Aviation Books

One of the most interesting books I've read in a while.

The author, George Erickson is, among other things, a retired dentist. He had flown this area for decades with various flying buddies, each with their own similar type planes. In the trip covered in this book, he flew alone, in the late 1990s, in a Piper “Tundra Cub”, a variation I hadn't heard of before. He would land and camp for the night, either when it got dark, or when the weather forced a landing, in remote lakes all across northern Canada. What an adventure!

He has a story to tell at each of the places he stops, usually about the history of the place, or people he's met over the years, many of then the native people. He also talks about the geology of the area as “we're” flying over it, musing on the “Canadian Shield”, and the fact that many large Canadian lakes are remnants of the immense ice age era “Lake Agassiz”, and of the tectonic forces that shaped Great Slave Lake in Northwest Territories.

In fact there is more story telling, history, and science diversions than tales of flying a Piper Tundra Cub, but I found it to be a fascinating and fun read.

- Paul

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My recent arrivals from Amazon

Enterprise by Barret Tillman. History of the USS Enterprise (CV-6) Good read

The Forgotten 500 by Gregory A Freeman. The story of the rescue of downed US Airmen in occupied Yugoslavia during WWII. Excellant

US Navy Aircraft Carriers 1922 - 1942 and US Navy Aircraft Carriers 1942 - 1945 both by Mark Stille. Kind of thin, but pretty good but left me wanting more. 1922 to 1942 covers Langley, the Lexington class, Ranger, the Yorktown class and Wasp. 1942 to 1945 covers the Essex class and the Independence class. The Essex class coverage doesn't say much about their postwar careers.
 
Bought part 2 of the Fokker G-1 history books today; part 1 focussed on design and production, part 2 tells the operational history. Well over 500 pages in two books with a lot of unique photos.
All photos are labelled in both Dutch and English but the main story is Dutch only, with a few pages summary in English in the back.

 
Red Star vol 7, Tupolev Tu-4 by Gordon and Rigmant. $10.00 at the local reseller. Story of the reverse engineered B-29 with lots of rare photos.

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Getting depressed about the state of the specialist book market. There are 180 items on the British E-Bay site in the Aircraft section (auction only). No bids for any of them ! Decent copies of the Putnam British Fighter/Bomber are not even making £10... Looks like the Net has killed off books ! (thanks to those kind gentlemen who are scanning them and uploading - copyright be damned..)

I have quite a few duplicates - some expensive - for sale at a later date, but it looks like their value will be a fraction of what I expected. Should have spent it all on wine & women after all.....:banghead:
 
My take on the Putnams is this: I treasure the information and not worry about their worth. It is a bit depressing to stumble across copies that have been scanned in though. I had a lot of fun tracking down my set over the last few years.
 
Another visit to my favourite store with my birthday money and a discount coupon (Even my family knows where I like to do my shopping!) and came home with three books:

Two more volumes of the 'Dutch profiles' series, both dealing with the history of the P-40 in Dutch service. A lesser known aircraft here, but mainly because it only served in the Dutch East-Indies. Testing the FsX Flight Replicas P-40N got me interested in this aircraft. Great photos, almost all new to me and story in both English and Dutch.

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This one's called 'Fighter pilots during the cold war: Flirting with death?' and is a collection of 160 stories of our pilots that served with the RNLAF since WW2. Been reading the first few chapters and there are some great stories in there.

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I also found this book, but it will have to wait until next month as it was becoming a bit expensive:

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Made another trip to my favourite store yesterday, and came back with some more books including the one on top of my list:



The development of this extremely advanced airplane with many novel features was started in 1937, for which Ettore Bugatti had hired the Belgian Louis de Monge as chief engineer. The first version of the airplane was planned as a speed-record airplane, a military version was to follow later. Tragically the Bugatti 100P airplane never flew, the Germans invaded Paris where it was being built before it was 100% ready. The airplane surprisingly survived the war, and still exists in the EAA museum in Oshkosh, USA. Both engines exist, and were built into Bugatti race-cars. Currently a flying replica is being constructed in the USA, built in such a way, that it will be aerodynamically the same as the original.

This book for the first time describes the complete history of this wonderfully beautiful streamlined airplane, as well as all of it’s novel systems. Also, the histories of both the plane’s creators are followed, from the early years of aviation.

Ettore Bugatti is of course well-known through his race- and sportscars from the years in between both worldwars, but he was also interested in many other technical devices. During the first world war airplane-engines were designed and built, the book describes these engines and derivatives in detail, showing also all the airplanes which used these engines, including the world’s first fully functional “modern” helicopter.

Louis de Monge built his first airplanes before WWI, during WWI he designed and produced modern propellers, sold under the name Lumière. After WWI many, often technically advanced, designs were made. The complete history of his many interesting inventions and lack of commercial success is published here for the first time.
Click to expand...

Great book at first glance, which starts with a detailed desciption of the construction, history and restoration of the 100P. There's a short chapter on Ettore Bugatti and his car designs, and a longer story on the use of his engines in aircraft. Intersting how his famous stright-eight was developed into a 'U-16', a 'Double U-16' and even a 1000 hp 'H-32'!

Next is the story of Louis de Monge, his designs, patents and aircraft (Including those made for other firms like Dyle et Bacalan) and the last chapter shows the build of a replica that should fly in the near future.
The book is filled with interesting drawings and photos, and highly recommended for anyone with an interest in these two men and their work! It is written in English, even though the author is a Dutch Bugatti expert.

The second book I bought is this Haynes Spitfire manual; not that I'll ever own one, but nevertheless it looks like a good read, being a lot more than just a 'workshop manual'.



And of course the annual 'Luchtvaart' (Aviation) edition had to join the collection, giving a nice review of events in aviation during the last year.

 
Great stuff, Ferry - I've been thinking about that Bugatti book for a while, but it's going to have to wait until I start selling some of my surplus books to (a) raise some cash and (b) make some room on the shelves !
 
I'm in need for more shelve space too Mike, guess my next purchase will be a second bookcase!
 
Well there's another New Year resolution gone ! Anyone who knows my predilection for flying boats will surely excuse this purchase. Nothing spectacularly new, but some great photographs, 3-views, and in-depth stuff about those fascinating French floaters..
 
Jane's

A 1935 original Jane's just went on EBay UK - sold for £212 ($350) I put in a bid, but was some way off. Just as well - I would have been murdered by the Boss......
 
Or maybe she would have helped you with your shelf space & cash problem by putting the rest of your collection on ebay, Mike..

Slightly off-topic (Even though I see big engines, wings and long strips of tarmac..) but I did buy my most expensive book yet:

http://www.zandvoortgrandprix.com/en/

Not cheap, but it also comes with a 77-minute long documentary on DVD.
 
Difficult to believe it is nearly 30 years since there was a Dutch G.P., Ferry.

Ah, the shark-nose Ferrari - and proper racing not decided by tyres and electronics.........but that's for another forum, eh ? Looks like a nice purchase !
 
I can't even remember the Dutch GP, Mike... And until last August, I had never been to Zandvoort! But the Historic GP won me over, I will definitely be going back there this year!

Watched the DVD last night, and read the chapters until the 1960's just now. The writer also publishes a magazine (RTL GP Magazine) that is focussed completely on historic racing.
 
Bought this book because it looked interesting. It was. The author, Greg Fletcher, is the son of the central figure of the book, Will Fletcher, who was a TBM Avenger pilot in WW-II, flying from the USS Intrepid (CV-11). In the battle of Leyte Gulf, in October 1944, Will Fletcher participated in one of many attacks against the Japaneses Center Force, consisting of the bulk of the IJN battleship fleet. Young Fletcher was shot down making a torpedo run on Musashi, and his story of survival from that moment is exciting and inspiring. Still, what I found most fascinating was his account of his training as a naval aviator, and of flight operations around US carriers in 1944. I spoke briefly with the author via e-mail after reading the book, and he was very tolerant and polite of my unsolicited praise of his work.

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Been on a sabbatical from the aviation page for the last few months trying to catch up on some other interests. Namely the Spanish Conquistador explorations into 16th & 17th century North America and early Native American culture.

Anyways, today I picked up Frozen In Time by M. Zuckoff. Looks to be a good read. Sort of a Glacier Girl type story.

http://www.mitchellzuckoff.com/latestbook/

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Interesting book. Billy Bush was an SB2C Helldiver pilot in WW-II. He was among that second generation of pilots and aircrew, who joined after Pearl
Harbor. While all the epic carrier battles on 1942 were being fought by men who were already in the navy on Dec 7 1941, Bush, and the rest of the
young pilots who would serve in 1943-44, was in training. He would fly with VB-2, attached to the USS Hornet (CV-12). He was among the many crews
who would ditch their planes in the sea, at night, upon returning from the long range attack on the Japanese fleet in the Battle of the Philippine
Sea, in June 1944.

Bush's squadron conducted dive bombing training in the states using the Douglas Dauntless SBD. When deployed to the Pacific with VB-2, they flew the
Curtiss Helldiver. In light of the on-going debate (of sorts) with our SOH member "Helldiver", who was a rear seat man in SB2Cs towards the end of
the war, Bush's opinion of the SB2C was interesting to me. He, and his squadron mates, did refer to the plane as "The Beast". After flying the SB2C,
he compared it to his training experience with the SBD and concluded that the SBD could be "flown" all the way down through the dive, and easily
aimed and re-aimed at any point in the dive. The SB2C, by contrast, was very difficult. You had to get the plane trimmed perfectly before you
started the dive, or the whole thing would be a bust. And while the SBD was stable in the dive, the SB2C would accelerate like mad, even with the
dive flaps deployed, contributing to the overall difficulty in aiming the plane. Still the big beaste did get him home, and he acknowledged that,
even after ditching in the dark sea in June 1944. A good read...

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Just finished this most interesting book. It's about two brothers, 17 and 15 years old, who in 1966 flew their Piper Cub, which they restored themselves in a barn, across the country from New Jersey to Los Angeles and back again. I started it a few months ago and set it aside as a boring story about the authors trials and troubles with his father, and old barn storming pilot, and his brother. I picked it back up after going through my stack of reading stuff. In fact it's a great read. In the author's own words, the book is "about life, not about flying". There is a lot of flying in it however, and it's a great story about all the interesting people they met along the way. The author was the 15 year old. His brother did the trip as a way to get some cross country hours towards a commercial license. Both of them could fly and they each still do. On this trip the author rode in the back seat most of the way doing the navigation.

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