North Star Over My Shoulder

Buck, the embodiment of commercial aviation in America, recounts his thrilling life in flight in this exhilarating volume, hailed as "absolutely brilliant" by the former director of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.

An episodic log of some of the author's more memorable hours aloft in peace and as a member of the Air Transport Command in war.

An epic novel from the master of historical fiction, author of ALEXANDER: GOD OF WAR 'Brilliantly evoked' Sunday Times Arimnestos of Plataea is a man who has seen and done things that most men only dream about. Sold into slavery as a boy, he fought his way to freedom - and then to everlasting fame: standing alongside the Athenians at the Battle of Marathon where the Greeks crushed the invading Persians. Sometimes, however, a man's greatest triumph is followed by his greatest sorrow. Returning to his farm, Arimnestos finds that his wife Euphoria has died in childbirth, and in an instant his laurels turn to dust. But the gods are not finished with Arimnestos yet. With nothing left to live for, he throws himself from a cliff into the sea, only to be pulled by strong arms from death's embrace. When he awakes, he finds himself chained to an oar in a Phoenician trireme. And so begins an epic journey that will take Arimnestos and a motley crew of fellow galley slaves to the limits of their courage, and beyond the edge of the known world, in a quest for freedom, revenge - and a cargo so precious it's worth dying for.

What to read next is every book lover's greatest dilemma. Nancy Pearl comes to the rescue with this wide-ranging and fun guide to the best reading new and old. Pearl, who inspired legions of litterateurs with "What If All (name the city) Read the Same Book," has devised reading lists that cater to every mood, occasion, and personality. These annotated lists cover such topics as mother-daughter relationships, science for nonscientists, mysteries of all stripes, African-American fiction from a female point of view, must-reads for kids, books on bicycling, "chick-lit," and many more. Pearl's enthusiasm and taste shine throughout.

The C-124 Globemaster--a U.S. military heavy-lift transport in service 1950 through 1974--barreling down a runway was an awesome sight. The aircraft's four 3800 hp piston engines (the largest ever mass-produced), mounted on its 174-foot wingspan, could carry a 69,000-pound payload of tanks, artillery or other cargo, or 200 fully equipped troops, at more than 300 mph. The flight crew, perched three stories above the landing gears in an unpressurized cockpit, relied, like Magellan, on celestial fixes to navigate over oceans. With a world-wide mission delivering troops and materials to such destinations as the Congo, Vietnam, Thule, Greenland and Antarctica, the Globemaster lived up to its name and was foundational to what Time magazine publisher Henry Luce termed the "American Century." Drawing on archives, Air Force bases, libraries and accident sites, and his own recollections as a navigator, the author details Cold War confrontations and consequent strategies that emerged after Douglas Aircraft Company delivered the first C-124A to the Military Air Transport Service in 1949.

THE BEST RESOURCE A PILOT CAN HAVE TO UNDERSTAND HOW TO FLY IN ALL TYPES OF WEATHER How do you improve on the best guide for pilots to learn how to fly in all kinds of weather? The answer is the Fifth Edition of Weather Flying. Regarded as the bible of weather flying, this aviation classic not only continues to make complex weather concepts understandable for even the least experienced of flyers, but has now been updated to cover new advances in technology. At the same time, this respected text still retains many of its original insights from over four decades of publication, provided by renowned weather flying veteran Robert N. Buck. In a straightforward style, new author Robert O. Buck (son of the book's original author) delves into how computers, personal electronic devices, electronic flight instrument systems, and other technologies are changing the way general aviation pilots fly weather. He addresses the philosophy and discipline required to use these systems, what they are really telling us, and their task as supplement to good flying sense. The updated Fifth Edition also discusses how to handle changes in FSS weather briefing, including a look at new weather information products and airborne datalink weather information as they affect weather flying. This new edition features: Discussions of weather information--what it is, how to get it, and how to use it Explanations of various weather phenomena and how they affect a flight Updates on the new GPS and smart technology used in weather flying Changes in weather information and briefi ngs Descriptions of improved anti- and deicing systems Serious discussion of the pilot-electronics interface Now more than ever, having the Bucks' Weather Flying at the controls is the next best thing to having the authors with you in the cockpit.

Two-volume collection of case studies on aspects of NACA-NASA research by noted engineers, airmen, historians, museum curators, journalists, and independent scholars. Explores various aspects of how NACA-NASA research took aeronautics from the subsonic to the hypersonic era.-publisher description.