Innovation In Flight

Perhaps no technological development in the century has more fundamentally transformed human life than the airplane and its support apparatus. The nature of flight, and the activities that it has engendered throughout the world, makes the development of aviation technology an important area of investigation. Why did aeronautical technology take the shape it did? Which individuals and organizations were involved in driving it? What factors influenced particular choices of technologies to be used? More importantly, how has innovation affected this technology? Innovation and the Development of Flight, a first strike at the "new aviation history," represents a significant transformation of the field by relating the subject to larger issues of society, politics, and culture, taking a more sophisticated view of the technology that few historians have previously attempted. This volume moves beyond a focus on the artifact to emphasize the broader role of the airplane and, more importantly, the entire technological system. This suggests that many unanswered questions are present in the development of modern aviation and that inquisitive historians seek to know the relationships of technological systems to the human mind. Some of the subjects discussed are early aeronautical innovation and government patronage; the evolution of relationships among airports, cities, and industry; the relationship of engine development to the entire aviation industry; the Department of Commerce's influence on light plane development; pressure in the Air Force for the development of jet engines; and lessons of the National Aerospace Plane Program. Aviation historians and historians of technology will find Innovation and the Development of Flight a valuable examination of aeronautical innovation providing foundations for continued explorations of this field.

Aviation has grown leaps and bounds within the last decade. Aviation courses and training at all levels have shown an exponential increase around the globe. There has been a restricted focus on writing books in this sector of the economy, mainly due to the shortage of expertise in this specialist and complex area. This book was written with the purpose of meeting this need of the aviation sector. Due to the diversified nature of aviation knowledge, which includes flying, engineering, airports, allied trades for aircraft and airports, airline and airport management and operations, education, etc., one text alone will not suffice and do justice to address all these areas. It is envisaged to develop subsequent parts of this book to cover all these knowledge areas. This book is the first installment of any subsequent books and explores issues including airline management and operations, airline business models, airport systems, flight operational procedures, aircraft maintenance, runway safety management systems, and air traffic management. In particular, attention will be given to aspects such as analysis of air traffic in a domestic market, runway safety management systems, critical success factors for multiple MRO service providers, key pain points of the industry to be addressed to move into the future, new research on hub airports for international flights, new business models for airlines, and runway safety management systems. This book is useful to aviation managers, educators, students, and professionals interested in any of the above issues.

The airline industry is a vast international business that is central to world economies. In today's environment, it faces many challenges and a tight operational strategy is vital to survive. In-flight catering is a central part of these strategies at all levels: be they customer satisfaction, marketing, operations or logistics. Fully endorsed by the International Flight Catering Association, Flight Catering is an authoritative guide to this specialised and vital area on the catering industry. With an international team of contributions from both academia and industry it provides a user friendly guide, taking the reader through every aspect from marketing and on board service, to cost control and logistics.

In a widely noted speech to the Navy League Sea-Air-Space Expo in May 2010, Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates warned that “the Navy and Marine Corps must be willing to reexamine and question basic assumptions in light of evolving technologies, new threats, and budget realities.We simply cannot afford to perpetuate a status quo that heaps more and more expensive technologies onto fewer and fewer platforms—thereby risking a situation where some of our greatest capital expenditures go toward weapons and ships that could potentially become wasting assets.” Secretary Gates specifically questioned whether the Navy's commitment to a force of eleven carrier strike groups through 2040 makes sense, given the extent of the anticipated superiority of the United States over potential adversaries at sea as well as the growing threat of antiship missiles. Though later disclaiming any immediate intention to seek a reduction in the current carrier force, Gates nevertheless laid down a clear marker that all who are concerned over the future of the U.S. Navy would be well advised to take with the utmost seriousness. We may stand, then, at an important watershed in the evolution of carrier aviation, one reflecting not only the nation's current financial crisis but the changing nature of the threats to, or constraints on, American sea power, as well as—something the secretary did not mention—the advent of a new era of unmanned air and sea platforms of all types. Taken together, these developments argue for resolutely innovative thinking about the future of the nation's carrier fleet and our surface navy more generally. In Innovation in Carrier Aviation, number thirty-seven in our Newport Papers monograph series, Thomas C. Hone, Norman Friedman, and Mark D.Mandeles examine the watershed period in carrier development that occurred immediately following World War II, when design advances were made that would be crucial to the centrality in national-security policy making that carriers and naval aviation have today. In those years several major technological breakthroughs—notably the jet engine and nuclear weapons—raised large questions about the future and led to an array of innovations in the design and operational utilization of aircraft carriers. Central to this story is the collaboration between the aviation communities in the navies of the United States and Great Britain during these years, building on the intimate relationship they had developed during the war itself. Strikingly, the most important of these innovations, notably the angled flight deck and steam catapult, originated with the British, not the Americans. This study thereby also provides interesting lessons for the U.S. Navy today with respect to its commitment to maritime security cooperation in the context of its new “maritime strategy.” It is a welcome and important addition to the historiography of the Navy in the seminal years of the Cold War.

This publication celebrates the 100th anniversary of Alaskan aviation that is unique both in the world of geography and flying, illustrating the changes flying brought to life on the ground in the course of history.