Aviation Books to read

[hanzl]

Laura,
I'd suggest Martin Bowman's Lockheed F-104 Starfighter; A History.The book is a good read as you can expect from this author, but the photographs are very very very bad at times, while the more recent ones are a pure joy to watch.
regards,
Hanzl

[fester]

I've just finished Shadow Flights by Curtis Peebles.

Well worth a read if cold war reconnaissance is your thing.

[big john]

The Works Bookshop are having a clearance sale. The Feltham branch had Tornado Boys for just £3 today, They had 3 copies left.

[mudhen15]

Recently read 'Fighter Pilot', the memoirs of Robin Old. Great read, including his time in the UK
Also would recommend 'Low Level Hell' by Hugh Mills Jr. Great insight into the OH-6

[SPERX]

"Command & Control" by Eric Schlosser. Built around the 1980 story of the "dropped wrench" explosion at a Titan 2 ICBM silo in Arkansas, it is an exhaustive story of the attempts, and resistance, to establish effective control and safety mechanism for the US nuclear weapons from 1945 onward. There is also a docu-drama of the same name. Chlling stuff and the book especially shows how close things were............

[gizmo437]

Thank you for all your recommendations !

Hope there will be an english version for you guys but must have : Northrop NF5, De Historie van de NF5 bij de Koninklijke Luchtmacht (expected Juni 2020)

''the history of the NF5 with NAF''

loved that plane here on EHEH... was in Mil Service @ EHEH when it flew here.

Greetings

[falkeeins]

Can anyone recommend a good book on the F-104 Starfighter? I've trawled through amazon and there's quite a few titles. Ideally I'm looking for a general introduction/overall history of the aircraft but am happily open to more detailed or specific studies. So what book(s) should I buy?

better late than never
René Francillon's huge tome published by LeLa Presse - 352 pages, 650 photos (French-language text). PDF extract at the link
https://www.aircraft-navalship.com/prod ... vions/3251

[shackleton0]

"Category Five"......Colin Cummings

This is an older book, but is a really interesting one for the RAF enthusiast.

It is a catalogue of RAF aircraft losses from 1954 to 2009.

Readers will be familiar with many of the accidents listed in this comprehensive volume.

Interesting to see the accident rate reducing as time passes by.

[roughcutter]

This looks to be a very promising book in the pipeline by a great author : https://www.fonthill.media/products/sup ... eing-c-135

[moonstone_laura]

Can anyone recommend a recent, good book on the B-2 Stealth Bomber that isn't a pictorial/illustrated history? Not that there's anything wrong with those sort of books but I'm really looking for something a bit more substantial - and factual. A quick trawl through amazon suggests that most B-2 books are either a) quite old now (1990s); b) on the short side (often less than 100 pages!); or c) as I nearly discovered to my cost, for kids!

[blackhandgang17]

Rate of Climb by Rick Peacock Edwards is a good read dealing with his time on Lightning’s in Germany,instructing on Lightning’s at Coltishall and Gnats at valley as well as Phantoms on 111Sqn and introduction of the Tornado F2/F3 as OC of the OCU and then Station Commander at Leeming before GW1 and Air Attaché tour in Washington and director of Flight Safety

Cost me £14 from the small South American river onlne

[roughcutter]

This looks to be a very promising book in the pipeline by a great author : https://www.fonthill.media/products/sup ... eing-c-135

Super Snoopers (Bob Archer) is now available on amazon

[stevedrews]

Hi There
What were the years he was at Coltishall on the OCU please ?
Thanks in advance
Steve A

Rate of Climb by Rick Peacock Edwards is a good read dealing with his time on Lightning’s in Germany,instructing on Lightning’s at Coltishall and Gnats at valley as well as Phantoms on 111Sqn and introduction of the Tornado F2/F3 as OC of the OCU and then Station Commander at Leeming before GW1 and Air Attaché tour in Washington and director of Flight Safety

Cost me £14 from the small South American river onlne

[Philly1971]

Fighter Pilot:The life of Battle of Britain Ace Bob Doe by Helen Doe (his daughter) is well worth a read. I remember seeing him pop up as a talking head on quite a few BofB documentaries in the early noughties and always thought he came across as a decent, working class matter of fact bloke, and the book backs that up. He also flew both Spitfires and Hurricanes and unlike many, he is very complimentary to both. The book also includes his time running an Indian Airforce squadron In the Burma campaign, something I had not read about before.

Also for those who Like a bit of fiction, but still based around real aviation events, I can highly recommend a series of novels written by Mark Berent, the first being Rolling Thunder. He was a decorated pilot in Vietnam, and not surprisingly his novels are based on 3 main characters, with one being a F-100 pilot (who moves to Phantoms in the later novels), another being a FAC pilot, and the third being a special forces officer. There are not many fiction novels that I read more than once, but I still own all my Mark Berent books, and have just re-read Rolling Thunder for the 3rd time. love it!

[Geoff Dreft]

Bob Archer's Super Snoopers should be on everyone's bookshelf. I can't believe Amazon are discounting it so soon after publication.

It is well written, good balance between text and images, professionally produced and steers a confident course between spotting memories and technical jargon, with just enough of each. Having only just acquired "KC-135 - more than a tanker" by Robert Hopkins, I wasn't sure there was much more that could be written about the Boeing classic but I was wrong. I have been reading the author's output since I joined BARG in the early 1970s and this must rate as his best work of all time and judging by the way it is written, he must have enjoyed producing every page.

[offsetmil]

""Flying The Line" by Jay Lacklan a series of now four books about first his days as a B52 pilot with SAC then his time as a C5 pilot with the Air National Guard. And as previously mentioned Chickenhawk - certainly read it more than once

[Fibrous Freddie]

Challenge in the Air: A Spitfire Pilot Remembers
by M.A. Liskutin

Firebirds! Flying the Typhoon in Action
by Charles Demoulin

Both WW2 and well worth a few hours of your time.

[awacsfan]

I finally and just ordered Bob Archer's SUPER SNOOPER directly from the publisher... I have a few *C-135 related books on my bookshelf, including "KC-135... more than just a tanker" (the first and original edition) as well as the C-135 Stratotanker Series by Schiffer Publishing, and am looking forward to Bob Archer's book.

[AndrewBarclay]

http://flitetime.net/nickel.html Throw a nickel on the grass, save a pilots ass

[raptor9]

Max Hasting's new book on the Dam Buster operation was very enlightening. Called 'Operation Chastise.' It exploded a few myths!!!. Picked it up in paper back form in Sainsburys for £5.