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This third edition of Aircraft Systems represents a timely update of the Aerospace Series' successful and widely acclaimed flagship title.Moir and Seabridge present an in-depth study of the general systems of an aircraft - electronics, hydraulics, pneumatics, emergency systems and flight control to name but a few - that transform an aircraft.

In Vanishing Point , award winning journalist and author Tom Wilber pieces together the largely forgotten story of the bomber, Getaway Gertie , and an eclectic group of enthusiasts who have spent years searching for it. At the height of World War II, a B-24 Liberator bomber vanished with its crew while on a training mission over upstate New York. The final hours and ultimate resting place of pilot Keith Ponder and seven other US aviators aboard the plane remain mysteries to this day. The tale is at once a compelling instance of loss on the World War II American home front and a more extensive, largely unreported history. Ponder-a 21-year-old from rural Mississippi-and his crew were tragically unexceptional casualties in the monumental effort to recruit and train an air force en masse to counter the global conquest of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. More than fifteen thousand American airmen and, in some cases, women burned, crashed, or fell to their deaths in stateside training accidents during the war-their lives and stories shuffled away in piles of Air Force bureaucracy. The forgotten story of Getaway Gertie was originally inspired by summer evenings around the campfire on the shores of Lake Ontario, where parts of the plane have washed up. Building on those campfire tales, Wilber deftly connects myth with fact and memory with historicity. The result is a vivid portrait of the forgotten soldier of the home front and a new take on the meaning of wartime sacrifice as the last survivors of the Greatest Generation pass away.

Dive into the heart of wartime innovation and manufacturing through this groundbreaking book, unveiling a riveting narrative of technological mastery and organizational ingenuity. This meticulously researched work challenges conventional views of wartime production, offering a fresh perspective on the incredible efforts that drove the Allies to victory. Young's insightful analyses illuminate the strategic collaboration between the aerospace and automotive industries, showcasing their collective adaptation that created the engines powering victory. Spanning continents, Young examines the transformation of aircraft engine manufacturing during World War II. Unearthing the operations of key players such as the Bristol Aeroplane Company, Pratt & Whitney, and Wright Aeronautical, he sheds light on the monumental shift from traditional batch production to revolutionary quantity production. Readers will witness the birth of new factories, the development of advanced machine tools, and the innovation required to produce engines of unparalleled complexity and precision. Through Young's fresh perspective, the book unveils the intricate interplay of crisis techno-politics, engineering resilience, and the pivotal role of innovation in shaping the tides of history. This book is not just a study of the past; it is a critical foundation for understanding the dynamics of wartime production that continue to influence our world today. \"Edward Young's reconstruction and analysis of the Allies' massive World War II aircraft engine programs is priceless, unique, thorough and critical - all at once.\" Philip Scranton Professor Emeritus, History of Industry and Technology, Rutgers University

A key technical issue for future Air Force systems is to improve their ability to survive. Increased use of stealth technology is proposed by many to be the major element in efforts to enhance survivability for future systems. Others, however, suggest that the high cost and maintenance required of stealth technology make increased speed potentially more productive. To help address this issue, the Air Force asked the NRC to investigate combinations of speed and stealth that would provide U.S. aircraft with a high survival capability in the 2018 period, and to identify changes in R&D plans to enable such aircraft. This report presents a review of stealth technology development; a discussion of possible future missions and threats; an analysis of the technical feasibility for achieving various levels of stealth and different speeds by 2018 and of relevant near-term R&D needs and priorities; and observations about the utility of speed and stealth trade-offs against evolving threats.

From the earliest days of aviation where the pilot would drop simple bombs by hand, to the highly agile, stealthy aircraft of today that can deliver smart ordnance with extreme accuracy, engineers have striven to develop the capability to deliver weapons against targets reliably, safely and with precision.  Aircraft Systems Integration of Air-Launched Weapons introduces the various aspects of weapons integration, primarily from the aircraft systems integration viewpoint, but also considers key parts of the weapon and the desired interactions with the aircraft required for successful target engagement.  Key features: Addresses the broad range of subjects that relate directly to the systems integration of air-launched weapons with aircraft, such as the integration process, system and subsystem architectures, the essential contribution that open, international standards have on improving interoperability and reducing integration costs and timescales Describes the recent history of how industry and bodies such as NATO have driven the need for greater interoperability between weapons and aircraft and worked to reduce the cost and timescales associated with the systems integration of complex air-launched weapons with aircraft Explores future initiatives and technologies relating to the reduction of systems integration costs and timescales The systems integration of air-launched weapons with aircraft requires a multi-disciplinary set of engineering capabilities.  As a typical weapons integration life-cycle spans several years, new engineers have to learn the skills required by on-the-job training and working with experienced weapons integrators.  Aircraft Systems Integration of Air-Launched Weapons augments hands-on experience, thereby enabling the development of subject matter expertise more quickly and in a broader context than would be achieved by working through the life-cycle on one specific project.  This book also serves as a useful revision source for experienced engineers in the field.

Drawing upon a wealth of previously untranslated documents, Broken Wings tells how a European nation built an entire air force in secret. Carved up and banned from having a military air service after World War I, Hungary became determined to rearm itself. In the early 1920s, Allied inspectors were evaded and obstructed at every turn; great efforts were made to stockpile equipment from the Great War; and the Hungarian government promoted the development of commercial aviation, partly as a front for military flight operations. The clandestine rearmament program could not depend on manufacturing at home but instead secretly accepted whichever planes Italy and Germany would sell them. During the late 1930s, the Hungarian air force went from operating as a secret branch of the army to an independent modernizing force in its own right. Hungarian air power played a great role in a victorious border skirmish with Slovakia in 1939. The cost of the reemergence of the Hungarian air force, however, was heavy: growing Nazi influence over the country, as Germany increasingly supplied aircraft and training. Inevitably, Hungary entered the Second World War on the side of the Axis in 1941, with its air force soon dwindling in independence and effectively becoming a Luftwaffe auxiliary force. Called back home to defend Hungary from incessant Allied bombings, the Hungarian air force ended the Second World War much as they had the First-salvaging aircraft parts from downed invaders and fighting until they no longer had airfields from which to operate.

The U.S.did not become the world's foremost military air power by accident.The learning curve--World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, and more recently the war on terror--has been steep.While climbing this curve, the U.S.

Overall Air Force weapon system sustainment (WSS) costs are growing at more than 4 percent per year, while budgets have remained essentially flat. The cost growth is due partly to aging of the aircraft fleet, and partly to the cost of supporting higher-performance aircraft and new capabilities provided by more complex and sophisticated systems, such as the latest intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) platforms. Furthermore, the expectation for the foreseeable future is that sustainment budgets are likely to decrease, so that the gap between budgets and sustainment needs will likely continue to grow wider. Most observers accept that the Air Force will have to adopt new approaches to WSS if it is going to address this problem and remain capable of carrying out its missions. In this context, the original intent of this 3-day workshop was to focus on ways that science and technology (S&T) could help the Air Force reduce sustainment costs. However, as the workshop evolved, the discussions focused more and more on Air Force leadership, management authority, and culture as the more critical factors that need to change in order to solve sustainment problems. Many participants felt that while S&T investments could certainly help-particularly if applied in the early stages (\"to the left\") of the product life cycle-adopting a transformational management approach that defines the user-driven goals of the enterprise, empowers people to achieve them, and holds them accountable, down to the shop level. Several workshop participants urged Air Force leaders to start the process now, even though it will take years to percolate down through the entire organization. These sustainment concerns are not new and have been studied extensively, including recent reports from the National Research Council's Air Force Studies Board and the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board.

To Command the Sky is a scholarly record of the fight for domination of the skies over western Europe during World War II. It also explains the technical details of the tactics used to defeat the Luftwaffe. This book is important for serious students of World War II or military aviation.

Mid-flight non-combat malfunctions, mishaps, and blunders, occur frequently in the USAF during routine training and utility flights. The events surrounding accidents are meticulously gathered by USAF Investigators and a report is published in each case. Dr Bond has collected these reports over a number of years and presents his findings in this volume.