Aviation Books

[PRB]

Just finished this one. I initially put it down after about a quarter way through. The author writes with a sarcastic style that makes it look like he has an "ax to grind" against Pan Am. The book is about Pan Am's slow decline, starting in the 1970s, until they ceased to exist in the 1990s. The title, "skygods", is how he refers to the "old timers" at Pan Am, the "Masters of Ocean Flying Boats" who were held up as, well, you get it the idea. But by the jet age they were also, in the author's opinion, "old curmudgeons" who didn't "get" the idea of crew coordination, and wouldn't tolerate any dissenting opinions, or even comments, from co-pilots. Ok, this was true, in some cases...

But last week I had nothing to read so I picked it back up and finished it. It was actually quite good. Lots of interesting stuff about how "deregulation" found Pan Am unprepared to cope with the new environment. And after Trippe retired, Pan Am went through several different leaders of varying "stature" and capability. And in 1989, only a few years before the end, Pan Am flight 103 was destroyed over Lockerbie Scotland, in what one Pan Am pilot said was "the day the heart of Pan American died".

Anyhow, I'm glad I finished it. It was ok. Three of five stars.

 

[PRB]

This one turned out to be way more interesting than I thought it would be. It's more a "corporate history" of US air carriers, after "deregulation". How the CEOs of the major airlines brutally competed with each other after the demise of the CAB in the late 1970s. One of the more interesting aspects of this story, to me, was the computer based reservation systems that United and American Airlines developed, in the 1980s! The American system was called "Sabre", and United's was called "Apollo." In both cases, these companies contracted with travel agencies to connect with their own system. Both these systems were able to make reservations with any airlines in the world, but both had sneaky and sophisticated ways of "steering" customers to their own airline. By 1993, from the book:

"...In a cavern in Oklahoma, behind a retina-scanning security device, the mainframes of Sabre were now connected to 200,000 reservations terminals around the world, handling as many as 3,600 transactions per second— the largest privately owned real-time network ever built, with every screen ringing up a fee on every reservation processed for another airline..."

All this before the "interwebs". Astonishing.

 

[Ferry_vO]

Added two more Haynes' manuals to my library :The Avro Lancaster and the Panavia Tornado. Love these books, fun to read and plenty of good photos and information.
The only downside is that I counted at least 38 different volumes at the shop, I'm up to five now..

 

[Willy]

I've been reading this one lately

Fw 200 Condor by Jerry Scutts

I got it mainly for the early Fw 200A propliners, but it extensively covers the maritime patrol version as well. A keeper for me.

 

[Willy]

Started this one today and got about 80 pages into it. So far, it's the history of the Northern Pacific war with the Aleutians, Kurile Islands and points in between. I've just got to the point where the PV-1 Venturas entered the fray...

 

[Ferry_vO]

Here's one I had to add to my already overstocked bookshelfs:



Have read the first three chapters, and so far I like it. Very thorough and well written.

 

[PRB]

I'm always looking for books that tell a personal story of aviation. Of these two, An Ace of the Eighth was a little dry, while Check Six! was more interesting, with more airplane stuff. For example, Curran explains that the P-47 had this little valve on the cockpit floor that was used to equalize the pressure in the two hydraulic systems. If you forgot to do that when landing, the flaps on one side would come down slower than those on the other, or not at all. This, or course, would make the landing experience very interesting indeed.

I've read many books by or about fighter pilots in WW-II, and it's never been remarkable to read that fighter pilots look down upon pilots who fly anything else. Fortier, in Ace, does not disappoint, referring to DC-3 and bomber pilots as "truck drivers". It wasn't until becoming a member of this site that I started reading a lot of books about the transports, prop liners, Ferry Command, etc. Books recommended by Moses03, Willy, srgalahad, and others. In these books one finds that hot shot fighter pilots can't get jobs flying "trucks" after the war because they don't have enough multi-engine experience. Poetic justice? Maybe a little. So I was impressed with one part of Check Six! In which Jim Curran, P-47 pilot, tells of his squadron acquiring a old P-70 that they turned back into an A-20 by removing all the guns, armor, and black paint. They used it for their "executive transport" and beer runs to Australia. Curran says he loved that plane. He then relates how one of his hot shot squadron mates wrecked the A-20 only a month later in a landing accident. In his opinion, the A-20 was too complex an airplane for a fighter pilot to handle!

Oh, and in both books, the author's squadron transitioned from P-47s to P-51s. And in both cases, the reaction was negative. "What? You're taking my Thunderbolt away and I have to fly P-51s? This is outrageous!" Lolol.

 

[PRB]

This is a great read. Author flew Cessna 206s, 402s, BN-2 Islanders, and Twin Otters in and around the mountains of PNG for a couple decades, and went on to drive Air Buses for Cathay Pacific. Each night when I resumed reading I had to go back a chapter, because by the time I put it down the evening before I was half asleep. While not a WW-II history nut, he knew enough to point out to us dear readers when he flew over old WW-II airfields, saying how he could still see the revetments from the old airfield a couple miles away from the one he was flying into. This sent me off to Google Earth to see if I could find them. Very cool.

 

[sixstrings5859]

One of my favorite books for a CFS3 fan. World War II Fighting Jets by Jeffrey Ethell and Alfred Price Airlife Publishing 1994

 

[Ferry_vO]

Picked up a used copy of 'The lost squadron' by David Hayes at a armour event today. Looks like a good book.

 

[Willy]

Found another book on Fw 200A Condor airliners and just now ordered it. Only place I've found it is out of Norway so I expect that I'll have a bit of a wait on it.

Apparently the Danes thought more of the Condor than they did the DC-3. It was more technologically advanced, faster and longer ranged. And parts were available next door in Germany. Can't say as I blame them.

 

[Milton Shupe]

Late present from Santa: Vultee Aircraft 1932-1947 by J. Thompson. (Same author of Italian Civil and Military Aircraft 1930-1945).

Moses,

I know this was an old post but I am looking for info on the XP-54. Do you have any good stuff?

Thanks

 

[Moses03]

Check your PM's Milton.

 

[PRB]

I just finished this one. What a great read. It's been out since 1979, but I just found it. The author flew F4U Corsairs in the Royal Navy, off HMS Illustrious in the Indian Ocean and Pacific. The RN sent him to the US to be trained as a pilot by the US Navy in Pensacola. He flew Fulmars in Africa for a while before transitioning to Corsairs and the carrier fleet. I've been reading books like this since I could read, and this one is in the top five. What a great story teller! At times hilarious, sad, and tragic.

 

[Ralf Roggeveen]

Ye Olde London Airport

Just picked up this nice little 1950s book at last weekend's Newark Air Museum Aeroboot sale:

The dealer was also selling this:

Which to buy?

Well of course it was a No-brainer and I bought them both.

No dates, but they are clearly either side of 1958 when the Comet 4 came into service (the Free Model was, of course, long gone).

There'll be lots of fun at the Cal Classic versions of London Airport with these books!

I find I'm only allowed four images at a time now, so afraid the rest of this thread (which I just spent nearly an hour writing) will have to wait to be posted later...

Anyway, nice to be back!

 

[lefty]

Takes me back to my first airline flights, Ralf !

Edinburgh-Heathrow in the wondrous Viscount - a lovely experience - oh, those big, big windows......

then Heathrow-Jersey in the BEA Dakota. Never forget the surprise of entering the rear door and having to climb...

How civilized it all was in those days. Nice find, Ralf.

 

[Ralf Roggeveen]

Yup, the Dakota was probably a Pionair, named after a famous explorer (preferably one who got back alive). Not sure if I ever went in a Viscount, but there was at least one VC-10 to Paris before going further south to Nimes by Air Inter. Went by Air France Caravelle direct to Nice in '73 and the place I was staying on the other side of the bay gave fantastic views of aircraft landing by night which was pretty cool. More often in the '60s we went to France by what was called the 'Boat-Train', sleeping in a Wagon Lit while the (huge black steam!) engine took us south through the night. Years later I found myself gawping at one of these carriages in a museum and started to feel a bit old.

Remember this concourse in the Passenger Building very well:

And that early luggage carousel!

These books are from the Pitkin Pride of Britain series which usually covered cathedrals, stately homes and the Royal family:

Their 1950s catalogue is listed on the back of the Viscount cover book. 'Two Shillings & Sixpence' (2/6 or 'Half a Crown') was 12 and a half New Pence after decimalisation in 1971. That's about 15 Cents US, or 30 Cents Euro today, but it had much greater value then when I got two shillings/10p a week pocket money.

 

[lefty]

Sad article in today's Times, Ralf, about the demise of the wagon-lit. It seems the only people operating them nowadays are the Russians, Americans and a couple of routes here in the UK. Even the Orient Express is no more....

Was on the Viscount often on the Edinburgh-London route, followed by the Vanguard, another comfortable plane to fly in.

Flew in the VC-10 to Johannesburg in 1970 - much preferred the Boeings !

 

[SIAI S81]

A good book

I have finished to read a really good book: Duel of Eagles by Peter Townsend. The book is about the Battle of Britain and how the RAF won it, from the first Hurricanes to the Chain Home radars, it talks about the everyday heroism of those aviators that fought for the freedom of their country. The narration of what happens in UK is mixed with the narration of what happened in nazi Germany, from the first clandestine Luftwaffe in Russia to the attack of Poland and France, until the first defeat in the skies of Britain.

 

[Ralf Roggeveen]

Shot down by Royal family

Group Captain Peter Townsend himself a Battle of Britain pilot, but unfortunately most famous for his 1950s affair with Princess Margaret. This was well-known at the time, but it was made clear that she could not marry someone who was divorced (even if he was a war hero). Townsend went to live in France and poor Margaret had to make do with Lord Snowden who, somewhat ironically, she later separated from. In France in the '70s I saw Townsend on TV telling his disbelieving son, both speaking fluent French, that he really had been a pilot in the Battle of Britain! I once saw poor Princess Margaret in the back of a limo coming out of Kensington Palace. I was quite a long way away and tried to make out which Royal person it might be (Diana was still there at the time). Realised it must be Margaret because she had a cigarette in a long holder. Townsend was older than her and died a few years before.