Naval Aviation

On January 15, 2014, LT Kegan "SMURF" Gill nearly lost his life in the fastest survived ejection in naval aviation history. He's spent every day since fighting to reclaim his mental, physical, and spiritual health—and now, he's encouraging other veterans to join the fight alongside him.

This memoir adventure takes the listener through a twenty year career in naval aviation that included flying attack jets from aircraft carriers, flight instructing, Naval Test Pilot School, experimental and operational flight test, engineering management for F/A-18 aircraft, initial flight test of the Super Hornet aircraft and overseas aircraft maintenance after 11 September 2001. NASA was the start of David's career while working with astronauts and engineers.

Bloomsbury presents The Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club by Thomas McKelvey Cleaver, read by Christopher Ragland. This book tells the full story of the US Naval air campaign during the Vietnam War between 1965 to 1975, where the US Seventh Fleet, stationed off the Vietnamese coast, was given the...

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of First Light by Geoffrey Wellum, read by Andrew Brooke. Two months before the outbreak of the Second World War, eighteen-year-old Geoffrey Wellum becomes a fighter pilot with the RAF... Desperate to get in the air, he makes it through basic training to...

World War II is usually seen as a titanic land battle, decided by mass armies, most importantly those on the Eastern Front. Phillips Payson O'Brien shows us the war in a completely different light. In this compelling new history of the Allied path to victory, he argues that in terms of production, technology, and economic power, the war was far more a contest of air and sea than of land supremacy.

You’re in the cockpit of the legendary F-14 Tomcat fighter, blazing along at twice the speed of sound seven miles above the ocean and the carrier that hurled you off its deck. You’re practicing dogfighting with “aggressors,” guys on your side flying F-16s. You’re patrolling the tense skies above Iraq, and with the push of a button you can launch the 100-mile Phoenix missile that can blow a foe to scrap before you even see him. You are an expert in fighter tactics and aircraft carrier operations, and it all leads to your command of an F-14 fighter squadron of more than three hundred people.

In 1942, Norman Hanson learned to fly the Royal Navy's newest fighter: the US-built Chance Vought Corsair. Fast, rugged, and demanding to fly, it was an intimidating machine. But in the hands of its young Fleet Air Arm pilots, it also proved to be a lethal weapon. Posted to the South Pacific aboard HMS Illustrious, Hanson and his squadron took the fight to the Japanese. Facing a desperate and determined enemy, Kamikaze attacks, and the ever-present dangers of flying off a pitching carrier deck, death was never far away.

Brought to you by Penguin. Hear the enthralling story of the HMS Queen Elizabeth, the Royal Navy's largest ever warship. 65,000 tons. 280 metres long. A flight deck the size of sixty tennis courts. A giant piece of Sovereign British territory that's home to up to fifty Aircraft. HMS Queen...

A NATIONAL BESTSELLER On the 50th anniversary of the creation of the "Topgun" Navy Fighter School, its founder shares the remarkable inside story of how he and eight other risk-takers revolutionized the art of aerial combat. "A noble, thrillingly realized combat aviation memoir from one of...

Before becoming an instructor in the Navy's Topgun program, Dave "Bio" Baranek was just another kid with a dream. Upon graduating from college, he joined the Navy with the goal of becoming a fighter pilot. But, his eyesight waning, he knew that he would never be able to reach that goal. Undaunted, he plowed ahead and found his niche as a radar intercept operator in the backseat of the sleek, new Grumman F-14 Tomcat.

"Fans of military biographies and memoirs will enjoy this inside look at the experiences of a determined woman in the cockpit." —Booklist A fresh, unique insider’s view of what it’s like to be a woman aviator in today’s US Navy—from pedicures to parachutes. Caroline Johnson was an...

From a veteran air-refueling expert who flew missions for over two decades during the Cold War, Gulf War, and Iraq War comes a thrilling eyewitness account of modern warfare, with inspirational stories and crucial lessons for people on the battlefield, in boardrooms, and in their everyday lives...

A detailed and comprehensive study of the carrier formations of the Pacific War, including their origins, development, and key battles from the Coral Sea, through Midway and Guadalcanal to the battle of the Philippine Sea.

This revealing history explores Hermann Goering’s desperate creation of twenty-two Luftwaffe Field Divisions—air force personnel hastily repurposed as infantry and sent to the Eastern Front with disastrous results. Michael J. Stout delivers the first full account of these ill-fated units...

Step into the cockpit for a gripping World War II history of the desperate aerial combat that turned the Pacific tide. Perfect for an immersive commute, this harrowing true story chronicles the brutal carrier clashes and jungle airstrip dogfights of the South Pacific. From the devastating shock...

When Diane Diekman became an aviation maintenance officer (a “greenshirt”) in the US Navy in 1978, her challenges included proving herself professionally before gaining the acceptance and respect routinely granted to men. Navy Greenshirt: A Leader Made, Not Born is the story of a female pioneer in the male-dominated world of naval aviation. The commanding officer of her first squadron fired her when she failed his hidden test to assert herself as a leader. That painful lesson strengthened the timid South Dakota farm girl and helped define her future leadership style.

Immerse yourself in a gripping military history where floating airfields dethrone battleships and redefine naval warfare. Perfect for an educational commute, this cinematic narrative traces the rapid evolution of sea-based airpower and the staggering strategic shifts that changed global...

The sensational true story of Eddie Rickenbacker, America's greatest flying ace At the turn of the twentieth century two new technologies—the car and airplane—took the nation's imagination by storm as they burst, like comets, into American life. The brave souls that leaped into these...

A pilot of calculated courage, "Trap" entered the Navy when test pilots were more like stuntmen than engineers. Airplanes had not yet come into their own as weapons of war, and they had an undeveloped role in the fleet. His vision and leadership shaped the evolution of naval aviation through its formative years and beyond. When the threat of war in 1940 raised an alarm over the Navy's deficiency in aircraft - especially fighters - Trap was appointed to lead the Flight Test Section to direct the development of all-new Navy airplanes.