For the last decade of his career, Peter dedicated himself to traveling the globe, attempting to show that shared information benefits the entire company more than isolated data. However, this book isn’t about his professional mission; it’s about the adventure of travel itself. Travel is divided into four essential parts: Planning the trip. Getting there. Being there. Getting home. While all four parts are covered, it’s ‘Being there’ that takes center stage, as that’s where the real excitement happens. Peter’s journeys through diverse countries, encountering different peoples, cultures, and landscapes, only deepened his love for travel and humanity. Yet, post-9/11, the joy of travel has been marred by the extensive time spent navigating airport security. Sometimes, it feels like more time is spent in airports than in the air. Join Peter in rediscovering the joy of travel. Let’s bring the fun back into our journeys.
On airline security: ‘We are not going to die at the hands of toiletries.’On popularity: ‘I don’t give a shite if nobody likes me.’On customer service: ‘Are we going to apologise if something goes wrong? No, we’re f***ing not.’Refunds? ‘You can’t have one, so f*** off’. Airport operators? ‘Overcharging rapists’. The European Commission? ‘Communists’. Travel agents? ‘Fuckers’. Some might call it radical, ruthless business logic; others, the foulmouthed abuse of a shameless gobshite. Whatever: Michael O’Leary, the shrinking violet who is Chief Executive of the awesomely successful low-cost airline Ryanair, has made it his business to offer you his opinion on everything, even if it often makes you wish you hadn’t asked. Now, here is the very baddest of his collected wit and wisdom, on everything from the possibility of charging passengers for going to the loo on his planes to his Aunty-f***ing-Mavis. We may hate him when we end up being charged forty quid for a flight we thought we were getting for a penny, but who can fail to be mesmerised, enlightened or just laugh out loud at some of the stuff that issues relentlessly from the man’s lips?Paul Kilduff is the author of the bestselling Ruinair (2008) and four novels. He lives in Ireland.
No aircraft ever captured the curiosity & fascination of the public like the SR-71 Blackbird. Nicknamed "The Sled" by those few who flew it, the aircraft was shrouded in secrecy from its inception. Entering the U.S. Air Force inventory in 1966, the SR-71 was the fastest, highest flying jet aircraft in the world. Now for the first time, a Blackbird pilot shares his unique experience of what it was like to fly this legend of aviation history. Through the words & photographs of retired Major Brian Shul, we enter the world of the "Sled Driver." Major Shul gives us insight on all phases of flying, including the humbling experience of simulator training, the physiological stresses of wearing a space suit for long hours, & the intensity & magic of flying 80,000 feet above the Earth's surface at 2000 miles per hour. SLED DRIVER takes the reader through riveting accounts of the rigors of initial training, the gamut of emotions experienced while flying over hostile territory, & the sheer joy of displaying the jet at some of the world's largest airshows. Illustrated with rare photographs, seen here for the first time, SLED DRIVER captures the mystique & magnificence of this most unique of all aircraft.
Plane Talk: Cessna Export Tales is the story of the team of close friends in the Export Department of the Cessna Aircraft Company, Wichita Kansas as seen through the eyes of Eyvinn H. Schoenberg as he relates through forty tales and five epilogue histories, experiences of his own and those of his friends in exporting Cessnas worldwide. He describes his strict flight training in a Piper Cub, and the fun of flying Cessnas once authorized to be a Cessna Utility Pilot while learning to fly The Cessna Way, as well as his own and others adventures in flying, selling, and developing an internationally based Distributor and Dealer organization, whose sales of Cessnas in the Caribbean, South America, Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, The Far East, Europe, The Middle East, and various African countries in great part caused Wichita Kansas to be called The Air Capitol of the World.
Homo sapiens have been speaking for hundreds of years—and yet basic communication still stymies us. We freeze up in elevators, on dates, at parties, under Dumpsters. We stagger through our exchanges merely hoping not to crash, never considering that we might soar. We go home sweaty and eat a birthday cake in the shower. But no more. With What to Talk About you'll learn to speak—fluently, intelligently, charmingly—to family, friends, coworkers, lovers, future lovers, horse trainers, children, even yourself. This hilarious manual, written by two award-winning authors and illustrated by legendary cartoonist Tony Millionaire, is tailor-made for anyone who might one day attend a dinner party, start a job, celebrate a birthday, graduate from school, date a human, or otherwise use words. What to Talk About is not rocket science, but it is a lot like brain surgery, in the sense that is terrifying, risky—and could change you forever.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “This is history at its most immediate and moving…A marvelous and memorable book.” —Jon Meacham “Remarkable…A priceless civic gift…On page after page, a reader will encounter words that startle, or make him angry, or heartbroken.” —The Wall Street Journal “Had me turning each page with my heart in my throat…There’s been a lot written about 9/11, but nothing like this. I urge you to read it.” —Katie Couric The first comprehensive oral history of September 11, 2001—a panoramic narrative woven from voices on the front lines of an unprecedented national trauma. Over the past eighteen years, monumental literature has been published about 9/11, from Lawrence Wright’s The Looming Tower to The 9/11 Commission Report. But one perspective has been missing up to this point—a 360-degree account of the day told through firsthand. Now, in The Only Plane in the Sky, Garrett Graff tells the story of the day as it was lived—in the words of those who lived it. Drawing on never-before-published transcripts, declassified documents, original interviews, and oral histories from nearly five hundred government officials, first responders, witnesses, survivors, friends, and family members, he paints the most vivid and human portrait of the September 11 attacks yet. Beginning in the predawn hours of airports in the Northeast, we meet the ticket agents who unknowingly usher terrorists onto their flights, and the flight attendants inside the hijacked planes. In New York, first responders confront a scene of unimaginable horror at the Twin Towers. From a secret bunker under the White House, officials watch for incoming planes on radar. Aboard unarmed fighter jets in the air, pilots make a pact to fly into a hijacked airliner if necessary to bring it down. In the skies above Pennsylvania, civilians aboard United 93 make the ultimate sacrifice in their place. Then, as the day moves forward and flights are grounded nationwide, Air Force One circles the country alone, its passengers isolated and afraid. More than simply a collection of eyewitness testimonies, The Only Plane in the Sky is the historic narrative of how ordinary people grappled with extraordinary events in real time: the father and son caught on different ends of the impact zone; the firefighter searching for his wife who works at the World Trade Center; the operator of in-flight telephone calls who promises to share a passenger’s last words with his family; the beloved FDNY chaplain who bravely performs last rites for the dying, losing his own life when the Towers collapse; and the generals at the Pentagon who break down and weep when they are barred from trying to rescue their colleagues. At once a powerful tribute to the courage of everyday Americans and an essential addition to the literature of 9/11, The Only Plane in the Sky weaves together the unforgettable personal experiences of the men and women who found themselves caught at the center of an unprecedented human drama. The result is a unique, profound, and searing exploration of humanity on a day that changed the course of history, and all of our lives.
The #1 New York Times bestseller from David McCullough, two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize—the dramatic story-behind-the-story about the courageous brothers who taught the world how to fly—Wilbur and Orville Wright. On a winter day in 1903, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, two brothers—bicycle mechanics from Dayton, Ohio—changed history. But it would take the world some time to believe that the age of flight had begun, with the first powered machine carrying a pilot. Orville and Wilbur Wright were men of exceptional courage and determination, and of far-ranging intellectual interests and ceaseless curiosity. When they worked together, no problem seemed to be insurmountable. Wilbur was unquestionably a genius. Orville had such mechanical ingenuity as few had ever seen. That they had no more than a public high school education and little money never stopped them in their mission to take to the air. Nothing did, not even the self-evident reality that every time they took off, they risked being killed. In this “enjoyable, fast-paced tale” (The Economist), master historian David McCullough “shows as never before how two Ohio boys from a remarkable family taught the world to fly” (The Washington Post) and “captures the marvel of what the Wrights accomplished” (The Wall Street Journal). He draws on the extensive Wright family papers to profile not only the brothers but their sister, Katharine, without whom things might well have gone differently for them. Essential reading, this is “a story of timeless importance, told with uncommon empathy and fluency…about what might be the most astonishing feat mankind has ever accomplished…The Wright Brothers soars” (The New York Times Book Review).
A visionary, maverick, and genuine American business hero, Ken Iverson is one of the most closely-watched business leaders in the world. Credited with single-handedly rejuvenating the rapidly declining American steel industry to the status of world-class producer, Iverson is one of the most successful and, as he likes to point out, one of the lowest-paid CEOs in the U.S. In his long-awaited book, Ken Iverson shares his ideas, observations, and the lessons he's learned about what it takes to grow a super-competitive, world-class organization.
