The Airplane in American Culture

The Airplane in American Culture PDF Author: Dominick Pisano
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 9780472068333
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 420

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Book Description
A fascinating account of America's relationship with the airplane

The Airplane in American Culture

The Airplane in American Culture PDF Author: Dominick Pisano
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 9780472068333
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 420

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Book Description
A fascinating account of America's relationship with the airplane

Reconsidering a Century of Flight

Reconsidering a Century of Flight PDF Author: Roger D. Launius
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 146962558X
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
On December 17, 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright soared into history during a twelve-second flight on a secluded North Carolina beach. Commemorating the 100th anniversary of the first flight, these essays chart the central role that aviation played in twentieth-century history and capture the spirit of innovation and adventure that has characterized the history of flight. The contributors, all leading aerospace historians, consider four broad themes relating to the development of flight technology: innovation and the technology of flight, civil aeronautics and government policy, aerial warfare, and aviation in the American imagination. Through their attention to the political, economic, military, and cultural history of flight, the authors establish that the Wrights' invention--and all that followed in both air and space--was one of the most significant technologies of the twentieth century, fundamentally reshaping our world. Supported by the First Flight Centennial Commission The contributors are Janet R. Daly Bednarek, Tami Davis Biddle, Roger E. Bilstein, Hans-Joachim Braun, David T. Courtwright, Anne Collins Goodyear, Roger D. Launius, William M. Leary, David D. Lee, W. David Lewis, John H. Morrow, Dominick A. Pisano, and A. Timothy Warnock.

Empires of the Sky

Empires of the Sky PDF Author: Alexander Rose
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
ISBN: 0812989988
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 657

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Book Description
The Golden Age of Aviation is brought to life in this story of the giant Zeppelin airships that once roamed the sky—a story that ended with the fiery destruction of the Hindenburg. “Genius . . . a definitive tale of an incredible time when mere mortals learned to fly.”—Keith O’Brien, The New York Times At the dawn of the twentieth century, when human flight was still considered an impossibility, Germany’s Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin vied with the Wright Brothers to build the world’s first successful flying machine. As the Wrights labored to invent the airplane, Zeppelin fathered the remarkable airship, sparking a bitter rivalry between the two types of aircraft and their innovators that would last for decades, in the quest to control one of humanity’s most inspiring achievements. And it was the airship—not the airplane—that led the way. In the glittery 1920s, the count’s brilliant protégé, Hugo Eckener, achieved undreamed-of feats of daring and skill, including the extraordinary Round-the-World voyage of the Graf Zeppelin. At a time when America’s airplanes—rickety deathtraps held together by glue, screws, and luck—could barely make it from New York to Washington, D.C., Eckener’s airships serenely traversed oceans without a single crash, fatality, or injury. What Charles Lindbergh almost died doing—crossing the Atlantic in 1927—Eckener had effortlessly accomplished three years before the Spirit of St. Louis even took off. Even as the Nazis sought to exploit Zeppelins for their own nefarious purposes, Eckener built his masterwork, the behemoth Hindenburg—a marvel of design and engineering. Determined to forge an airline empire under the new flagship, Eckener met his match in Juan Trippe, the ruthlessly ambitious king of Pan American Airways, who believed his fleet of next-generation planes would vanquish Eckener’s coming airship armada. It was a fight only one man—and one technology—could win. Countering each other’s moves on the global chessboard, each seeking to wrest the advantage from his rival, the struggle for mastery of the air was a clash not only of technologies but of business, diplomacy, politics, personalities, and the two men’s vastly different dreams of the future. Empires of the Sky is the sweeping, untold tale of the duel that transfixed the world and helped create our modern age.

Technological Transitions and System Innovations

Technological Transitions and System Innovations PDF Author: Frank W. Geels
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 9781845424596
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
This important book addresses how long term and large scale shifts from one socio-technical system to another come about, using insights from evolutionary economics, sociology of technology and innovation studies. These major changes involve not just technological changes, but also changes in markets, regulation, culture, industrial networks and infrastructure. The book develops a multi-level perspective, arguing that transitions take place through the alignment of multiple processes at three levels: niche, regime and landscape. This perspective is illustrated by detailed historical case studies: the transition from sailing ships to steamships, the transition from horse-and-carriage to automobiles and the transition from propeller-piston engine aircraft to turbojets. This book will be of great interest to researchers in innovation studies, evolutionary economics, sociology of technology and environmental studies. It will also be useful for policy makers involved in long-term sustainability and systems transitions issues.

Speedbird

Speedbird PDF Author: Robin Higham
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0857722298
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 516

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Book Description
Between 1939 and 1946 BOAC (the British Overseas Airways Corporation) was the nationalised airline of Great Britain - and between 1946 and 1974 as such it exclusively operated all long-haul British flights. With its iconic 'Speedbird' logo and its central role in the glamorous 'jet age' of the 1950s and 1960s, BOAC achieved a near cult-status with admirers around the globe. Yet, to date there has been no comprehensive history of the organisation, covering its structure, fleet and the role it played in the critical events of the age - from World War II to the end of empire, a period when BOAC played a pivotal part in projecting British political power, even as that power was waning. During World War II, BOAC operated a limited wartime service and prepared for the return of commercial flight in the postwar era. But it was in the service of Britain's colonies - and latterly the process of decolonisation - that BOAC achieved its most pivotal role. The development of flight technology enabled much faster connections between Britain and her imperial possessions - as the colonies prepared for independence BOAC ferried diplomats, politicians and colonial administrators between London and the far-flung corners of Africa and Asia in much faster times than had previously been possible. In this book, acclaimed historian Robin Higham presents a unique comprehensive study of BOAC from the early jet travel of the de Havilland Comet and the Vickers VC10 to the dawn of supersonic passenger aviation. Highly illustrated and meticulously researched using previously unseen sources, this book will be essential reading for all aviation enthusiasts and anyone interested in the history of modern Britain.

The Bird Is on the Wing

The Bird Is on the Wing PDF Author: James R. Hansen
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 9781585442430
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
The airplane ranks as one of history's most ingenious and phenomenal inventions--and surely one of the most world-shaking. How ideas about its aerodynamics first came together and how the science and technology evolved to forge the airplane into the revolutionary machine it became is the epic story James R. Hansen tells in The Bird Is on the Wing. Just as the airplane is a defining technology of the twentieth century, aerodynamics has been the defining element of the airplane. Hansen provides an engaging, easily understandable introduction to the role of aerodynamics in the design of such historic American aircraft as the DC-3, X-1, and 747. Recognizing the impact individuals have had on the development of the field, he conveys not only a history of aircraft technology, but also a collective biography of the scientists, engineers, and designers who created the airplanes. From da Vinci, whose understanding of what it took to fly was three centuries too early for practical use, to the invention of the airplane by the Wright brothers, Hansen explores the technological matrix from which aeronautical engineering emerged. He skillfully guides the reader through the development of such critical aerodynamic concepts as streamlining, flutter, laminar-flow airfoils, the mythical "sound barrier," variable-sweep wing, supersonic cruise, blended body, and much more. Hansen's explanation of how vocabulary and specifications were developed to fill the gap between the perceptions of pilots and the system of engineers will fascinate all those interested in how human beings have used aerodynamics to move among, and even beyond, birds on the wing.

Aerial Life

Aerial Life PDF Author: Peter Adey
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1444391348
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
NOMINATED AND SHORT LISTED FOR THE SURVEILLANCE STUDIES BOOK PRIZE 2011! This theoretically informed research explores what the development and transformation of air travel has meant for societies and individuals. Brings together a number of interdisciplinary approaches towards the aeroplane and its relation to society Presents an original theory that our societies are aerial societies, or 'aerealities', and shows how we are both enabled and threatened by aerial mobility Features a series of detailed international case studies which map the history of aviation over the past century - from the promises of early flight, to World War II bombing campaigns, and to the rise of international terrorism today Demonstrates the transformational capacity of air transport to shape societies, bodies and individual identities Offers startling historical evidence and bold new ideas about how the social and material spaces of the aeroplane are considered in the modern era

Materializing Europe

Materializing Europe PDF Author: A. Badenoch
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230292313
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
This book explores the relationships between European integration and material infrastructures. Taking transnational infrastructures as the focal point of study, the book focuses on the various forms of mediation between the material, institutional and discursive levels of European integration and fragmentation in a truly transnational perspective.

One Hundred Years of Air Power and Aviation

One Hundred Years of Air Power and Aviation PDF Author: Robin Higham
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 9781585442416
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 456

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Book Description
In this precise, interpretive and informative volume, Higham looks at everything from the roots of strategic bombing and tactical air power to the lessons learned and unlearned during the invasion of Ethiopia, the war in China and the Spanish Civil War. He also considers the problems posed by jet aircraft in Korea and the use of Patriot missiles in the Persian Gulf. He covers anti-guerrilla operations, doctrine, industrial activities and equipment, as well as the development of commercial airlines.

Zeppelin!

Zeppelin! PDF Author: Guillaume de Syon
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 9780801867347
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Book Description
In the early 20th century, the Zeppelin airship inspired a unique sense of awe. These phenomenal rigid, lighter-than-air craft - the invention of Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin (1838-1917) - approached the size of a small village. Although they moved slowly, there was no mistaking their exciting - or ominous - potential. Friends of the machine believed that it would revolutionize commerce, carry scientists to otherwise inaccessible places, and deliver bombs with great accuracy. Before the aeroplane proved its reliability and superior practicality - and before the fiery crash of the Hindenburg in 1937 - Zeppelins made a deep impression on the minds of Europeans, especially in Germany.