Bogeys and Bandits

Bogeys and Bandits PDF

Author: Robert Gandt

Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780140264128

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

A former Navy pilot takes readers on a thrilling ride in the FA-18 Hornet, weaving superb technological details of the plane with portraits of the day-to-day lives of very real people aspiring to fulfill a dream. photos.

Bogeys and Bandits

Bogeys and Bandits PDF

Author: Robert Gandt

Publisher:

Published: 2013

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9781301044948

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Thirty years after he graduated from the Navy's fighter/attack school, Robert Gandt returns to participate in the rigorous training program of the class of eight Navy and Marine pilots learning to fly the F/A-18 Hornet. Meet the identical twins from Middle America, the computer nerd with a penchant for speed, the grandson of a Tuskegee Airman trying to live up to a proud legacy, and two women dealing with the post-Tailhook world of the Navy. He shares their joys and failures, hopes and fears, from the first classroom briefing to bombing exercises in the high desert of Nevada to the final, harrowing qualifications aboard an aircraft carrier. Bogeys and Bandits puts readers in the pilot seat, holding them breathless as they soar through the skies in the cockpit of the deadly F/A-18 Hornet.

Skygods

Skygods PDF

Author: Robert Gandt

Publisher:

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 286

ISBN-13: 9781888962116

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

In 1966, Pan American Airways reached the zenith of its wealth & influence. Its pilots were lords of the sky; Skygods. Under aviation pioneer Juan Trippe's autocratic control, Pan Am bought jet airliners before its competitors & made record profits. It was the first U.S. airline to order the supersonic transport; it accepted reservations for the first service to the Moon. Then Pan American Airways fell to earth. In Skygods, Robert Gandt, a Pan Am pilot for 26 years, gives an inside account of the great airline's unprecedented demise. He interviewed hundreds of former Pan Am airmen & executives. He reveals how Pan Am's captains, in Navy-style uniforms, once commanded their ships like petty tyrants. They were the best & brightest in airline industry, but there were disturbing stories of captains who allowed stewardesses to land their aircraft, flew them at the wrong altitude & in the wrong direction & who tragically disappeared, often without a trace. All was not well either in the Pan Am Building, the massive landmark in New York where a succession of impulsive & short-sighted CEOs combined to preside over the demise of a great airline. Pan An bought a domestic airline it did not need; bought aircraft it did not need & operated half-empty planes on low-density routes. It sold the entire Pacific network for a bargain price & sold precious assets to meet its payrolls. And then came the Lockerbie tragedy. This is a fascinating account of what can go wrong with a pillar of strength of the U.S. industry, when its leaders lose their sense of direction & when their star employees-the Skygods-discover that they are mere mortals.

Angels in the Sky: How a Band of Volunteer Airmen Saved the New State of Israel

Angels in the Sky: How a Band of Volunteer Airmen Saved the New State of Israel PDF

Author: Robert Gandt

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2017-10-03

Total Pages: 416

ISBN-13: 039325478X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

“Reads like a World War II thriller, only better because every word is true.… One of the great untold stories of history. Robert Gandt has brought it vividly, unforgettably to life.” —Steven Pressfield, best-selling author of Gates of Fire In 1948, when the newly founded nation of Israel came under siege from a coalition of Arab states, a band of volunteer airmen from the United States, Canada, Britain, France, and South Africa arrived to help. They were a small group, fewer than 150. Many were World War II veterans; most of them knowingly violated their nations’ embargoes on the shipment of arms and aircraft to Israel. The airmen risked everything—their careers, citizenship, and lives—to fight for Israel. The saga of the volunteer airmen in Israel’s war of independence stands as one of the most stirring—and little-known—war stories of the past century.

On Language

On Language PDF

Author: William Safire

Publisher: Avon Books

Published: 1981

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13: 9780380564576

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Includes chapters on slang, jargon, and neologisms.

To Fly and Fight

To Fly and Fight PDF

Author: Clarence E. "Bud" Anderson

Publisher: Xlibris Corporation

Published: 2017-05-12

Total Pages: 530

ISBN-13: 1524563420

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Bud Anderson is a flyers flyer. The Californians enduring love of flying began in the 1920s with the planes that flew over his fathers farm. In January 1942, he entered the Army Air Corps Aviation Cadet Program. Later after he received his wings and flew P-39s, he was chosen as one of the original flight leaders of the new 357th Fighter Group. Equipped with the new and deadly P-51 Mustang, the group shot down five enemy aircraft for each one it lost while escorting bombers to targets deep inside Germany. But the price was high. Half of its pilots were killed or imprisoned, including some of Buds closest friends. In February 1944, Bud Anderson, entered the uncertain, exhilarating, and deadly world of aerial combat. He flew two tours of combat against the Luftwaffe in less than a year. In battles sometimes involving hundreds of airplanes, he ranked among the groups leading aces with 16 aerial victories. He flew 116 missions in his old crow without ever being hit by enemy aircraft or turning back for any reason, despite one life or death confrontation after another. His friend Chuck Yeager, who flew with Anderson in the 357th, says, In an airplane, the guy was a mongoosethe best fighter pilot I ever saw. Buds years as a test pilot were at least as risky. In one bizarre experiment, he repeatedly linked up in midair with a B-29 bomber, wingtip to wingtip. In other tests, he flew a jet fighter that was launched and retrieved from a giant B-36 bomber. As in combat, he lost many friends flying tests such as these. Bud commanded a squadron of F-86 jet fighters in postwar Korea, and a wing of F-105s on Okinawa during the mid-1960s. In 1970 at age 48, he flew combat strikes as a wing commander against communist supply lines. To Fly and Fight is about flying, plain and simple: the joys and dangers and the very special skills it demands. Touching, thoughtful, and dead honest, it is the story of a boy who grew up living his dream.

China Clipper

China Clipper PDF

Author: Robert Gandt

Publisher: Naval Institute Press

Published: 2010-10-01

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 1612514243

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

When the China Clipper shattered aviation records on its maiden six-day flight from California to the Orient in 1935, the flying boat became an instant celebrity. This lively history by Robert Gandt traces the development of the great flying boats as both a triumph of technology and a stirring human drama. He examines the political, military, and economic forces that drove its development and explains the aeronautical advances that made the aircraft possible. To fully document the story he includes interviews with flying boat pioneers and a dynamic collection of photographs, charts, and cutaway illustrations.

Topgun Days

Topgun Days PDF

Author: Dave Baranek

Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

Published: 2012-10-01

Total Pages: 339

ISBN-13: 1620871033

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The fascinating history of one man's rise from naval flight officer toHollywood hero.

Team Secrets of the Navy SEALs

Team Secrets of the Navy SEALs PDF

Author: Robert Needham

Publisher: Skyhorse

Published: 2012-06-15

Total Pages: 140

ISBN-13: 1620873265

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

For business professionals who want to make it in today's extremely aggressive business environment. Team Secrets of the Navy SEALs is written especially for business professionals in today’s cutthroat business environment. From his learned wisdom as a veteran SEAL, the author guides the reader through the keys to leadership success and the role of a leader in building a well-organized, competent, resourceful group of professionals who work together creatively to achieve results. The business world can be ruthless, but with the team secrets of the “best of the best” you can expect fast results, improved cooperation, and production.

Fly Low Fly Fast

Fly Low Fly Fast PDF

Author: Robert Gandt

Publisher: Independently Published

Published: 2023-06-23

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This first-ever insider foray into the world's fastest and most dangerous aviation sport is as thrilling as Ernest Gann's classic Fate Is the Hunter or Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff In Fly Low, Fly Fast, Robert Gandt takes us into the high-risk world of the Reno Air Races, attended every year by more than 100,000 spectators and featured on scores of web sites. Flying wingtip to wingtip around pylons at 500 mph, just feet above the sagebrush, Reno's killing machines are piloted by an adrenaline-addicted, type-A elite whose big talent and big egos spawn a hundred stories. With the same vivid reportage of his Bogeys and Bandits --"about as close as you can get (to the cockpit) without arming the ejection seat," said the San Diego Union-Tribune--Gandt traces the history of this exhilarating but often deadly sport. He follows the evolution of competition planes from the 1930s custom exotics to today's big, throaty warbirds like the Mustang and Bearcat, still the fastest piston-engine planes ever built. Gandt also looks at the evolution of the pilots from famous laconic old-time air cowboys to the younger, slicker hot shots, the jet-fighter-trained "top guns." Fly Low, Fly Fast ignites with fierce rivalries, the struggles to keep the vintage warbirds flying, the heart-stopping drama of the races themselves...with winners, losers, close calls, spectacular crashes, and glorious victories. It's a book for aviation buffs, armchair adventurers and anyone fascinated by the passions that drive men and women to test their limits--and risk their lives--in the quest for speed.