From Wax Wings To Flying Drones

Was Keith Harris's Orville really named after the first-ever flyer? What exactly is a 'Spitfire'? Why did Richard Branson try to cross the Atlantic in a balloon when he owned an airline? These are the questions that fail to keep proper aeronautical historians awake – but no matter, From Wax Wings to Flying Drones is here to answer them. Chock-full of important stuff like planes, pilots and pioneers such as the Wright brothers, Amelia Earhart and that man off the telly who used to fly on Concorde, this is a book for everyone who's ever watched a plane in the sky and thought, 'I wonder what its registration is?'

Do you remember the time we used to do New York in three hours? Even twenty years after its final flight, Concorde remains the pinnacle of aviation design. The aircraft is still unmatched, which has led to a vast swathe of material being written about the aeroplane itself. However, relatively little has been said about the people who designed it. Concorde, A Designer’s Life is an autobiography peppered with anecdotes from the team, humorous life stories and several ‘technibits’, all covering the design period of Concorde. Ted Talbot, who began his career at BAC as an aerodynamicist and later became chief design engineer, has combined the technical narrative with personal and family reminiscences to remind the reader that engineers have lives too. The path to Mach 2 was bumpy, with threats of cancellation and opposition from the Americans and the Russians, but this generally indicated to the Concorde team that they were on the right path! This informative, witty and thoroughly enjoyable peek into an unusual life is a valuable addition to any bookshelf.

Between 1945 and 1963 over 2 1/2 million 18-year-olds were called up for national service. Alf Townsend was one of them, and here he tells his story – the highs and lows of life as a lowly Aircraftman Second Class in the early 1950s. Before national service intervened Alf was ‘heading down the criminal road at top speed’, having grown up in a North London slum where money was short and local villains were revered. Bad Lads is a warts and all account of Alf Townsend’s time in the RAF, when he was transplanted into a completely new world of misfits and officer types, rogues and entertainers, all amusingly described in the author’s inimitable style.

A quirky and original reference book containing 24 hours of history that have changed the worldAt what time was Guy Fawkes discovered underneath the Palace of Westminster? When was Captain Bligh ordered off the Bounty? At what time was Einstein's Theory of Relativity proved? What time was on the clock when Titanic sunk? All these questions and 400 more are answered here, giving a unique twist on how history is presented. Events are arranged not in order of place, theme, or date, but by the time of day they took place. There are 24 chapters, one for each hour of the day, with each chapter including major battles, assassinations, crimes, deaths, and disasters, all presented by the hour and minute they took place.

Drones are taking the world by storm. The technology and laws governing them change faster than we can keep up with. The Big Book of Drones covers everything from drone law to laws on privacy, discussing the history and evolution of drones to where we are today. If you are new to piloting, it also covers how to fly a drone including a pre-flight checklist. For those who are interested in taking drones to the next level, we discuss how to build your own using a 3D printer as well as many challenging projects for your drone. For the truly advanced, The Big Book of Drones discusses how to hack a drone. This includes how to perform a replay attack, denial of service attack, and how to detect a drone and take it down. Finally, the book also covers drone forensics. This is a new field of study, but one that is steadily growing and will be an essential area of inquiry as drones become more prevalent.

Welcome to the world of drones! This book will show you everything you could ever want to know about buying and flying your first drones. From getting to grips with the jargon you'll need to speak to other flyers, to how you can design and build your own drone with advanced features like live video feedback and programmable autopilot. You'll even learn how to read a sectional chart (that's a pilot's map-see, you're learning already!) This book is your gateway to the fun (and the learning) that awaits, and it'll keep you safe in the skies too.

Capture the value of cutting-edge AI while mitigating its most salient risks AI For Humanity: Building a Sustainable AI for the Future delivers an incisive and timely discussion of how to design, build, and implement cutting-edge AI in for-profit firms and other organizations in a responsible, sustainable, and ethical way. The book walks you through the three pillars of human-focused AI development—governance, technology, and commercialization—and dives deep into each one, showing you how to create AI products and services that better humanity and advance universally held values. You'll find methodologies and frameworks that mitigate against some of the most profound and unsettling risks of unchecked artificial intelligence development, and roadmaps to help you avoid the numerous pitfalls and traps awaiting unsuspecting companies, managers, and executives. You'll also discover: Real-world case studies, from companies including SAP, Huawei, and Tencent, demonstrating the actual dilemmas and questions firms face when developing and implementing this extraordinary tech Actionable commitments you can make to help ensure you and your company avoid the ethical and reputational risks associated with AI Strategies for AI product and service development consistent with sustainable growth Perfect for managers, executives, directors, and other business leaders with a stake in responsible artificial intelligence design, development, and implementation, AI For Humanity will also interest regulators, academics, thought leaders, and policy makers doing their best to capture AI's substantial potential value while mitigating its most serious risks.

Within the last couple of years, the usage of drones in both the public and private (military) sector has exploded. People are talking about drones, building drones, and something most people didn’t know of a few years ago is now a household name. Build a Drone will not only teach you how to build your very own drone, but will explain their history in the military and the impact they will have—and are starting to have—on our everyday lives. Author Barry Davies has built drones for DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) and AAI (one of America’s largest drone manufacturers), as well as six experimental ones for MIT. He not only understands their use in the world, but knows the ins-and-outs of how they can be created and handled. Explained in simple terms with full-color step-by-step directions, Davies will explain how to build your very own drone from ones created specifically for this book. Whether you plan on using drones for recreation or a more serious purpose (from search and rescue through farming to scanning construction work on a high-rise apartment buildings), Build a Drone will make sure that you not only understand how to construct a drone, but the proper and safe ways to maintain and handle them.