Biplane

Spitfire Wingman from Tennessee: My Love Affair with Flight , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 672min

As the memoir of an aerobatic master born to fling his body through cloudbanks, Spitfire Wingman from Tennessee offers a unique birds-eye view of events and personalities of WWII and the Cold War. Encounters with Patton, Vandenberg, Yeager, Truman and Nixon are replayed with perception and wit. While jockeying P-40s, P-51s, and P-47s, he was privileged to see the war both from twenty thousand feet and as a Staff Officer at 9th Air Force HQ in Brussels. A stripped-down Thunderbolt fighter-bomber became his personal 400-mph runabout. Jim Haun took life at a run. After his mother’s death just before his ninth birthday, he worked in turn as Western Union bicycle messenger for fifteen dollars a week and work-a-way galley helper on an aging Atlantic freighter. Then, as the Memphis ‘Boy Wonder’ who built his first airplane in 1933 by adapting a motorcycle engine, the Colonel bears nostalgic witness to historic transformations steering manned flight from art toward automated science. This gifted flyer takes you on an intimate journey from barnstormer to dog-fighter, to threading the Himalayan ‘Hump’, to Berlin Airlift commander, then on to Presidential Squadron leader – finally becoming Chief Pilot of MATS. Balancing dry humor with just enough technical detail to please aviation buffs, this self-revealing air-venture thunders on twelve cylinders with sky-sweeping appeal. After retirement from the Air Force in 1965, Haun spent thirty more years as beloved flight instructor, participating in air shows, and building a biplane in his garage. He died peacefully at home attended by his two sons in 2001, six months before his 90th birthday. ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Colonel James R. Haun, James Robert Haun, Jr., David Hoffman. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/bigh/000379/bk_bigh_000379_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

Shop: Audible
Price: 9.95 EUR excl. shipping

Nancy Love and the WASP Ferry Pilots of World War II : North Texas Military Biography and Memoir Series, Volume 4 , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 695min

This is the story of Nancy Harkness Love who, early in World War II, recruited and led the first group of 28 women to fly military aircraft for the US Army.Love was hooked on flight at an early age. At 16, after just four hours of instruction, she flew solo “a rather broken down Fleet biplane that my barnstorming instructor imported from parts unknown”. The year was 1930: Record-setting aviator Jacqueline Cochran (and Love’s future rival) had not yet learned to fly, and the most famous woman pilot of all time, Amelia Earhart, had yet to make her acclaimed solo Atlantic flight.When the United States entered World War II, the Army needed pilots to transport or “ferry” its combat-bound aircraft across the United States for overseas deployment and its trainer airplanes to flight training bases. Most male pilots were assigned to combat preparation, leaving few available for ferrying jobs. Into this vacuum stepped Nancy Love and her civilian Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS).Nancy Love advised the Ferrying Division, which was part of the Air Transport Command, as to the best use of their WASP ferry pilots. She supervised their allocation and air-training program. She proved adept at organizing and inspiring those under her command, earning the love and admiration of her pilots.The book is published by University of North Texas Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks"This book is a must-read." (Peggy Chabrian, President/Founder, Women in Aviation, International)"A must-read for all who relish courage, tenacity, and a fearless desire to serve our nation in time of its greatest need." (Brig. Gen. Linda K. McTague, Air National Guard)"This is an 'edge of your seat' story even if you know the outcome.... Worthy of the best-seller list!" (Commander Trish Beckman, U.S. Navy (Ret.)) ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Alice C. Schoo-Jerger. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/acx0/228230/bk_acx0_228230_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

Shop: Audible
Price: 9.95 EUR excl. shipping

The Reserve , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 585min

Part love story, part murder mystery, set on the cusp of the Second World War, Russell Banks' sharp-witted and deeply engaging new novel raises dangerous questions about class, politics, art, love, and madness - and explores what happens when two powerful personalities, trapped at opposite ends of a social divide, begin to break the rules.Twenty-nine-year-old Vanessa Cole is a wild, stunningly beautiful heiress, the adopted only child of a highly regarded New York brain surgeon. Vanessa has been scandalously linked to any number of rich and famous men. But on the night of July 4, 1936, at her parents' country home in a remote Adirondack mountain enclave known as The Reserve, two events coincide to permanently alter the course of Vanessa's callow life: her father dies of a heart attack, and a mysteriously seductive local artist, Jordan Groves, lands his biplane in the pristine waters of the forbidden Upper Lake. Jordan's reputation has preceded him; he is internationally known as much for his exploits and conquests as for his paintings themselves, and, here in the midst of the Great Depression, his leftist loyalties seem suspiciously undercut by his wealth and elite clientele. But for all his worldly swagger, Jordan is as staggered by Vanessa's beauty and charm as she is by his defiant independence. He falls easy prey to her electrifying personality, but it is not long before he discovers that the heiress carries a dark, deeply scarring family secret. Emotionally unstable from the start, and further unhinged by her father's unexpected death, Vanessa begins to spin wildly out of control, manipulating and destroying the lives of all who cross her path. Moving from the secluded beauty of the Adirondack wilderness to the skies above war-torn Spain and Fascist Germany, The Reserve is a clever, incisive, and passionately romantic novel of suspense that adds a new dimension to this acclaimed author's extraordinary repertoire. ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Tom Stechschulte. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/harp/001591/bk_harp_001591_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

Shop: Audible
Price: 9.95 EUR excl. shipping

Magical Mechanications , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 322min

Four steampunk novelettes from the authors of the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences, Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris. Little Red Flying Hood, by Tee Morris Prepare for a dogfight with the Big, Bad Wolf.... In France a deadly battle is raging in the skies, but Scarlett Quinn has been shuffled off to reconnaissance duty in an ailing biplane that has seen better days. However, fate will put her in the crosshairs of one of Germany's greatest aces, behind enemy lines and way over her head. Completing her mission will be no easy task, and Scarlett must use her wits and skills if she wants to return safely back to earth. Aladdin and His Wonderfully Infernal Device, by Tee Morris Aladdin is a street-wise thief that finds himself under the tutelage of a world-renown illusionist. He is escorted deep into the deserts in search of a treasure beyond his wildest dreams, and discovers instead something far more valuable - a destiny. Little Clockwork Mermaid, by Pip Ballantine The mermaid Lorelei is the youngest daughter of King Triton, but she has always been drawn to the above world. Though she is revels in the joys of her tail and the underwater world, she has never felt she belongs there. The Sea Witch and her marvelous contraptions offer a way to pursue her dreams. What she will find there will change her fate forever. Mechanical Wings, by Pip Ballantine Based on Hans Christian Anderson's classic fairytale Wild Swans, this is the story of Eleanor and her quest to save her beloved brothers. When the beautiful Faine Escrew marries Eleanor's father, she, her brother's and the flying City of Swans are thrown into danger. Even worse, she is sent away by her new step-mother, and discovers her brothers have been locked in mechanical swans, and only she can save them. This impossible task demands everything from Eleanor, and only her wits and determination can save th ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Pip Ballantine, Tee Morris. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/acx0/074655/bk_acx0_074655_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

Shop: Audible
Price: 9.95 EUR excl. shipping