Eugene Bullard

Eugene Bullard PDF Author: Larry W. Greenly
Publisher: NewSouth Books
ISBN: 158838280X
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 162

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Book Description
Presents the life of the African-American pilot who flew missions for France during World War I, experienced racial discrimination in the United States, was beaten in the Peekskill Riots of 1949 and became a member of the French Legion of Honor.

Eugene Bullard

Eugene Bullard PDF Author: Larry W. Greenly
Publisher: NewSouth Books
ISBN: 158838280X
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 162

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Book Description
Presents the life of the African-American pilot who flew missions for France during World War I, experienced racial discrimination in the United States, was beaten in the Peekskill Riots of 1949 and became a member of the French Legion of Honor.

The First Fighter Pilot - Roland Garros

The First Fighter Pilot - Roland Garros PDF Author: Ed Cobleigh
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781629671567
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
Roland Garros enjoyed an exciting life. An aviation pioneer in the early 1900s, he taught himself how to fly a bamboo airplane despite crashing it at Versailles. He was a world-class athlete, a lawyer who wouldn't learn Latin, a sports car salesman on the Champs-Elysées, an airshow pilot and racer. He demonstrated flight to huge crowds up and down the Americas. Ultimately, Roland Garros became the world's first fighter pilot. Leaving his comfortable life in Paris, he flew and fought in the lethal skies of the first World War. Never before had a lone pilot hunted other men in the air. Shot down and captured, he escaped prisoner of war camp, evaded his way across Germany, and crossed the front lines. After a torrid fling in Paris with an exotic dancer, he rejoined his squadron. Garros needed two more aerial victories to become an ace. This creative non-fiction biography puts you in an open cockpit, in air combat, and in Paris experiencing Belle Epoque pleasures. What was it like to fly across the Mediterranean in a rickety monoplane? How did pilots dogfight in WWI? Fasten your seatbelt for exciting aerial action and the adventure-packed life of Roland Garros, the first fighter pilot!

Fighter Pilot

Fighter Pilot PDF Author: William R. Dunn
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 0813146100
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 345

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Book Description
This WWII fighter pilot memoir recounts the author’s many exploits as a flying ace during WWII in the Normandy invasions, the Battle for France and beyond. Born in Minneapolis in 1916, William R. Dunn decided to become a fighter pilot at the age of twelve. In 1939 he joined the Canadian Army and was soon transferred to the Royal Air Force. As part of the RAF’s famous Eagle Squadron, Dunn was sent to Europe to fight in the Second World War. Flying Hawker Hurricanes and Supermarine Spitfires, he was the first Eagle Squadron pilot to shoot down an enemy aircraft. When he later transferred to the US Army Air Forces, he became the first American ace of the war. Lieutenant Colonel Dunn saw action in the Normandy invasion and in Patton's sweep across France. Twenty years later he fought again in Vietnam. In this lively memoir, Dunn keenly conveys the fighter pilot's experience of war—the tension of combat, the love of aircraft, the elation of victory, the boisterous comradeship and competition of the pilot brotherhood.

First Kills

First Kills PDF Author: Stefan W. C. Gnys
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 1612005578
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 468

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Book Description
“Remarkably detailed . . . It is a tribute to Wladyslaw Gnys, the decorated ace pilot, but also to the charming and humble man himself.” —Hamilton Magazine Polish pilot Wladyslaw (Wladek) Gnys was credited with shooting down the first two German aircraft of World War II on September 1, 1939. On this day, as Gnys’ squadron took off near Kraków to intercept the German invaders, German Stuka pilot Frank Neubert attacked, killing the captain. Wladek, who barely survived himself, evaded the pursuing Stukas and went on to make the first Allied kills, while Neubert was credited with the first aerial kill of the war. Fifty years after the invasion of Poland, in the summer of 1989, Gnys and Neubert met and shook hands, making news around the world. They reconciled their differences and remained friends until their deaths. This event symbolized the prevailing friendly coexistence between Poland and Germany. Written by his son Stefan and drawing from his logbooks, this highly illustrated biography of Wladek Gnys is the most in-depth account of the Polish hero’s life. It tells Wladek’s story from his childhood in rural Poland, through his time flying in three Allied air forces during World War II, his capture and escape during Operation Overlord, and his reconciliation with Neubert and his commemoration as a national war hero in Poland. “Tells the story of one man’s ride through the history of most of the 20th century . . . This is far from a run-of-the-mill wartime story, being more of a touching and revealing look into an extraordinary life.” —Aircrew Remembered

All Blood Runs Red

All Blood Runs Red PDF Author: Phil Keith
Publisher: Harlequin
ISBN: 1488036039
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 405

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Book Description
The incredible story of the first African American military pilot, who became a spy in the French Resistance and an American civil rights pioneer. Winner of the Gold Medal for Memoir/Biography from the Military Writers Society of America A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice Eugene Bullard lived one of the most fascinating lives of the twentieth century. The son of a former slave and an indigenous Creek woman, Bullard fled home at the age of eleven to escape the racial hostility of his Georgia community. When his journey led him to Europe, he garnered worldwide fame as a boxer, and later as the first African American fighter pilot in history. After the war, Bullard returned to Paris a celebrated hero. But little did he know that the dramatic, globe-spanning arc of his life had just begun. All Blood Runs Red is the inspiring untold story of an American hero, a thought-provoking chronicle of the twentieth century and a portrait of a man who came from nothing and by his own courage, determination, gumption, intelligence and luck forged a legendary life. “A whale of a tale, told clearly and quickly. I read the entire book in almost one sitting.” —Thomas E. Ricks, The New York Times Book Review “All Blood Runs Red should be required reading for anyone who has ever dreamed big. A truly inspiring and uplifting story of courage and triumph, and an opus for an unsung hero.” —Nelson DeMille “Dazzling . . . This may be a biography, but it reads like a novel.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

First Fighter

First Fighter PDF Author: Charles F. O'Connell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Airplanes, Military
Languages : en
Pages : 190

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Book Description


Oswald Boelcke

Oswald Boelcke PDF Author: R.G. Head
Publisher: Grub Street Publishers
ISBN: 191069066X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
This biography of the pioneering WWI flying ace who mentored the Red Baron is “fascinating . . . [it] captures combat aviation at its inception” (MiG Sweep: The Magazine of Aviation Warriors). With a total of forty victories, Oswald Boelcke was Germany’s first ace in World War I—and a century later he remains a towering figure in the history of air warfare, renowned for his character, inspirational leadership, organizational genius, development of air-to-air tactics, and impact on aerial doctrine. Paving the way for modern air forces across the world with his pioneering strategies, Boelcke had a dramatic effect on his contemporaries. The famed Red Baron’s mentor, instructor, squadron commander, and friend, he exerted a tremendous influence upon the German air force. He was one of the first pilots to be awarded the famous Pour le Mérite, commonly recognized as the “Blue Max.” All of this was achieved after overcoming medical obstacles in childhood and later life with willpower and determination. Boelcke even gained the admiration of his enemies: After his tragic death in a midair collision, Britain’s Royal Flying Corps dropped a wreath on his funeral, and several of his captured foes sent another wreath from their German prison camp. His name and legacy live on, as seen in the Luftwaffe’s designation of the Tactical Air Force Wing 31 “Boelcke.” This definitive biography reveals his importance as a fighter pilot who set the standard in military aviation.

Fighter Pilot

Fighter Pilot PDF Author: Christina Olds
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9781429929097
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
Please note: This ebook edition does not include the photo insert from the print edition. The widely anticipated memoir of legendary ace American fighter pilot, Robin Olds Robin Olds was a larger-than-life hero with a towering personality. A graduate of West Point and an inductee in the National College Football Hall of Fame for his All-American performance for Army, Olds was one of the toughest college football players at the time. In WWII, Olds quickly became a top fighter pilot and squadron commander by the age of 22—and an ace with 12 aerial victories. But it was in Vietnam where the man became a legend. He arrived in 1966 to find a dejected group of pilots and motivated them by placing himself on the flight schedule under officers junior to himself, then challenging them to train him properly because he would soon be leading them. Proving he wasn't a WWII retread, he led the wing with aggressiveness, scoring another four confirmed kills, becoming a rare triple ace. Olds (who retired a brigadier general and died in 2007) was a unique individual whose personal story is one of the most eagerly anticipated military books of the year.

The Origin of the Fighter Aircraft

The Origin of the Fighter Aircraft PDF Author: Jon Guttman
Publisher: Westholme Publishing
ISBN: 9781594160837
Category : Fighter planes
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
From Scouts to Balloon-busters, the Emergence of Air-to-Air Combat in World War I When World War I began in August 1914, the airplane had already proven its worth as an intelligence gathering "eye-in-the-sky." These scouting aircraft soon became indispensable to armies on both sides, and the attempt to drive enemy planes away began in earnest. Local air superiority was incorporated into battlefield strategy, and the use of aircraft to conduct offensive operations would change warfare as dramatically as the first firearms 300 years before. By the end of 1915, the basic formula of the armed scout settled on a single-seater with a machine gun synchronized to fire through its propeller blades. This heavily armed aircraft became the first true fighter plane whose primary function was to destroy enemy aircraft, whether scouts, balloons, bombers, or other fighters. A new glamorized "knight of the air" was born: the ace, a fighter pilot who brought down five or more opponents. From 1916 on, as the combatants relied on airplanes more, flying tactics and strategy--including mass formations--were developed for what would become a deadly struggle for complete air superiority. By 1918, the final year of the war, air battles could be as sprawling as those on the ground. In The Origin of the Fighter Aircraft, historian Jon Guttman tells the engrossing story of how one of the most amazing inventions became a integral component of warfare. Balancing technical description, personalities, and battle accounts, the author demonstrates that by the end of World War I most of the fundamentals for modern aerial combat had been established.

The First and The Last

The First and The Last PDF Author: Adolf Galland
Publisher: Reading Essentials
ISBN: 3965448471
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 385

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Book Description
A fearless leader with 104 victories to his name, Galland was a legendary hero in Germany's Luftwaffe. Now he offers an insider's look at the division's triumphs in Poland and France and the last desperate battle to save the Reich. "The clearest picture yet of how the Germans lost their war in the air."--Time.