In the early days of flight, no one imagined the aeroplane as a weapon of war. Inevitably, the First World War proved the catalyst that was to change the face of battle for ever. But at the war’s outbreak, military aircraft, most of which were slow and stable two-seat biplanes, were held to have only one useful function: reconnaissance.It was not long, however, before pilots had the idea of dropping explosives from their cockpits. Once machine guns began to be fitted to aircraft, two factors immediately became clear: reconnaissance aircraft needed to be defended, and enemy machines had to be attacked and destroyed. So was born the ‘scout’ (as fighter aircraft were known then), to be followed, before long, by the ‘aces’ who flew them.In this wide-ranging and extremely readable study of the fighter pilot’s skills, training and experiences from the early days of flight, and the development of the machines they flew, the author, who has written widely on aerial warfare, takes the reader on a journey from the first flying machines in the late nineteenth century, to the development of the specialised fighter aircraft armed with one or more machine guns, and capable, by the war’s end, of speeds of 140mph and more. Along the way he takes in the development of the devices that allowed a machine gun to fire through the propeller arc, the coming of aerial photography and airborne wireless, parachutes, engine design, test flying and problems of flight, including the dreaded ‘spin’ that killed so may pilots, and the invention of aerial tactics such as the Immelmann Turn.Here, too, are the aces, the pilots who became famous and fêted at home for their exploits, at a time when newspapers were filled with ever-lengthening casualty lists from the Western Front. Some, like Germany’s Manfred von Richthofen - the ‘Red Baron’ - Britain’s James McCudden and Eddie Rickenbacker of the USA, are still well-known today, while others like Raymond Collishaw of the Royal Naval Air Service, France’s René Fonck, and Aleksandr Kazakov of the Imperial Russian Air Service are less prominent.In 1914 it was all new, this business of flying at the enemy. It is a story of creativity, of machines, experiments, turning points, ebb and flow, heroes. Starting from almost nothing, the fighting men tried out their ideas and established the principles that ultimately made aircraft the most important weapon of all.

In October 1958, Pan American World Airways began making regularly scheduled flights between New York and Paris, courtesy of its newly minted wonder jet, the Boeing 707. Almost overnight, the moneyed celebrities of the era made Europe their playground. At the same time, the dream of international travel came true for thousands of ordinary Americans who longed to emulate the “jet set” lifestyle. Bestselling author and Vanity Fair contributor William Stadiem brings that Jet Age dream to life again in the first-ever book about the glamorous decade when Americans took to the skies in massive numbers as never before, with the rich and famous elbowing their way to the front of the line. Dishy anecdotes and finely rendered character sketches re-create the world of luxurious airplanes, exclusive destinations, and beautiful, wealthy trendsetters who turned transatlantic travel into an inalienable right. It was the age of Camelot and “Come Fly with Me,” Grace Kelly at the Prince’s Palace in Monaco, and Mary Quant miniskirts on the streets of Swinging London. Men still wore hats, stewardesses showed plenty of leg, and the beach at Saint-Tropez was just a seven-hour flight away. Jet Set reads like a who’s who of the fabulous and well connected, from the swashbuckling “skycoons” who launched the jet fleet to the playboys, moguls, and financiers who kept it flying. Among the bold-face names on the passenger manifest: Juan Trippe, the Yale-educated WASP with the Spanish-sounding name who parlayed his fraternity contacts into a tiny airmail route that became the world’s largest airline, Pan Am; couturier to the stars Oleg Cassini, the Kennedy administration’s “Secretary of Style,” and his social climbing brother Igor, who became the most powerful gossip columnist in America—then lost it all in one of the juiciest scandals of the century; Temple Fielding, the high-rolling high priest of travel guides, and his budget-conscious rival Arthur Frommer; Conrad Hilton, the New Mexico cowboy who built the most powerful luxury hotel chain on earth; and Mary Wells Lawrence, the queen bee of Madison Avenue whose suggestive ads for Braniff and other airlines brought sex appeal to the skies. Like a superfueled episode of Mad Men, Jet Set evokes a time long gone but still vibrant in American memory. This is a rollicking, sexy romp through the ring-a-ding glory years of air travel, when escape was the ultimate aphrodisiac and the smiles were as wide as the aisles. Praise for Jet Set “Aeronautics history, high times from the 1950s and ’60s, incredibly versatile name-dropping (from Mrs. John Jacob Astor to Christine Keeler of the Profumo scandal) and Sinatra’s ‘Come Fly With Me’ as a kind of theme song [all] connected to the glamorous days of air travel.”—Janet Maslin, The New York Times “What a book William Stadium has written. . . . The Kennedys, the Rat Pack, Frank Sinatra, and early financiers like Eddie Gilbert are dealt with in depth. . . . I lived intimately through it all in the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s and I am yet to find a mistake in author Stadiem’s amazing book. Order it now. All the players are here.”—Liz Smith, syndicated columnist “William Stadiem sexes up the glory days of aviation in Jet Set. Fly me!”—Vanity Fair “William Stadiem’s Jet Set takes you where no modern airliner can: to a time . . . when the means of travel was as exotic as the destination, and sometimes more so.”—Town & Country

A guide to programs currently available on video in the areas of movies/entertainment, general interest/education, sports/recreation, fine arts, health/science, business/industry, children/juvenile, how-to/instruction.

In February 1999, only a few weeks before the U.S. Air Force spearheaded NATO's Allied Force air campaign against Serbia, Col. C.R. Anderegg, USAF (Ret.), visited the commander of the U.S. Air Forces in Europe. Colonel Anderegg had known Gen. John Jumper since they had served together as jet forward air controllers in Southeast Asia nearly thirty years earlier. From the vantage point of 1999, they looked back to the day in February 1970, when they first controlled a laser-guided bomb strike. In this book Anderegg takes us from "glimmers of hope" like that one through other major improvements in the Air Force that came between the Vietnam War and the Gulf War. Always central in Anderegg's account of those changes are the people who made them. This is a very personal book by an officer who participated in the transformation he describes so vividly. Much of his story revolves around the Fighter Weapons School at Nellis Air Force Base (AFB), Nevada, where he served two tours as an instructor pilot specializing in guided munitions.

Los Angeles magazine is a regional magazine of national stature. Our combination of award-winning feature writing, investigative reporting, service journalism, and design covers the people, lifestyle, culture, entertainment, fashion, art and architecture, and news that define Southern California. Started in the spring of 1961, Los Angeles magazine has been addressing the needs and interests of our region for 48 years. The magazine continues to be the definitive resource for an affluent population that is intensely interested in a lifestyle that is uniquely Southern Californian.

A film, video, and DVD guide for the true lover of the cinema, this volume focuses on independent and international films as well as the best of the mainstream. 450 photos throughout.