Wings of Wood, Wings of Metal
Wings of Wood, Wings of Metal

Author: Eric Schatzberg

Publisher:

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 344

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Schatzberg shows that American aeronautical engineers and airplane designers were swayed by the symbolism of airplane materials, a symbolism that linked metal with technological progress and wood with preindustrial craft traditions. This symbolism encouraged the aeronautical community to focus research and development on metal airplanes at the expense of promising projects involving wood - despite the fact that other countries continued to produce highly successful aircraft with wood through the end of World War II. According to Schatzberg, technical personnel in the American military played the key role in this process. They had little evidence for metal's superiority but used their dominant influence to press the case that metal was the wave of the future and that airplanes would inevitably follow ships and abandon wood.

Wood, Wire, Wings
Wood, Wire, Wings

Author: Kirsten W. Larson

Publisher: Thinkingdom

Published: 2020-06-23

Total Pages: 26

ISBN-13: 1635924006

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This riveting nonfiction picture book biography explores both the failures and successes of self-taught engineer Emma Lilian Todd as she tackles one of the greatest challenges of the early 1900s: designing an airplane. Emma Lilian Todd's mind was always soaring--she loved to solve problems. Lilian tinkered and fiddled with all sorts of objects, turning dreams into useful inventions. As a child, she took apart and reassembled clocks to figure out how they worked. As an adult, typing up patents at the U.S. Patent Office, Lilian built the inventions in her mind, including many designs for flying machines. However, they all seemed too impractical. Lilian knew she could design one that worked. She took inspiration from both nature and her many failures, driving herself to perfect the design that would eventually successfully fly. Illustrator Tracy Subisak's art brings to life author Kirsten W. Larson's story of this little-known but important engineer.

V-1 Flying Bomb 1942–52
V-1 Flying Bomb 1942–52

Author: Steven J. Zaloga

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2011-07-20

Total Pages: 49

ISBN-13: 184908954X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The first deployment of the V-1 was in June 1944 when, following two years of tests, Hitler gave the order to attack England. Known to the Allies as the "Buzz Bomb" or "Doodlebug", the V-1 was the world's first cruise missile. This book explores the V-1 in detail, from its initial concept, first use in 1944, the various Allied counter-measures, and the later use of the V-1 during the Battle of the Bulge. The major foreign derivatives, including the US copy "JB-2 Loon" and numerous post-war Soviet variants, are also covered.

Reinventing the Propeller
Reinventing the Propeller

Author: Jeremy R. Kinney

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2017-03-24

Total Pages: 391

ISBN-13: 1107142865

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book explores a technology that transformed airplanes into safe, practical tools of war and a means of transportation during the first half of the twentieth century.