Luftvåben og luftkrigsførelse

Crammed with previously unseen imagery, this book is a must-read for any aviation enthusiast.While the general history of Somerset's major aerospace manufacturer is well documented, many of Westland's lesser-known and often more adventurous products, projects and technologies most certainly are not. This new volume from authors Jeremy Graham, a former member of the company's Future Projects team and head of avionics and systems technology, and Dr Ron Smith, former head of Westland Future Projects and light attack helicopter chief design engineer, presents a highly detailed and fully illustrated exploration of the company's many innovative programmes and projects using documents, photos and illustrations from the official Westland - now Leonardo - archive.Fixed wing types, from the blended-wing Westland Dreadnought to Lysander, Whirlwind, Welkin and Wyvern-based projects and on to a variety of 1950s jet fighter designs, receive extensive coverage but Westland's greatest achievements have been in the field of rotary wing aircraft - and it is here that the book provides unparalleled insight. From adapted licence-built types such as the Wessex and Sea King to home-grown types such as Lynx and on to multinational collaborative efforts such as Merlin, Wildcat and the AW609 tiltrotor, the authors explore the technology developed and employed, the political and financial backdrop and the specific developments themselves. Along the way numerous unbuilt projects, such as attack and stealth helicopters as well as early military drones, not to mention a host of remarkable technological innovations are described in detail.Crammed with previously unseen imagery and written with unmatched authority, Westland - A History: Secret Projects and Cutting-Edge Technology is a must-read for any aviation enthusiast.

This book provides a full overview of the Chinese 'Flanker' family, describing the genesis of this family and providing a review of the variants, their systems, and capabilities and how they are used by the People's Liberation Army.

This volume presents the role of the Belgian Tactical Air Force, Congo, (FATAC) in the Congo, 1964-1967, and is an addition to the author's previous publications dealing with the Congo Crisis, 1960-1967.

Researched from original-language primary sources, this is a uniquely well-informed and multi-faceted history of the World War I air campaign of Bloody April.Researched from original German-, French-, and English-language sources, and written by an authority on both air and ground military operations, author, Dr James S Corum examines how Bloody April caused Allied forces to reassess their approach to the use of airpower. Considering well-known problems such as technology and training doctrine, but also how the artillery-aircraft combination ideally had to work in late-WW I ground offensives, Dr Corum analyses what each side got wrong and why. He describes little-known parts of the April campaigns, such as both sides' use of strategic bombing with heavy aircraft, and considers the German use of advanced high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft with oxygen and heated suits while detailing the exploits of the infamous 'Red Baron', Manfred von Richthofen.Lessons from Bloody April not only served to improve the coordination of Allied artillery and aircraft but subsequently aircraft played a much larger role in supporting ground troops in attack mode. Bloody April paved the way for the airpower revolution that, by 1918, would make the Allies masters of the sky on the Western Front.

Using maps, contemporary photographs, and new artwork, this book examines the Hellcat and the naval aviators who flew them.Joining combat in the Pacific in late 1943, the Hellcat squadrons soon demonstrated their ascendency over their Japanese opponents, culminating in the great "Marianas Turkey Shoot" during the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944. The fighter proved to be a dream for pilots to fly, allowing both novice and veteran Naval Aviators alike to prevail in largescale aerial combats. From October 1944 to January 1945, the Fast Carriers supported General MacArthur's invasion of the Philippines.Featuring specially commissioned armament views and battlescenes, this book covers the key role played by Naval Aviators flying the Hellcat into action during the Fast Carrier Task Force's strikes against the Philippines in September and October 1944. Using maps, contemporary photographs, and technical diagrams, the volume examines the highly effective tactics used to prevail against large enemy formations, and reveals the training that underpinned the success enjoyed by the Naval Aviators and their Hellcats. The key combat actions are vividly described through 3D ribbon diagrams providing a step-by-step depiction of the main dogfights featured in the book, as well as action reports, both from previously unknown pilots and from more famous Hellcat aces.

Richard Hillary's book The Last Enemy was first published in the UK in 1942. It is an extraordinary first-hand account of the experiences a of a young man swept into the Battle of Britain as a Spitfire pilot.

This is volume four of a five volume collection that chronicles the author's journey from novice pilot to professional pilot, while adding technical lessons learned along the way. The author has a following through his website, www.code7700.com, which receives nearly 2 million hits every month. The website is used by airline, business, corporate, and military pilots for references to pilot procedures and techniques. The website also receives frequent visits from aviation industry, government offices, and colleges throughout the world. One of the most requested parts of the website are for more and more of the lessons, told in story form. The website author's web name is "Eddie," and many of the stories are told in an easy to read style, in Eddie's first person voice.While this book can stand alone, it takes up after volume three. After fifteen years as a pilot in one United States Air Force squadron after another, Eddie gets his turn as a commander, leading a squadron of 150 pilots, engineers, radio operators, flight attendants, and ground support personnel. His squadron is part of a dysfunctional wing, giving Eddie the perfect opportunity to study his peers and superiors in search of the perfect leadership style. Soon after his command tour is over, the squadron crashes an airplane, killing all on board. The ensuing investigation forces Eddie to take a second look at his own leadership style, revealing the secret to leadership and command.

An irreverent account of a visit to Finland and Sweden in the mid-90s, on the occasion of attending an international symposium on chemical and biological defense. Included are adventures such as flying a real, fire-breathing Finnish dragon, encountering Finnish moose in the most unexpected places, exploring Russian submarines, ogling gorgeous Finnish women and similar improbabilities.

Old Glories in Campania è il risultato di una ricerca che ho effettuato in Campania sui velivoli radiati. Di ogni esemplare ho ricostruito la storia con foto del periodo operativo. Le identità sono state ricavate dalla consultazione dei documenti di consegna e dalle targhette identificative interne anche se, come nel caso degli F 104, si tratta di veri e propri "collages" ottenuti con parti provenienti da vari esemplari.Old Glories in Campania is the result of a research I carried out in Campania on radiated aircraft. Of each example I reconstructed the history with photos of the operating period. The identities have been obtained from the consultation of the delivery documents and the internal identification plates even if, as in the case of the F 104s, these are real "collages" obtained with parts coming from various specimens.

The Douglas A-4 Skyhawk is one of the most successful military aircraft programs in history. Skyhawks are still flying in military service in 2019, over 60 years after the first flight of the A-4. This latest entry in the Illustrated series contains over 250 photos and diagrams, most of them in color, many of them published here for the first time. The Skyhawk story is told by the men who flew it in testing and in combat and in peacetime. These first-person accounts are the highlight of the book, putting the reader in that tiny cockpit that has seen so much action in the Skyhawk's long and illustrious career.

The vivid and largely untold story of the dramatic Allied air campaign against Germany that was a turning point in World War II and ultimately crucial to the success of D-Day and the Allied invasion of Europe

The vivid story of the young Americans who fought and died in the aerial battles of World War I.Samuel Hynes's The Unsubstantial Air is a chronicle of war that is more than a military history; it traces the lives and deaths of the young Americans who fought in the skies over Europe in World War I. Using letters, journals, and memoirs, it speaks in their voices and answers primal questions: What was it like to be there? What was it like to fly those planes, to fight, to kill? The volunteer fliers were often privileged young men-the sort of college athletes and Ivy League students who might appear in an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, and sometimes did. For them, a war in the air would be like a college reunion. Others were roughnecks from farms and ranches, for whom it would all be strange. Together they would make one Air Service and fight one bitter, costly war.A wartime pilot himself, the memoirist and critic Samuel Hynes tells these young men's saga as the story of a generation. He shows how they dreamed of adventure and glory, and how they learned the realities of a pilot's life, the hardships and the danger, and how they came to know both the beauty of flight and the constant presence of death. They gasp in wonder at the world seen from a plane, struggle to keep their hands from freezing in open-air cockpits, party with actresses and aristocrats, and search for their friends' bodies on the battlefield. Their romantic war becomes more than that-it becomes a harsh but often thrilling new reality.

The night of 16 May, 1943. Nineteen specially adapted Lancaster bombers take off from RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, each with a huge 9000lb cylindrical bomb strapped underneath it. Their mission: to destroy three dams deep within the German heartland, which provide the lifeblood to the industries supplying the Third Reich's war machine. From the outset it was an almost impossible task, a suicide mission: to fly low and at night in formation over many miles of enemy-occupied territory at the very limit of the Lancasters' capacity, and drop a new weapon that had never been tried operationally before from a precise height of just sixty feet from the water at some of the most heavily defended targets in Germany. More than that, the entire operation had to be put together in less than ten weeks. When visionary aviation engineer Barnes Wallis's concept of the bouncing bomb was green lighted, he hadn't even drawn up his plans for the weapon that was to smash the dams. What followed was an incredible race against time, which, despite numerous setbacks and against huge odds, became one of the most successful and game-changing bombing raids of all time.

A young man in West Virginia is thrust onto the world stage when America enters the Second World War. He and his best friend enlist and join the Army where they learn to fly heavy bombers. Barely out of high school, he and his friend fly from flight school in Topeka, Kansas, halfway across the world to Italy, where, from 1944 to 1945, they fly large formation missions into Germany, until Germany surrenders and the war in the European Theater ends. For reasons of his own, that young man, Charles "Chuck" Haynes, decides to keep a log, a diary if you will, of his day-to-day life as a B-24 co-pilot. Writing in the pages of service tablets he buys at the Army Post Exchange (PX), his gift for writing turns his experiences into a chronicle of a young man's life flying heavy bombers; doing his part to win a war against Nazi Germany, while facing his own mortality every time his plane leaves the ground. As you read the pages of his log, his direct, yet eloquent writing will take you on a journey he made some seventy years ago-a journey he didn't ask for, but nevertheless had to see through. You'll experience, through his eyes, the excitement of combat, the routine of life at an aviation airfield and the perils of two bailouts into enemy territory. His experiences in a world-spanning war changed his life in ways he never imagined and they will leave an indelible impression on your own.

A fascinating and authoritative narrative history of the V-22 Osprey, revealing the inside story of the most controversial piece of military hardware ever developed for the United States Marine Corps.When the Marines decided to buy a helicopter-airplane hybrid “tiltrotor” called the V-22 Osprey, they saw it as their dream machine. The tiltrotor was the aviation equivalent of finding the Northwest Passage: an aircraft able to take off, land, and hover with the agility of a helicopter yet fly as fast and as far as an airplane. Many predicted it would reshape civilian aviation. The Marines saw it as key to their very survival. By 2000, the Osprey was nine years late and billions over budget, bedeviled by technological hurdles, business rivalries, and an epic political battle over whether to build it at all. Opponents called it one of the worst boondoggles in Pentagon history. The Marines were eager to put it into service anyway. Then two crashes killed twenty-three Marines. They still refused to abandon the Osprey, even after the Corps’ own proud reputation was tarnished by a national scandal over accusations that a commander had ordered subordinates to lie about the aircraft’s problems. Based on in-depth research and hundreds of interviews, The Dream Machine recounts the Marines’ quarter-century struggle to get the Osprey into combat. Whittle takes the reader from the halls of the Pentagon and Congress to the war zone of Iraq, from the engineer’s drafting table to the cockpits of the civilian and Marine pilots who risked their lives flying the Osprey—and sometimes lost them. He reveals the methods, motives, and obsessions of those who designed, sold, bought, flew, and fought for the tiltrotor. These stories, including never before published eyewitness accounts of the crashes that made the Osprey notorious, not only chronicle an extraordinary chapter in Marine Corps history, but also provide a fascinating look at a machine that could still revolutionize air travel.

A history of the 80th AAA Battalion World War II service--in Italy, and from Normandy through to Germany.