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“Readers with an interest in the early days of organized civil mass air transport will enjoy having a familiar story be retold from a Greek perspective.” —SpeedReaders The Olympic Airways story has fascinated Graham M. Simons for many years. This new book represents the culmination of decades spent researching the history of this fascinating Greek airline. It is a story of evolution, conflict, personality and politics, all set against a backdrop of world and civil wars, coups and countercoups. During the course of his research, it became apparent to the author that many of the fine details pertaining to the company weren’t widely known, although almost everyone had heard of the tower...
“A thoughtful, well-organized overview from the beginning to the twilight days of this iconic airliner” by the highly regarded aviation historian (Large Scale Planes). In April 1972, after six grueling years of design and development, the then Lockheed California Company (now Lockheed Martin) delivered the most technologically advanced commercial jet of its era, the L-1011 TriStar, to its first client, Eastern Airlines. To mark the moment, Lockheed decided to make an impressive statement about the capabilities of its new medium-to-long-range, wide-body trijet airliner. It did so in spectacular fashion. Overseen by two test pilots, a total of 115 crew members, VIPs, Lockheed employees, an...
A history of the British airline company, featuring details on the aircrafts, routes, and operations, as well as stories from the crews and staff. Founded in 1961 as Euravia by British businessman Ted Langton and aviation consultant J.E.D. Walker, at a time of considerable turmoil for the independent sector of the British air operators’ industry, Britannia Airways went on to become the world’s largest holiday airline. Just as Court Line evolved from Autair, so Britannia Airways evolved from Euravia. Both UK airlines had strong links with the travel industry; Court Line with Clarksons Holidays, and Britannia with the Thomson Group, in particular the ‘Sky Tours’ brand. Both were innova...
An in-depth history of the controversial airplane, from its design, development and service to politics, power struggles, and more. The Boeing 737 is an American short- to medium-range twinjet narrow-body airliner developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, a division of the Boeing Company. Originally designed as a shorter, lower-cost twin-engine airliner derived from the 707 and 727, the 737 has grown into a family of passenger models with capacities from 85 to 215 passengers, the most recent version of which, the 737 MAX, has become embroiled in a worldwide controversy. Initially envisioned in 1964, the first 737-100 made its first flight in April 1967 and entered airline se...
This illustrated history “recounts the unusual and sometimes dramatic development and operational career of one of the twentieth century’s most iconic airliners” (Aviation History Magazine). Clarence “Kelly” Johnson’s design for the Lockheed Constellation, known affectionately as the Connie, produced one of the world’s most iconic airliners. Lockheed had been working on the L-044 Excalibur, a four-engine, pressurized airliner, since 1937. In 1939, Trans World Airlines, at the instigation of major stockholder Howard Hughes, requested a forty-passenger transcontinental aircraft with a range of 3,500 miles, well beyond the capabilities of the Excalibur design. TWA’s requirements...
It's impossible to tell the story of Court Line without telling that of Autair, founded by helicopter pioneer William 'Bill' Armstrong. Autair itself was an offshoot of his global helicopter operation, but Bill also had his finger in many aviation 'pies' including a multitude of operations in Africa, where so many aircraft and airlines were created, bought and sold with such prolificacy that even he could not remember the names and how many there were! There is also the background to Court Line's shipping concerns and the Caribbean operations of the hotel chains and regional airline Leeward Islands Air Transport which Court owned for a while.Covered in detail is the introduction, demonstrati...
The Airbus A380 is a commemorative volume preserving the history of this iconic craft in words and images from aviation writer and historian Graham Simons. Every seven minutes, an A380 takes off or lands somewhere in the world. The Airbus was initially designed and developed in order to provide a contender to the Boeing’s growing monopoly of the skies in the biggest large-aircraft market in the world. Ambitious in design, the undertaking seemed mammoth. Yet scores of aviation engineers and pilots worked to get the design off the ground and the Airbus in our skies. This double-decker, wide-body, 4 engine jet airliner promised to redefine expectations when it came to commercial flight. In Th...
A definitive look at the plane that revolutionized air travel and its place in aviation history from the author of Comet! The World’s First Jet Airliner. The Boeing 707 family—that includes the forerunner Model 367-80, the KC-135 series of military transports and the slightly smaller Model 720—was the pioneer of the sweptback wing, incorporating podded engines borrowed from the B-47 military bomber. It was the aircraft that many regard as the design that really ushered in the Jet-Age. This book from the established aviation historian Graham Simons examines the entire course of the Boeing 707’s history, charting an impressive design evolution and illustrating the many ways in which th...
The aviation historian and author of Memphis Belle presents an authoritative analysis of the groundbreaking, post-WWI series of military aircraft. In the years following the First World War, a new imperative arose in aviation technology: stealth, speed, and precision. American aircraft designer Jack Northrop developed a streamlined craft that did away with superfluous appendages, including the weighty fuselage and tail units. This was an extreme measure, but Northrop was determined to push aircraft design to a new level. Eliminating both the fuselage and tail meant placing the pilot, the engines, and the payload entirely within the wing envelope. The resulting craft, Northrop’s flying wing...
During the course of aviation history, there have been very few aircraft that have achieved immediate success when entering front-line service. The arrival of the de Havilland Mosquito brought with it a degree of instant success that set it apart from a host of other aircraft. It was not designed to an RAF requirement, but was the result of an initiative of the designers and builders to utilize the skills of woodworkers and the relative abundance of wood in the crisis years of World War II. The result was an aircraft that could be built quickly, was extremely fast and immensely versatile. Pilots loved it and the opportunities opened up to them as a result of the capabilities of this new and exciting aircraft. Here, Graham Simons describes in detail how the de Havilland Mosquito was built, utilizing many rare photographs from the design studio and production lines. It illustrates and explains the many different roles that the aircraft took as the war progressed. Fighter, bomber, reconnaissance, night fighter - there were few tasks that this brilliant design could not adopt.