A Concise History of the U.S. Air Force

A Concise History of the U.S. Air Force

Author: Stephen Lee McFarland

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 96

ISBN-13:

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Except in a few instances, since World War II no American soldier or sailor has been attacked by enemy air power. Conversely, no enemy soldier orsailor has acted in combat without being attacked or at least threatened by American air power. Aviators have brought the air weapon to bear against enemies while denying them the same prerogative. This is the legacy of the U.S. AirForce, purchased at great cost in both human and material resources.More often than not, aerial pioneers had to fight technological ignorance, bureaucratic opposition, public apathy, and disagreement over purpose.Every step in the evolution of air power led into new and untrodden territory, driven by humanitarian impulses; by the search for higher, faster, and farther flight; or by the conviction that the air way was the best way. Warriors have always coveted the high ground. If technology permitted them to reach it, men, women andan air force held and exploited it-from Thomas Selfridge, first among so many who gave that "last full measure of devotion"; to Women's Airforce Service Pilot Ann Baumgartner, who broke social barriers to become the first Americanwoman to pilot a jet; to Benjamin Davis, who broke racial barriers to become the first African American to command a flying group; to Chuck Yeager, a one-time non-commissioned flight officer who was the first to exceed the speed of sound; to John Levitow, who earned the Medal of Honor by throwing himself over a live flare to save his gunship crew; to John Warden, who began a revolution in air power thought and strategy that was put to spectacular use in the Gulf War.Industrialization has brought total war and air power has brought the means to overfly an enemy's defenses and attack its sources of power directly. Americans have perceived air power from the start as a more efficient means of waging war and as a symbol of the nation's commitment to technology to master challenges, minimize casualties, and defeat adversaries.


Sierra Hotel : flying Air Force fighters in the decade after Vietnam

Sierra Hotel : flying Air Force fighters in the decade after Vietnam

Author:

Publisher: DIANE Publishing

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 1428990488

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In February 1999, only a few weeks before the U.S. Air Force spearheaded NATO's Allied Force air campaign against Serbia, Col. C.R. Anderegg, USAF (Ret.), visited the commander of the U.S. Air Forces in Europe. Colonel Anderegg had known Gen. John Jumper since they had served together as jet forward air controllers in Southeast Asia nearly thirty years earlier. From the vantage point of 1999, they looked back to the day in February 1970, when they first controlled a laser-guided bomb strike. In this book Anderegg takes us from "glimmers of hope" like that one through other major improvements in the Air Force that came between the Vietnam War and the Gulf War. Always central in Anderegg's account of those changes are the people who made them. This is a very personal book by an officer who participated in the transformation he describes so vividly. Much of his story revolves around the Fighter Weapons School at Nellis Air Force Base (AFB), Nevada, where he served two tours as an instructor pilot specializing in guided munitions.


Flying Camelot

Flying Camelot

Author: Michael W. Hankins

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2021-12-15

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13: 150176067X

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Flying Camelot brings us back to the post-Vietnam era, when the US Air Force launched two new, state-of-the art fighter aircraft: the F-15 Eagle and the F-16 Fighting Falcon. It was an era when debates about aircraft superiority went public—and these were not uncontested discussions. Michael W. Hankins delves deep into the fighter pilot culture that gave rise to both designs, showing how a small but vocal group of pilots, engineers, and analysts in the Department of Defense weaponized their own culture to affect technological development and larger political change. The design and advancement of the F-15 and F-16 reflected this group's nostalgic desire to recapture the best of World War I air combat. Known as the "Fighter Mafia," and later growing into the media savvy political powerhouse "Reform Movement," it believed that American weapons systems were too complicated and expensive, and thus vulnerable. The group's leader was Colonel John Boyd, a contentious former fighter pilot heralded as a messianic figure by many in its ranks. He and his group advocated for a shift in focus from the multi-role interceptors the Air Force had designed in the early Cold War towards specialized air-to-air combat dogfighters. Their influence stretched beyond design and into larger politicized debates about US national security, debates that still resonate today. A biography of fighter pilot culture and the nostalgia that drove decision-making, Flying Camelot deftly engages both popular culture and archives to animate the movement that shook the foundations of the Pentagon and Congress.


Fighter Planes

Fighter Planes

Author: Jeffrey Zuehlke

Publisher: Lerner Publications

Published: 2005-08-01

Total Pages: 36

ISBN-13: 082256338X

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Who flies fighter planes? The U.S. military uses fighter planes to help protect our country. Featuring some of the most recognizable machines in the military, this book shows how these awesome planes work.


Stealth Fighter

Stealth Fighter

Author: William B. O'Connor

Publisher: Zenith Press

Published: 2012-04-16

Total Pages: 424

ISBN-13: 0760341354

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A pilot recounts his experiences flying NATO missions in a F-117 stealth fighter over Kosovo in 1999.


Corsair

Corsair

Author: Walter A. Musciano

Publisher: Schiffer Pub Limited

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 343

ISBN-13: 9780764332326

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"This book describes the development of the legendary F4U Corsair, and follows it into battle from Guadalcanal to the Indian Ocean, Central Pacific Ocean, Korea, Africa, and Central America, and throughout its lengthy military career into Korea. Also included are chapters on the most decorated Corsair pilots, surviving examples of various models, as well as detailed appendices, and the author's own detailed line schemes and maps. A total of 2,814 F4U-1, F4U-1A, and F4U-2 Corsairs were constructed and delivered. Musciano's book describes how this naval fighter was transformed to perform a myriad of functions for which it was never intended."--P. [2] of cover.


P-47 Thunderbolt Units of the Twelfth Air Force

P-47 Thunderbolt Units of the Twelfth Air Force

Author: Jonathan Bernstein

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2012-08-20

Total Pages: 234

ISBN-13: 1780960379

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The P-47 Thunderbolt, originally designed as a high-altitude interceptor, became the principal US fighter–bomber of World War II. First adapted to the ground attack role by units of the Twelfth Air Force in early 1944, the strength and durability of the P-47 airframe, along with its massive size, earned it the nickname 'Juggernaut', which was quickly shortened to 'Jug' throughout the MTO and ETO. By October 1943, with the creation of the Fifteenth Air Force, nearly half of the Twelfth's fighter groups would be retasked with strategic escort missions, leaving six groups to perform close air support and interdiction missions throughout the entire Mediterranean theatre. The groups inflicted incredible damage on the enemy's transport routes in particular, using rockets, bombs, napalm and machine-gun rounds to down bridges, blow up tunnels and strafe trains. Myriad first-hand accounts and period photography reveal the spectacular success enjoyed by the Thunderbolt in the MTO in the final year of the war.


Modern Fighter Aircraft

Modern Fighter Aircraft

Author: Anthony M. Thornborough

Publisher: Haynes Publishing

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13: 9781852604264

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MOD FTR A/C TECH TACTTHORNBOROUGH, A


Fundamentals of Fighter Design

Fundamentals of Fighter Design

Author: Ray Whitford

Publisher: Crowood Press (UK)

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781861266644

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Traces the development of fighter design from World War One to the present day. Covers aerodynamics, stability and control, propulsion, structures and materials, avoinics, armaments and tactics. The drawings and charts make this an informative book for enthusiasts and those with a professional interest in aircraft design.