Aerospace History 1947-1999, isbn: 9780738569536

Montgomery Aviation

9780738552590

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The history of powered flight in Alabama began in February 1910 with the arrival of Wilbur Wright in the capital city of Montgomery. In search of a suitable location to establish a training camp for student aviators, Wright selected Montgomery as the site of the nation's first civilian pilot training school because of the region's short winters, mild climate, and flat farmland. The establishment of the Wright flying school marked the beginning of a remarkable aviation heritage in Montgomery, a legacy further enhanced by the arrival of military flight
training at Taylor Field less than a decade later. The same factors that attracted the Wrights to Montgomery made the area an ideal location for the military flight training programs that would produce more than 100,000 aviation cadets at Maxwell and Gunter Fields during the Second World War. From the
Wright brothers to the Air University at Maxwell Field, Images of Aviation: Montgomery Aviation is the story of the first century of powered flight in Alabama's capital city.

Colorado’s Daring Ivy Baldwin

9781467146333

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At the beginning of the twentieth century, aerialist Ivy Baldwin had achieved celebrity status as a premier tightrope walker, aeronaut and aviation pioneer. He executed astonishing and perilous performances across America and internationally, including Mexico and the Far East. First by flying balloons, he went on to pilot dirigibles and, finally, aircraft. In his later years in Colorado, he became famous for crossing canyons on a tightrope. Historian Jack Stokes Ballard deftly captures Baldwin's colorful and hazardous life from childhood runaway to aviation record holder.

Pearson Field:

9780738531298

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Pearson Field, part of the Vancouver National Historic Reserve, is one of the oldest continually operating airfields in the United States. From the first arrival of an airship in 1905 and the flying of a plane off the Multnomah Hotel in 1912, Pearson has achieved numerous aviation milestones. The first official interstate airmail landed here in 1912, and during World War I it was the site of the world's largest spruce mill. Pearson was selected to serve as Portland's first airmail terminal, and two of America's most notable women pilots--Dorothy Hester and Edith Foltz--first took to the skies from the bustling Vancouver field. Pearson was also in the world spotlight when the 1937 Soviet transpolar flight landed in 1937. After 100 years, Pearson continues to serve as one of the region's preeminent general aviation centers.

Aviation in Southern Oregon

9780738581910

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Medford, Oregon, pioneered aviation in Southern Oregon and has long enjoyed a reputation for being an air-minded city. When the City of Medford built Newell Barber Field in 1920, it established the first municipally owned airfield in the state. In 1926, Pacific Air Transport selected Medford as a station for the West Coast airmail route. While Portland's airmail service was located across the river at Vancouver's Pearson Field in Washington, Medford's Newell Barber Field was Oregon's only airmail stop. The 1920s secured Medford's position as a leader in the growth of both civil and commercial aviation. When technology rendered the original field obsolete, the voters handily approved a new, state-of-the-art field that has continued to expand and grow into a major international airport and free trade zone, capable of accommodating some of the world's largest aircrafts.

Millville Army Air Field

9780738575193

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Millville had always been known for its glassmaking, but with the outbreak of World War II, the community's identity was primed to change forever. A private civilian airfield gave way to the creation of America's first defense airport, the training ground for the U.S. Army's Curtiss P-40 Warhawk and Republic P-47 Thunderbolt pilots. Bright and brave young men from across the country converged on Millville in the early 1940s to learn to fly and fight for freedom. Some died in training; others flew into history as heroes. While in Millville, they lived the average lives of the country's military men, playing baseball, flirting with the girls at the local USO dances, and attending Sunday night dinners with local families, creating lifelong friendships in a time when a young man's life expectancy was in the hands of America's enemies.

Early Aviation in Long Beach

9780738570839

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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.

Washington Dulles International Airport

9780738518473

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Washington Dulles International Airport is one of the three major airports that transports passengers into and out of the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. The beauty of the site is admired not only by millions who arrive and leave the area, but by local residents as well. After an extensive study of three separate locations in Virginia, Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower agreed to the Chantilly site and later chose to rename the world's first jet airport after his former secretary of state, John Foster Dulles. Renowned architect Eero Saarinen designed the magnificent building that serves as a gateway in and out of the United States. Today, the once peaceful farming area and small villages have turned into a fast-paced business world filled with thousands of new homes and residents.

Sacramento's Moon Rockets

9781467133890

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On July 16, 1969, a Saturn V rocket launched the Apollo spacecraft carrying American astronauts to the surface of the moon, where Neil Armstrong would take his famous first steps and fulfill Pres. John F. Kennedy's goal of a successful lunar landing by the end of the decade. This event marks one of the greatest achievements in human history and is in large part due to the years of rocket testing that took place at the Douglas Aircraft Company's Sacramento testing facility (SACTO). The SACTO facility played one of the most important roles in the success of the Apollo 11 lunar mission and is where the Saturn rocket's S-IVB stage was developed and tested--making this historic accomplishment possible.

Braniff Airways

9781467134408

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Braniff Airways: Flying Colors takes readers on a magical flight through the history of Braniff International Airways, beginning with its small-town Oklahoma roots to its high-flying and stylish span of the globe. Braniff brought together the mystery of aviation with the glamorous fields of fashion, art, and design, and taught the flying world how to fly with style and beauty. It is this remarkable joining of forces that has made Braniff as popular today as it was when flying in style across the Atlantic and Pacific.

USS Cairo

9781467115216

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Armed with a simple pocket compass, a small boat, and an intense desire to find the USS Cairo, three men—Edwin C. Bearss, Warren Grabau, and Max Don Jacks—set out on the Yazoo River on a cool autumn afternoon in 1956 to locate the Civil War gunboat. What they found was the discovery of a lifetime. Images of Modern America: USS Cairo features a photographic account of the discovery, raising, restoration, and preservation efforts surrounding the Cairo. One can sense the excitement and awe felt by people who witnessed the raising. Today, people from all over the world are drawn to visit this Civil War time capsule now in permanent dry dock at Vicksburg National Military Park, where commemorative events have occurred since 1980; this collection highlights a variety of these events.

The Monitor Boys

9781467119481

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On December 31, 1862, 16 men perished that stormy New Year's Eve when the USS Monitor sank off Cape Hatteras, N.C.

The United States Navy's first ironclad warship rose to glory during the Battle of Hampton Roads on March 9, 1862, but there's much more to know about the USS Monitor. Historian John Quarstein has painstakingly compiled bits of historical data gathered through years of research to present the first comprehensive picture of the lives of the officers and crew who served faithfully in an iron ship unlike any vessel previously known.

The Monitor Boys, a moniker the men gave themselves, is a reflection of how these hundred-odd souls were bound together through storms, battles, boredom and disaster. Just living aboard the ironclad took uncommon effort and fortitude. Their perseverance through the heat, stress and unseaworthiness that defined life on the ship makes the study of those who dared it a worthy endeavor. Many recognized that they were part of history. Moreover, the Monitor Boys were agents in the change of naval warfare.

Following Quarstein's compelling narrative is a detailed chronology as well as appendices including crew member biographies, casualties and statistics and dimensions of the ship. Readers can dive into the world of the Monitor and meet William Flye, George Geer and the rest of the men who risked everything by going to sea in the celebrated cheesebox on a raft and became the hope of a nation wracked by war.

Cover image for The Monitor Boys, isbn: 9781467119481

Rhode Island Disasters:

9781609491000

$21.99 $16.49 Save 25%

How could a perfectly sound U.S. military fighter plane simply vanish from formation on a training flight? Why did the crew of a speeding train choose death over salvation? What really happened one foggy night in 1929 when the Coast Guard fired on a rumrunner in Narragansett Bay? Do guardian angels really exist? Can an airplane be jinxed? In his latest book, Jim Ignasher chronicles twenty-three long-forgotten tales of disaster in the Ocean State. His research includes declassified government reports, which allow for some stories to be told in their entirety for the first time. Collectively, these tales present heroes and villains, adventure and the human condition, strange happenings and unsolved mysteries.

Mayday Over Wichita

9781626190528

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On the cold Saturday morning of January 16, 1965, a U.S. Air Force KC-135 tanker carrying thirty-one thousand gallons of jet fuel crashed into a congested African American neighborhood in Wichita, Kansas. When the fire and destruction finally subsided, forty-seven people--mostly African American children--were dead or injured, homes were completely destroyed and numerous families were splintered. As shocking as it may sound, the event was seemingly omitted from the historical record for nearly fifty years. Now, historian D. W. Carter examines the myths and realities of the crash while providing new insights about the horrific four-minute flight that forever changed the history of Kansas.

Springfield Aviation

9780738561592

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Citizens of Springfield first witnessed human flight, a balloon ascent, on July 5, 1858. In 1861, the capital city's most famous resident, Abraham Lincoln, then residing in the White House, authorized the creation of the first U.S. "air force," a balloon to observe Confederate troops. Springfield's interface with aviation has been a steady stream of hot-and-cold-running enthusiasm since airplanes began flying from the state fair racetrack infield about 1910. Springfield Aviation chronicles that flow and concludes with photographs from Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport in early 2008. It presents photographs of memorable airplanes, airships, and prominent aviators from the author's extensive collection, augmented by contributions from Springfield Airport Authority, Lincoln Library's Sangamon Valley Collection, and many others.

South Dakota's First Century of Flight

9780738584256

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The first aircraft heavier than air took to the skies in South Dakota in 1911. Since that time, pilots, mechanics, and dreamers have used aviation in innovative ways to shrink the large distances between the prairies and the mountains of the state. The start of the U.S. Space Program began at the Stratobowl in the 1930s and evolved into today's modern hot air balloons. People have used aircraft, not only for transportation, but also for controlling varmints, from grasshoppers to coyotes. Firefighters routinely use aircraft to put out forest fires, and many a tourist has seen Mount Rushmore from a helicopter. South Dakota has also served the military since World War II with the major bombers of the U.S. Air Force's arsenal. Perhaps best of all, South Dakotans enjoy flying for pure enjoyment.