Voted the Best Space Book of 2018 by the Space HipstersThe dramatic inside story of the epic search and recovery operation after the Columbia space shuttle disaster.On February 1, 2003, Columbia disintegrated on reentry before the nation’s eyes, and all seven astronauts aboard were lost. Author Mike Leinbach, Launch Director of the space shuttle program at NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center was a key leader in the search and recov...

Clarence L. “Kelly” Johnson led the design of such crucial aircraft as the P-38 and Constellation, but he will be more remembered for the U-2 and SR-71 spy planes. His extraordinary leadership of the Lockheed “Skunk Works” cemented his reputation as a legendary figure in American aerospace management.From the Trade Paperback edition.

The former launch commentator "offers a personal—and sometimes painful—look back at one of the darkest chapters in US human spaceflight" (Space.com).On January 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Seventy-three seconds after launch, the fiery breach of a solid motor joint caused a rupture of the propellant tanks, and a stunned nation watched as flames engulfed the craft, killing all seven crew members on ...

The personal account of the original “Red Eagle” of the establishment, equipment, and training practices of the highly classified MiG squadron of the USAF.America's Secret MiG Squadrons is the story of a group of incredibly brave military pioneers who put their lives on the line to establish a training program that would prepare the US Air Force for a potential Cold War battle with Soviet aircraft.As a F-4 Phantom II pilot in Vietnam, Col. Peck had...

A pictorial history of the legendary Lockheed spy plane, written by one of its pilots and "filled to the brim with information and revelation" ( Seattle Post Intelligencer Travel for Aircraft blog).At the height of the Cold War in 1964, President Johnson announced a new aircraft dedicated to strategic reconnaissance. The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird spy plane flew more than three-and-a-half times the speed of sound, so fast that no other aircraft could catch it...

Follow an unlikely candidate from high school dropout to a highly successful flying career. Commendation from Lockheed's Clarence "Kelly" Johnson (SR71) as a High Caliber Flight Instructor tops the list.

With heightened tensions mounting in the Cold War, President Dwight Eisenhower's request for more accurate intelligence information on the Soviet Union was the spark that ignited the U-2 project. Modified USAF bombers began overflights of the Soviet Union in 1951, but existing lower flying aircraft in the US inventory were vulnerable to anti-aircraft fire and a number of cross-border flights were shot down. To meet the challenge and improve the survivability, the Lockheed Corporation recei...

This is my storythe story of a pilot who flew airplanes for some thirty-seven years: ten years in the United States Air Force, primarily in jet fighters, and then twenty-seven years flying commercial jet airliners. I was inspired to write this story after reading the autobiography, a few years ago, of Gen. Chuck Yeagerhe being the world-renowned test pilot, World War II fighter ace, and first man to break the sound barrier in the Bell X-1. My story is the story of an average pilot, an aver...

To Be A U.S. Air Force Pilot details every step of training for those with the skill and daring to "cross into the blue" as an elite U.S. Air Force pilot. The book traces the growth of aspiring young recruits, starting with grueling physical and mental tests, early flight training on high-tech flight simulators, moving onward and upward until they are finally ready to push the outer envelope to Mach II in state-of-the-art fighter aircraft. Thanks to the highly motivated, highly s...

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Seven War Stories presents the autobiography of a retired air force veteran who served in the Korean War, the conflict in Southeast Asia, and the Cuban crisis. Donald J. Meeks boyhood dream was to be a pilot in the air forcea goal that was unattainable when he enlisted, as high school graduates were not being accepted into pilot training. He was determined to fly, however, and became a crewmember in numerous types of aircraft; trying many different jobs until he achieved his ultim...

A riveting, personal account and a new standard in the literature of military aviation. HANGAR FLYING is the only history of its kind, describing and evaluating the use of air power, historically and at present, through the lens of a seasoned combat pilot, Air Force official, and former member of the joint chiefs of staff. General Merrill A. "Tony" McPeak was the 14th chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force. HANGAR FLYING is a memoir of his early service in fighter squadrons, a story about mi...