From F-4 Phantom to A-10 Warthog

From F-4 Phantom to A-10 Warthog PDF Author: Steve Ladd
Publisher: Air World
ISBN: 1526761254
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 269

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Book Description
This behind-the-scenes account of a USAF career is “an absorbing read, written with the classic humor fighter pilots seem to have” (Flight Line Book Review). From Baron von Richthofen to Robin Olds, the mystique of the fighter pilot endures. The skill, cunning, and bravery that characterizes this distinctive band of brothers is well known, but there are other dimensions to those who take to the skies to do battle that have not been given the emphasis they deserve—until now. You don’t have to be an aviation aficionado to enjoy Colonel Steve Ladd’s fascinating personal tale, woven around his twenty-eight-year career as a fighter pilot. This extremely engaging account follows a young man from basic pilot training to senior command through narratives that define a unique ethos. From the United States to Southeast Asia, Europe to the Middle East, the amusing and tongue-in-cheek to the deadly serious and poignant, this is the lifelong journey of a fighter pilot. The anecdotes are absorbing, providing an insight into life as an Air Force pilot, but, in this book, as Colonel Ladd stresses, the focus is not on fireworks or stirring tales of derring-do. Instead, this is an articulate and absorbing account of what life is really like among a rare breed of arrogant, cocky, boisterous, and fun-loving young men who readily transform into steely professionals at the controls of a fighter aircraft. “This book will appeal to a variety of readers with its Vietnam War combat stories and accounts of flying the Warthog in Cold War Europe. Fun, flying, international experiences—you won’t want to put it down.” —Aviation News

From F-4 Phantom to A-10 Warthog

From F-4 Phantom to A-10 Warthog PDF Author: Steven K Ladd
Publisher: Air World
ISBN: 1526761270
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Fighter pilots! Images of Baron Manfred von Richthofen and Eddie Rickenbacker in the Great War, Johnnie Johnson, Robert Stanford Tuck and Richard Bong in the Second World War, or Robin Olds in Vietnam, all spring to mind. Volumes have been written about them, past and present. Understandably, most of these revolve around the skill, cunning and bravery that characterizes this distinctive band of brothers, but there are other dimensions to those who take to the skies to do battle that have not been given the emphasis they deserve – until now. You do not have to be an aviation aficionado to enjoy Colonel Steve Ladd’s fascinating personal tale, woven around his 28-year career as a fighter pilot. This extremely engaging account follows a young man from basic pilot training to senior command through the narratives that define a unique ethos. From the United States to Southeast Asia; Europe to the Middle East; linking the amusing and tongue-in-cheek to the deadly serious and poignant, this is the lifelong journey of a fighter pilot. The anecdotes provided are absorbing, providing an insight into life as an Air Force pilot, but, in this book, as Colonel Ladd stresses, the focus is not on fireworks or stirring tales of derring-do. Instead, this is an articulate and absorbing account of what life is really like among a rare breed of arrogant, cocky, boisterous and fun-loving young men who readily transform into steely professionals at the controls of a fighter aircraft. From F-4 Phantom to A-10 Warthog is a terrific read: the legacy of a fighter pilot.

From F-4 Phantom to A-10 Warthog

From F-4 Phantom to A-10 Warthog PDF Author: Steven K Ladd
Publisher: Air World
ISBN: 9781526797957
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Fighter pilots! Images of Baron Manfred von Richthofen and Eddie Rickenbacker in the Great War, Johnnie Johnson, Robert Stanford Tuck and Richard Bong in the Second World War, or Robin Olds in Vietnam, all spring to mind. Volumes have been written about them, past and present. Understandably, most of these revolve around the skill, cunning and bravery that characterizes this distinctive band of brothers, but there are other dimensions to those who take to the skies to do battle that have not been given the emphasis they deserve - until now. You do not have to be an aviation aficionado to enjoy Colonel Steve Ladd's fascinating personal tale, woven around his 28-year career as a fighter pilot. This extremely engaging account follows a young man from basic pilot training to senior command through the narratives that define a unique ethos. From the United States to Southeast Asia; Europe to the Middle East; linking the amusing and tongue-in-cheek to the deadly serious and poignant, this is the lifelong journey of a fighter pilot. The anecdotes provided are absorbing, providing an insight into life as an Air Force pilot, but, in this book, as Colonel Ladd stresses, the focus is not on fireworks or stirring tales of derring-do. Instead, this is an articulate and absorbing account of what life is really like among a rare breed of arrogant, cocky, boisterous and fun-loving young men who readily transform into steely professionals at the controls of a fighter aircraft. Phantom to Warthog is a terrific read: the legacy of a fighter pilot.

Summary of Colonel Steve Ladd's From F-4 Phantom to A-10 Warthog

Summary of Colonel Steve Ladd's From F-4 Phantom to A-10 Warthog PDF Author: Everest Media,
Publisher: Everest Media LLC
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 59

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Book Description
Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The Air Force was able to produce 3,500 pilots in 1967, and I entered the service in 1966. My road to an F-4 cockpit began in 1966, my final year at the University of South Carolina, where I was enrolled in the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps. #2 I had passed the five specific areas of the Air Force recruiting test: pilot, navigator, academic aptitude, verbal, and quantitative (math). I was excited to be a potential candidate for pilot training and a chance to wear the coveted silver wings. #3 I was ordered to Moody Air Force Base near Valdosta, Georgia. I was disappointed that the base wasn’t conducive to the debauchery and uninterrupted hell-raising I had planned for my pilot training experience. #4 I rewarded myself by buying a shiny new British racing green Austin Healey 3000, which I could not afford. I set sail for Moody Patch, where the road to aviation fame and glory began in a classroom. I was introduced to the delights of flight theory, aircraft systems, and flight planning.

Engineering the F-4 Phantom II

Engineering the F-4 Phantom II PDF Author: Glenn E. Bugos
Publisher: US Naval Institute Press
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
Conceived in 1953 in a chickenwire-covered cubicle known as the advanced design cage at McDonnell Aircraft, the F-4 Phantom II fighter-bomber was produced for 25 years, serving a full workload in Vietnam for the Navy, Marines, and Air Force, and surviving through the 1990s in the air arms of eleven nations. While most case studies of modern aircraft focus on the many ways the military-industrial complex goes wrong, this trenchant, invigorating study looks deeper at how those who built the complex intended it to work. Step by step the reader discovers how the relationships among parts, systems, procedures, economies, and missions were shaped by relationships among people - scientists, engineers, testers, program managers, subcontractors, military strategists, pilots and corporate leaders. Drawing on exhaustive research, including interviews with key players, the author makes a major advance in the burgeoning body of literature on technology management by showing how McDonnell worked through the problems of technical integration that plagued defense engineering in the 1960s and 1970s and led to programs full of "complexity". It is as much a study of how aircraft manufacturers and military officers went about their business as it is a life-and-times history of an important aircraft.

Sierra Hotel : flying Air Force fighters in the decade after Vietnam

Sierra Hotel : flying Air Force fighters in the decade after Vietnam PDF Author:
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
ISBN: 1428990488
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
In February 1999, only a few weeks before the U.S. Air Force spearheaded NATO's Allied Force air campaign against Serbia, Col. C.R. Anderegg, USAF (Ret.), visited the commander of the U.S. Air Forces in Europe. Colonel Anderegg had known Gen. John Jumper since they had served together as jet forward air controllers in Southeast Asia nearly thirty years earlier. From the vantage point of 1999, they looked back to the day in February 1970, when they first controlled a laser-guided bomb strike. In this book Anderegg takes us from "glimmers of hope" like that one through other major improvements in the Air Force that came between the Vietnam War and the Gulf War. Always central in Anderegg's account of those changes are the people who made them. This is a very personal book by an officer who participated in the transformation he describes so vividly. Much of his story revolves around the Fighter Weapons School at Nellis Air Force Base (AFB), Nevada, where he served two tours as an instructor pilot specializing in guided munitions.

Phantom in the Cold War

Phantom in the Cold War PDF Author: David Gledhill
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 1526704102
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 504

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Book Description
An RAF veteran presents an in-depth study of one of the Cold War’s most effective fighter, defense, and reconnaissance planes. The McDonnell Douglas F4 Phantom was a true multi-role combat aircraft. Introduced into the Royal Air Force in 1968, it was employed in ground attack, air reconnaissance and air defense roles. Even after the arrival of the Jaguar in the early 1970s, it continued to play a significant role in air defense. In its heyday, the Phantom was Britain’s principal Cold War fighter. There were seven UK-based squadrons, two Germany-based squadrons, and a further Squadron deployed to the Falkland Islands. Phantom in the Cold War focuses on the aircraft’s role as an air defense fighter, exploring its contribution to the Second Allied Tactical Air Force at RAF Wildenrath during the Cold War. Author David Gledhill, who flew the Phantom operationally, also recounts the thrills, challenges, and consequences of operating this temperamental jet at extreme low-level over the West German countryside, preparing for a war which everyone hoped would never happen.

Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II

Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II PDF Author: Peter C. Smith
Publisher: Air World
ISBN: 9781526759269
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
The Fairchild-Republic A-10A Close Support aircraft has become a legend over its long front line life. Known as the Warthog due to her unusual appearance, this little aircraft has built up an awesome reputation in the specialised ground-attack role, where her accuracy and deadliness are widely recognised as the best of their kind.Hard lessons from the Second World War, that were reinforced by the bitter experience of the Vietnam War two decades later, showed that it was both impracticable and highly non-cost efficient to use supersonic fighter jets in the close air support mission. A requirement was therefore drawn up for an aeroplane capable of carrying a heavy and varied load of ordnance, which had good endurance and unprecedented manoeuvrability, and which could survive heavy ground fire - thus the A-10 was born. But, by the time it came into service her role had changed to that of a tank-buster in the defence of Western Europe in the face of the overwhelming numbers of Soviet battle armour.With her straight wing, twin tails and turbine engines mounted high on her rear fuselage, this single-seat aircraft certainly presented a unique appearance. But all these features served a vital role, as Peter C. Smith explains in this highly detailed study.Although the Warthog's expected missions on the plains of Germany did not materialise, she did destroy hundreds of Soviet-built tanks during the Gulf wars. The A-10 has also flown almost continuous missions over the Balkans, against the Taliban in Afghanistan, and ISIS in Iraq and Syria.In this beautifully-illustrated and comprehensive volume, Peter C Smith brings the A-10's incredible story right up to date.

War for the Hell of It

War for the Hell of It PDF Author: Ed Cobleigh
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781629670720
Category : Fighter pilots
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
What's it like to fight an unwinnable war? What's Mach 2? What does night ground attack feel like? How was the Phantom to fly? It's all here, the sights, sounds, smells, violence, political frustrations, the terror and triumph of survival in the sky over Vietnam. Death in the air but exotic pleasures available back on base in Thailand. Live it n

Tomcat Rio

Tomcat Rio PDF Author: Dave Baranek
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1510748237
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 376

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Book Description
From Topgun to Squadron Command You’re in the cockpit of the legendary F-14 Tomcat fighter, blazing along at twice the speed of sound seven miles above the ocean and the carrier that hurled you off its deck. You’re practicing dogfighting with “aggressors,” guys on your side flying F-16s. You’re patrolling the tense skies above Iraq, and with the push of a button you can launch the 100-mile Phoenix missile that can blow a foe to scrap before you even see him. You are an expert in fighter tactics and aircraft carrier operations, and it all leads to your command of an F-14 fighter squadron of more than three hundred people. Sounds like a week’s worth of daydreams, but it’s all real-life in the career of Dave “Bio” Baranek, and he shares it with you in the exciting, superbly crafted new book, Tomcat Rio. Dave – callsign “Bio” – pulled his readers into the exciting world of the F-14 and the Navy’s TOPGUN program with his popular books Topgun Days and Before Topgun Days. Now he’s back with the rest of the story, as he reaches the top level of expertise and proves it, not just in graded competitions but also where it counts, where you shoot at them and they shoot at you. Dave also shares the challenges he faced. A deadly foe called complacency. Learning a whole new mission late in his career. The unexpected trials that come with leading a squadron in the dynamic environment of Naval Aviation. This third volume is full of adventures, lessons, and inspiration. If you are a casual reader, you’ll turn the last page as a dedicated Tomcat fan. To make it all even more real, Tomcat Rio includes dozens of Bio’s best and most acclaimed photos. Photographer George Hall hailed one shot as “one of the best Tomcat photos ever taken.” In words and pictures, Bio immerses you in rich detail. He pipes you aboard as a member of an F-14 squadron. You share the camaraderie of Type A personalities. You plan risky missions, going toe-to-toe against America’s most volatile foes. You can almost smell the pungent jet exhaust, almost feel the gut-wrenching G’s of a dogfight, as Tomcat Rio pitches you into the thick of it as only Bio can tell it. Strap in! You’re going for one fantastic ride.

The Women with Silver Wings

The Women with Silver Wings PDF Author: Katherine Sharp Landdeck
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
ISBN: 1524762814
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 450

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Book Description
The thrilling true story of the daring female aviators who helped the United States win World War II--only to be forgotten by the country they served. When Japanese planes executed a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Cornelia Fort was already in the air. At twenty-two, Cornelia had escaped Nashville's debutante scene for a fresh start as a flight instructor in Hawaii. She and her student were in the middle of their lesson when the bombs began to fall, and they barely made it back to ground that morning. Still, when the U.S. Army Air Forces put out a call for women pilots to aid the war effort, Cornelia was one of the first to respond. She became one of just over 1,100 women from across the nation to make it through the Army's rigorous selection process and earn her silver wings. In The Women with Silver Wings, historian Katherine Sharp Landdeck introduces us to these young women as they meet even-tempered, methodical Nancy Love and demanding visionary Jacqueline Cochran, the trailblazing pilots who first envisioned sending American women into the air, and whose rivalry would define the Women Airforce Service Pilots. For women like Cornelia, it was a chance to serve their country--and to prove that women aviators were just as skilled and able as men. While not authorized to serve in combat, the WASP helped train male pilots for service abroad and ferried bombers and pursuits across the country. Thirty-eight of them would not survive the war. But even taking into account these tragic losses, Love and Cochran's social experiment seemed to be a resounding success--until, with the tides of war turning and fewer male pilots needed in Europe, Congress clipped the women's wings. The program was disbanded, the women sent home. But the bonds they'd forged never failed, and over the next few decades, they came together to fight for recognition as the military veterans they were--and for their place in history.