No Empty Chairs - The Short and Heroic Lives of the Young Aviators Who Fought and Died in the First World War by Ian Mackersey

$12.00 NZD

Category: World War I | Reading Level: very good

The empty chairs belonged, all too briefly, to the doomed young First World War airmen who failed to return from the terrifying daily aerial combats above the trenches of the Western Front. The edict of their commander-in-chief was the missing aviators were to be immediately replaced. Before the new fac es could arrive, the departed men's vacant seats at the squadron dinner table were sometimes poignantly occupied by their caps and boots, placed there in a sad ritual by their surviving colleagues as they drank to their memory. Life for most of the pilots of the Royal Flying Corps was appallingly short. If they graduated alive and unmaimed from the flying training that killed more than half of them before they reached the front line, only a few would for very long survive the daily battles they fought over the ravaged moonscape of no-man's-land. Their average life expectancy at the height of the war was measured only in weeks. Parachutes that began to save their German enemies were denied them. Fear of incarceration, and the daily spectacle of watching close colleagues die in burning aircraft, took a devastating toll on the nerves of the world's first fighter pilots. Many became mentally ill. As they waited for death, or with luck the survivable wound that would send them back to 'Blighty', they poured their emotions into their diaries and streams of letters to their loved ones at home. Drawing on these remarkable testimonies and pilots' memoirs, Ian Mackersey has brilliantly reconstructed the First Great Air War through the lives of its participants. As they waited to die, the men shared their loneliness, their fears, triumphs - and squadron gossip - with the families who lived in daily dread of the knock on the door that would bring the War Office telegram in its fateful green envelope. ...Show more

They Gave Me a Seafire by Mike Crosley

$20.00 NZD

Category: Aviation | Reading Level: very good

A classic in every sense of the word, the re-issuing of this book is sure to provoke an enthusiastic response. First published in 1986 by Airlife, its publishing history has seen a great number of glowing reviews generated, coming from both historians and participants in the proceedings that the author so eloquently relays. The book charts Crosley's service career in the Fleet Air Arm during the entire period of the Second World War. Part of his service saw him in action aboard HMS Eagle, flying Sea Hurricanes on the Harpoon and Pedestal Malta convoys of June and August 1942. It was during this time that he shot down his first enemy aircraft and survived the dramatic sinking of HMS Eagle. From there he graduated on to Seafires, (the Naval equivalent of the Spitfire), and flew this type in Combat Air Patrols over Norway and ramrod strikes from Operation Torch (the invasion of French North Africa in November 1942), through to D-Day in June 1944 in the European Theatre of Operations, and then in the Pacific abroad HMS Implacable as part of the British Pacific Fleet in 1945 until the end of the Pacific War, by which time he had command of his own combined squadron, 801 and 880. The narrative is well written in a frank and often scathingly critical way of Fleet Air Arm operations during the Second World War and beyond. The book looks set to bring the endeavours of Crosley to a whole new generation of enthusiasts, and it should appeal across the board to fans of aviation, naval history and families and friends of Armed Forces, past and present. ...Show more

How to Draw Planes Step by Step by Sergio Guinot

$14.00 NZD

Category: Practical Art | Reading Level: very good

The 'How to draw' series includes Planes, motorcycles, Cars. These step by step handbooks have all the keys required for creating the most amazing machines from motorcycles and cars to airplanes and spaceships. The reader who finds himself with all kinds of difficulties and problems to solve, both techn ical and aesthetic, will find the solution in these books. He will gain experience and improve as an illustrator. There are other journeys, but not like these ones. There are other adventures, but not as much fun as these. Learn how to draw planes, cars and motorcycles, whether real or fictional, giving them the appearance of solid, believable, and functional types. ...Show more

Air Combat over the Eastern Front and Korea - A Soviet Fighter Pilot Remembers by Sergei Kramarenko; Sergei Anisimov

$14.00 NZD

Category: Military | Series: The Red Air Force at War | Reading Level: very good

Sergei Kramarenko was a lucky man. As a Soviet fighter pilot, an ace, he fought in two wars - first against the Luftwaffe, then the US Air Force - and survived. This is his story. On the Eastern Front in the bitter conflict with the Germans, he dueled with Messerschmitt 109s and Focke-Wulf 190s. Then, i n Korea, flying a MiG-15, he came up against the Americans, the British and the Australians, in the first fighter-against-fighter clashes of the jet age. His accounts of combat against the F-86 Sabres, F-84 Thunderjets and Gloster Meteors are among the most vivid and remarkable of his long career. In over ten years of as a front-line fighter pilot he took part in a revolution in the development of combat flying. His candid, intensely personal and unflinching account gives a rare inside view of life in the Red Air Force. ...Show more

Aircarft Accident Report No 79-139 - Air New Zealand McDonnell-Douglas DC10-30 ZK-NZP, Ross Island, Antarctica 28 November 1979 by R Chippindale

$25.00 NZD

Category: Aviation | Reading Level: very good

The Airman and the Carpenter by Ludovic Kennedy

$10.00 NZD

Category: America | Reading Level: very good

Stardust Falling - The story of the plane that vanished by Jay Rayner

$14.00 NZD

Category: Aviation | Reading Level: very good

The story of the mysterious loss of an aircraft, Stardust, in the Andes in 1947; the rickety airline company that flew the plane; and the discovery of the plane and the crash victims in January 2000. Hardback

From Battle of Britain Airman to POW Escapee - The Story of Ian Walker RAF by Angela Walker

$14.00 NZD

Category: World War II | Reading Level: very good

This is the Second World War story of a champion cyclist turned airman who lived to tell the tale against almost impossible odds. A New Zealander in the RAF, Ian Walker took part in the Battle of Britain before transferring to Bomber Command and surviving three plane crashes in his Wellington bomber. Th e last of these saw him crash land in enemy territory, where he was eventually captured and taken prisoner. Confined within the claustrophobic walls of a POW camp, he hatched a plot with a fellow inmate to escape. This they achieved, almost miraculously, in broad daylight. Living on basic rations, they navigated the enemy wilds until they were captured, yet again, and taken back to prison. After languishing in POW camps and hospitals for more than two years, Ian had the good fortune of being placed on a list of injured men to be exchanged, man for man, with German prisoners. The little-known story of the history-making exchange that took place in Barcelona in October 1943 is detailed here, describing how thousands of allied and axis prisoners were safely returned to their homelands in the midst of war. Ian's daughter, Angela Walker, has endeavoured to preserve the details of her father's extraordinary odyssey in full. Her tale circumnavigates the globe, weaving snippets taken from letters and extensive journals kept by her father in order to create a compelling, warm hearted and thrilling account of his war. Having once inspired her to win a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games, her father now continues to inform and inspire her through the stories she's recovered from his past. Her book commemorates the efforts of all New Zealand's wartime airmen who, like her father, made significant contributions in the fight for allied victory. ...Show more

West With the Night by Beryl Markham

$14.00 NZD

Category: Aviation | Reading Level: very good

West with the Night is the story of Beryl Markham - aviator, racehorse trainer, beauty - and her life in the Kenya of the 1920s and '30s. This book describes growing up in an Africa that no longer exists, training and breeding race horses, flying mail to Sudan, and being the first woman to fly the Atlantic, east to west. "Did you read Beryl Markham's book, "West with the Night?" I knew her fairly well in Africa and never would have suspected that she could and would put pen to paper except to write in her flyer's log book. As it is, she has written so well, and marvelously well, that I was completely ashamed of myself as a writer. I felt that I was simply a carpenter with words, picking up whatever was furnished on the job and nailing them together and sometimes making an okay pig pen. But [she] can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves writers. The only parts of it that I know about personally, on account of having been there at the time and heard the other people's stories, are absolutely true . . . I wish you would get it and read it because it is really a bloody wonderful book."--Ernest Hemingway "With the skill of someone who has filled long nights with stories, Markham recounts her adventures--discoveries, rescues, and narrow escapes, the glint of an airplane abandoned in the desert, the look of a lion about to pounce . . . Much more than a pilot's memoir, "West With the Night" is a wise, funny, and inspiring exploration of a life well lived."--"The Nation" Physical Info: 2.01 cms H x 20.98 cms L x 14.33 cms W (0.28 kgs) 294 pages ...Show more

Venture the Far Horizon - The Pioneer Long-Distance Flights in New Zealand by E F Harvie

$25.00 NZD

Category: Aviation | Reading Level: good-very good

Boeing 707/720 by Jim Winchester

$25.00 NZD

Category: Aviation | Series: Airlife's Classic Airliners | Reading Level: very good

The Boeing 707 was the first aircraft to convince the world's airlines that jet propulsion was the way ahead. During its long life it has served with most of the principal international carriers and derivatives have seen service in many guises with military air services around the world. The aeroplane b rought new standards of comfort, speed and efficiency to airline passengers and was largely responsible for air travel as we understand it today. Although the 707 was pipped at the post by the de Havilland Comet as being the world's first jet airliner, it eventually proved the more successful design. Pan Am was the first airline to order it and flew their fleet emblazoned with the famous 'Clipper' names. BOAC placed a substantial order and insisted on Rolls-Royce Conway engines rather than the Pratt & Whitney JT series engines favoured by American customers. Very few 707s are now flying passengers, those that remain operational in the civil field have been converted for cargo. Many military versions still fly as AWACs, tankers or transports. ...Show more

Operation Trojan Horse: The true story behind the most shocking government cover-up of the last thirty years

$16.00 NZD

Category: United Kingdom | Reading Level: near fine

**Soon to be a major TV drama** The true story behind the secret of Flight 149 and the most shocking government cover-up of the last thirty years. On 1 August, 1990, British Airways Flight 149 departed from Heathrow airport, destined for Kuala Lumpur. It never made it there, and neither did its nearly 4 00 passengers. Instead, Flight 149 stopped to refuel in Kuwait, as Iraqi troops amassed on the border - delivering the passengers and crew into the hands of Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi army, to be used as 'human shields' during their invasion. Why did BA flight 149 proceed with plans to refuel in Kuwait City, even as all other flights were rerouted - and even though British and American governments had clear intelligence that Saddam was about to invade? The answer lies in an exchange of favours at the highest echelons of government, and a secret, unaccountable organization - authorised by Margaret Thatcher - carrying out a 'deniable' intelligence operation to sneak in a group of intelligence offers into Kuwait aboard the flight. The plane was the 'Trojan Horse', and the plan - as well as the horrific, traumatic consequences for the civilian passengers - has been lied about, denied and covered up by successive British Governments ever since. Soon to be a major TV drama, this explosive book is written with the full cooperation of the survivors, as well as astonishing and conclusive input from a senior intelligence source. It is a story of scandal, betrayal and misuse of intelligence at the highest levels of UK and US governments - which has had direct, horrifying impact on terror attacks in the West and the shape of the Middle East today. It is high time the truth is told. ...Show more