Between 1967 and 1997 Keith Spragg progressed from the greenest new co-pilot on a piston-engined Vickers Viking to a fully qualified jet captain. He then went on to become an experienced pilot trainer and examiner, ultimately flying ten different types with nine different airlines. The story of that journey, told in I Have Control, is a personal one but is also part of the wider story of airline development. Keith witnessed many changes and it was not only the aircraft that changed; the tr...

In 1945 Britain was the world's leading designer and builder of aircraft -- a world-class achievement that was not mere rhetoric. And what aircraft they were. The sleek Comet, the first jet airliner. The awesome delta-winged Vulcan, an intercontinental bomber that could be thrown about the sky like a fighter. The Hawker Hunter, the most beautiful fighter-jet ever built and the Lightning, which could zoom ten miles above the clouds in a couple of minutes and whose pilots rated flying it as ...

Emergency is a collection of true stories about events where disaster seems imminent. Yet each situation is concluded without loss of life thanks to the skill of the pilots and their crews, whose bravery and resourcefulness have earned them well-deserved commendations. Written by a British Airways First Officer, Stanley Stewart, who has spoken at first hand with the pilots and crews involved in all the incidents recorded here, the book offers a unique insight into what really happened: not...

The smash-hit bestseller about the world's worst air crashes and the disaster detectives who pick through the wreckage to find out why they happened - now fully revised and updated, with 30% new material.From the early tragedies of the Comet and the DC10 to the modern-day horror of the Concorde catastrophe in Paris and the mysterious loss of an Air France Airbus over the Atlantic, Faith painstakingly recreates the accidents, explains what went wrong and discusses how they can be pre...

As with the Air France Flight 447 tragedy, much of the time air crashes are a confluence of events; a cascade of bad luck, bad decisions, inappropriate airline company policy, the failure of aviation regulators, and sometimes insufficient training, or various combinations of all five.But why?Seconds to Disaster will demonstrate that part of that bad luck is often aided by the airline industry's own endless and aggressive pursuit of bottom-line profit. It contributes to a cre...

Are you amongst those who fly because they have to, yet dread it? You are in good company. There are many like you who reluctantly fly, perhaps because of work or due to the fact they won’t allow their fears to curtail their enjoyment of life. Statistics are of no help. What can help, though, is a better understanding of exactly what is happening during a typical flight from the only vantage point that counts, your passenger seat. This eBook uses friendly language and terminology to clearl...

Air travel is one of the safest modes of travel when we take into account the distances and freedom that it allows us. And yet, we still remain obsessed with aviation disasters. What caused these accidents? Whose fault was it? In her series of books, Why Planes Crash, Sylvia Wrigley investigates the worst aviation disasters of the twenty first century.Why Planes Crash: 2001 is the first of the series. Wrigley has put together eleven of the most interesting inciden...

Investigations into the causes of aircraft accidents have for decades focused on what happened and who did it - very rarely Why? It is the question Why? that David Beaty has addressed here, fighting the misnomer of 'pilot error' and propounding that the cause should be sought deeper inside human beings who make apparently simple human errors.

On January 15, 2009, a US Airways Airbus A320 had just taken off from LaGuardia Airport in New York, when a flock of Canada geese collided with it, destroying both of its engines. Over the next three minutes, the plane's pilot Chelsey "Sully" Sullenberger, managed to glide to a safe landing in the Hudson River. It was an instant media sensation, the "The Miracle on the Hudson", and Captain Sully was the hero. But, how much of the success of this dramatic landing can actually be credited to...

The definitive account of the rise and fall of the iconic Concorde plane from British Airways' former Chief Concorde Pilot'A remarkable story' DAILY EXPRESS'A stonking good read' FLYER_________What's it like to fly faster than a bullet?Could you really glimpse the edge of space?Why will we never see Concorde's like again?Mike Bannister was British Airways' Chief Concorde...

Gliding is for everyone who has ever dreamt of riding the air currents with the view stretching to the horizon, and with barely a sound to disturb the moment. Written by an experienced instructor, this book guides you through the first steps to realising that dream, and goes on to explore the many opportunities offered by this compelling and existing sport.

Do you know which way round a country’s flag is placed on an airplane’s tail? What Qantas stands for? What are the twenty most iconic planes of all time? And what happened to the man who successfully glided from a tower in China in the year 559 AD? This fantastic quick-read eBook features 101 amazing facts about planes, split into categories such as the history of flight, world records, the most amazing facts and many more. So if you want to know who owns the most expensive private jet in ...