The Only Living Lady Parachutist

The Only Living Lady Parachutist PDF Author: Catherine Clarke
Publisher: Idle Fancy Press
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 315

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Book Description
Haunted by her brother’s death, daredevil Lillian tests her courage by joining the Van Tassel balloon act with her sister Ruby. Together they risk their lives for fame and fortune by parachuting from smoke balloons throughout Australia, but the feisty Lillian struggles to choose between love and her perilous career. Determined to take control of the balloon circuit and provide for her children, Lillian travels to New Zealand only to clash with charlatans, showmen, and disgruntled crowds when her exhibitions fall short of their expectations. A cascade of betrayals and reconciliations culminate in one last-ditch ascent from which there is no turning back. Many years later, as Lillian relates her fanciful version of those events, she must find a deeper courage to reveal the truth about her past. Based on the real life of a strong and unconventional woman trying to make her name, Lillian’s story is too incredible to be left untold.

The Only Living Lady Parachutist

The Only Living Lady Parachutist PDF Author: Catherine Clarke
Publisher: Idle Fancy Press
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 315

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Book Description
Haunted by her brother’s death, daredevil Lillian tests her courage by joining the Van Tassel balloon act with her sister Ruby. Together they risk their lives for fame and fortune by parachuting from smoke balloons throughout Australia, but the feisty Lillian struggles to choose between love and her perilous career. Determined to take control of the balloon circuit and provide for her children, Lillian travels to New Zealand only to clash with charlatans, showmen, and disgruntled crowds when her exhibitions fall short of their expectations. A cascade of betrayals and reconciliations culminate in one last-ditch ascent from which there is no turning back. Many years later, as Lillian relates her fanciful version of those events, she must find a deeper courage to reveal the truth about her past. Based on the real life of a strong and unconventional woman trying to make her name, Lillian’s story is too incredible to be left untold.

A Leap from the Clouds

A Leap from the Clouds PDF Author: Jerry Kuntz
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476689601
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
In the late nineteenth century, circus aerialists collaborated with show balloonists to perform death-defying stunts, initially by suspending themselves from trapeze bars beneath a balloon, later by jumping from the balloons using fabric parachutes. By the 1890s, these performances became a worldwide craze, remaining in rural fairs and fetes for decades. Many of the original balloon-parachute pioneers went on to play key roles in the creation of airships, test flying the first gliders and airplanes. Based on extensive historical research, this unusual account explores how a nineteenth-century daredevil act united with the desire to achieve human flight. These performers' contributions did not come without a price: dozens, if not hundreds, of people died in horrifying events witnessed by thousands of spectators. This book chronicles the act that had no practical purpose other than entertainment, which eventually evolved into the development of the free-fall parachute pack--a key aviation need--and the foundation of a new activity known as skydiving.

When the Achute Went Up _

When the Achute Went Up _ PDF Author: Dolly Shepherd
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781850890225
Category : Large print books
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description


No Eta

No Eta PDF Author: Dick Fortenberry
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1462026435
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
Why would anybody want to jump out of a perfectly good, functioning airplane? Ask any sport parachutist in the world that question and you may find a different answer every time. For Dick Fortenberry, his love of parachuting began long before he joined the US Army at age eighteen and attended jump school with the 77th Special Forces Group. In his fascinating memoir about his journey to eventually becoming one of the original members of the Golden Knights, Fortenberry describes the rigorous training that led up to his first jump and to receiving the coveted silver wings on his chest, the parachute patch on his hat, and Airborne on his shoulders. As Fortenberry chronicles the details of how he rapidly excelled in the sport of skydiving, he offers an exciting glimpse of what it was like to feel the wind in his hair, the adrenaline as he quickly approached the ground, and the fear when his parachute malfunctioned. No ETA: The Pioneering Days of Skydiving shares the intriguing personal story of one mans journey in the early days of sport parachuting that ultimately led to three world championships and an appearance on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

Parachute Infantry

Parachute Infantry PDF Author: David Kenyon Webster
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 9780807119013
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
An English literature major at Harvard with a talent for writing, twenty-one-year-old David Kenyon Webster volunteered for duty in the U.S. Army’s parachute infantry in 1943 with the aim of seeing combat first-hand and then describing his experiences. His introduction to warfare came at the invasion of Normandy on D-Day in 1944. Webster went on to see considerable action in the next two years, serving as a combat infantryman in the campaign through northwest Europe, during which he was twice wounded. He wrote Parachute Infantry a short time after the war, relying on his letters home and recollections he penned right after his discharge, making his memoir much closer to the war than most such works. With its abundant dialogue, charged descriptions of places and events, and skillful evocation of emotions, Webster’s narrative resonates with the immediacy of a gripping novel. The memoir is divided into several episodes. The first takes place in May and June of 1944 and provides a detailed, suspenseful account of Webster’s participation in the events of D-Day. The next covers several days in September, 1944, when Webster parachuted into Holland and then as part of a group of soldiers advanced through small towns, freeing them as the Germans retreated, until he was shot in the leg and forced to leave his unit. The narrative then picks up in February, 1945, after Webster has returned to his unit, and describes several weeks near the end of the war in Europe, when German resistance was still strong but weakening. Then comes the Allied victory in 1945. We see Webster’s platoon arriving at Berchtes gaden (Hilter’s vacation retreat in the Alps) right before V-E Day and the celebrations and lax discipline that followed the final collapse of the Third Reich. In the last section of the book, Webster recalls the monotonous routine of occupation duty, concluding with his return to the States in early 1946 to be discharged. Stephen E. Ambrose introduces Parachute Infantry, pointing out as two important strengths Webster’s honesty and his ability to describe so well his fellow soldiers—men he never would have known or associated with in civilian life but with whom he developed the strongest bonds during his wartime experience. Parachute Infantry proves to be a riveting account of a young soldier’s experience of war.

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.

The American Aviation Experience

The American Aviation Experience PDF Author: Tim Brady
Publisher: SIU Press
ISBN: 9780809323715
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 484

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Book Description
This book is designed to be a primary text for courses in aviation history and development and aviation in America. The seventeen chapters in The American Aviation Experience: A History range chronologically from ancient times through the Wright brothers through both world wars, culminating with the development of the U.S. space program. Contributors also cover balloons and dirigibles, African American pioneers in aviation, and women in aviation. These essayists--leading scholars in the field--present the history of aviation mainly from an American perspective. The American Aviation Experience includes 335 black-and-white photographs, two maps, and an appendix, "Leonardo da Vinci and the Science of Flight.."

Flying Magazine

Flying Magazine PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 158

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Book Description


Whatever It Took

Whatever It Took PDF Author: Henry Langrehr
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0063027445
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
Published to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day, an unforgettable never-before-told first-person account of World War II: the true story of an American paratrooper who survived D-Day, was captured and imprisoned in a Nazi work camp, and made a daring escape to freedom. Now at 95, one of the few living members of the Greatest Generation shares his experiences at last in one of the most remarkable World War II stories ever told. As the Allied Invasion of Normandy launched in the pre-dawn hours of June 6, 1944, Henry Langrehr, an American paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne, was among the thousands of Allies who parachuted into occupied France. Surviving heavy anti-aircraft fire, he crashed through the glass roof of a greenhouse in Sainte-Mère-Église. While many of the soldiers in his unit died, Henry and other surviving troops valiantly battled enemy tanks to a standstill. Then, on June 29th, Henry was captured by the Nazis. The next phase of his incredible journey was beginning. Kept for a week in the outer ring of a death camp, Henry witnessed the Nazis’ unspeakable brutality—the so-called Final Solution, with people marched to their deaths, their bodies discarded like cords of wood. Transported to a work camp, he endured horrors of his own when he was forced to live in unbelievable squalor and labor in a coal mine with other POWs. Knowing they would be worked to death, he and a friend made a desperate escape. When a German soldier cornered them in a barn, the friend was fatally shot; Henry struggled with the soldier, killing him and taking his gun. Perilously traveling westward toward Allied controlled land on foot, Henry faced the great ethical and moral dilemmas of war firsthand, needing to do whatever it took to survive. Finally, after two weeks behind enemy lines, he found an American unit and was rescued. Awaiting him at home was Arlene, who, like millions of other American women, went to work in factories and offices to build the armaments Henry and the Allies needed for victory. Whatever It Took is her story, too, bringing to life the hopes and fears of those on the homefront awaiting their loved ones to return. A tale of heroism, hope, and survival featuring 30 photographs, Whatever It Took is a timely reminder of the human cost of freedom and a tribute to unbreakable human courage and spirit in the darkest of times.

Flying Magazine

Flying Magazine PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 158

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Book Description