Technology & Engineering

Straight from the archives of the Hampton Roads Naval Historical Foundation comes this visual history dating back over the installation's more-than 100 year history.

Naval Station Norfolk is the world's largest naval station, supporting the Navy ships, submarines, and aircraft of the US Fleet Forces Command with a multitude of facilities and services.

This shore establishment, located on the historic harbor of Hampton Roads, Virginia, has remained vital to the Navy since its foundation in 1917. Once established, the naval station focused on serving the fleet in four areas: aviation, recruit training, a submarine base, and a supply base. Men and women of the station continued to work on these and other activities through the pressures of World War I, the Great Depression, World War II, and wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

Throughout its incredible history, Naval Station Norfolk made sure that ships and aircraft were successfully deployed to the far reaches of the globe--the nation's indispensable response to international conflicts. Nowadays, the station is the hub for Navy logistics supporting the defense of the entire Atlantic area, from the North Pole to the South Pole. A must-have for fans of United States Naval and military history.

From its art deco architectural design to its historic integrity and preservation, Floyd Bennett Fieldis a must-have for, aviation, and New York history enthusiasts.

Although New York City was slowly recognizing the need for a municipal airport in the late 1920s, it sought to regain prominence by constructing the most advanced airport of its day.

Construction in the far reaches of Brooklyn was started on October 29, 1929, the day of the stock market crash that heralded the Great Depression. The airport was named posthumously for Floyd Bennett, a Brooklyn native, Navy pilot, and Medal of Honor winner. Unfortunately, because of many factors--including poor timing, politics, and remoteness from Manhattan--the airfield was a commercial failure. Its advanced features, however, made it a mecca for private aircraft and the site of numerous record-breaking flights.

Aviation historian Richard V. Porcelli, author of Arcadia Publishing's NAS Atlantic Cityand numerous articles, tells how the Navy became an early tenant in a move that would impact the airfield's destiny. In 1941, the Navy's presence led to the establishment of NAS New York, which played a key role in the wartime delivery of planes from numerous area factories. After the war, it served as an important Naval Air Reservebase until its closure in 1971.

Naval Air Station Jacksonville was commissioned on October 15, 1940, and has trained tens of thousands of naval aviators throughout its long history.

Located along the banks of the St. Johns River, the site and the weather conditions make the base a premier aviation facility. Initially conducting primary and seaplane training, it expanded to training pilots in almost every type of aircraft the Navy has flown. The Navy's elite precision aviators, the Blue Angels, were formed at the base in 1946. Today, as a master anti submarine base, it remains home to 15 aviation squadrons; some 115 tenant commands and almost 20,000 military, civilian, and contract employees work at the station daily.

Join author Evelyn L. Wheeler as she recounts the origins and  history of the Navy's Flight Demonstration Team: The Blue Angels.

Every year, more than 11 million people attend air shows that feature the Blue Angels, who call Pensacola, Florida, their home. The Navy's Flight Demonstration Team, with its six gleaming blue-and-gold F/A-18 Hornets, never fails to thrill the crowds. Flying from heights of over 15,000 feet and dropping as low as 50 feet, the shows are nonstop, high-energy, heart-stopping excitement. The Blue Angels were established in 1946 by Adm. Chester W. Nimitz to showcase the pride and professionalism of the United States Navy and Marine Corps by inspiring a culture of excellence and service to country through flight demonstrations and community outreach. The Blue Angels pilots and flight crew visit 50,000 people a year in schools, hospitals, and other community events, in addition to performing for those who attend their air shows.

Join author and Huntsville native T. Gary Wicks as he uncovers the beginnings and inventions that influenced air and space engineering in Alabama and America.

The air age in Huntsville began more than a century ago with Will Quick's design and construction of a flying machine, which he demonstrated in 1908 for patenting and manufacture. The space age began in Huntsville a half century later with the advent of Wernher Von Braun's Redstone Jupiter C rocket, which launched America's first satellite, Explorer 1, into orbit in 1958. A decade later, Huntsville was at the epicenter of the greatest technological achievement of the 20th century as the Saturn V rocket propelled humankind to the moon. Nowhere in the world is the century's rapid advance of air and space technology more apparent than in Huntsville. This unique evolution of flying machines and space vehicles unfolds in this pictorial documentary, including the dramatic growth of the research facilities and community infrastructure that produced these remarkable inventions.

Building the Mosquito Fleet: The U.S. Navy's First Torpedo Boats traces the important and often dramatic history of the involvement between the U.S. Navy and the Herreshoff brothers' marine yards over a period of more than thirty years. It is a story of enterprise, naval development, and marine manufacturing during a time of experimentation and evolution. Included are dramatic stories of the men who built and tested these dangerous new vessels. This fascinating volume preserves under one cover a concise history of the torpedo boats built by the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company. It describes design and construction innovations introduced by the Herreshoffs and traces the events that led the major navies of the world to take notice of the Herreshoffs' work.

The US Naval Air Station, Quonset Point, RI, was originally built as a Neutrality Patrol Seaplane Base.

The base eventually became a unique and fundamentally important asset to the American armed forces. In World War II, more than one half of all U-boats sunk by U. S. aviation--including the first two--were destroyed by Quonset-trained shore and carrier-based squadrons. In the years following World War II, Quonset remained a premier industrial naval air station, sending squadrons or overhauling equipment for use in the Korean, Vietnam, and Cold War conflicts. For thirty-four years and through four wars, the Quonset Point Naval Air Station stood proud and tall on behalf of the United States military.

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.