The most comprehensive history of the aircraft manufacturing industry to date

This first-hand account of early aviation days includes the beginning of air mail service in the United States. It also includes stories about air pioneers and their training and exploits, as well as authentic accounts of the women who were aviation enthusiasts and, in some cases, pilots themselves. The author points out that these women played a vital part in early aviation history. "Publishers Weekly" reported: "Culver's late husband, Paul, one of the country's earliest pilots, was a member of the team that carried the first bags of air mail. Here his wife recalls those days when to be a pilot was to court death and when marriage to a pilot presumed early widowhood."

The Consolidated B-24 Liberator was almost certainly the most versatile Second World War Bomber. Apart from its bombing role in all theaters of operation, the B-24 hauled fuel to France during the push towards Germany, carried troops, fought U-boats in the Atlantic and, probably most important of all, made a vital contribution towards winning the war in the Pacific. Its most famous single exploit is possibly the raid on the Ploesti oil fields in August 1943.The B-24 ended World War Two as the most produced Allied heavy bomber in history, and the most produced American military aircraft at over 18,000 units, thanks in large measure to Henry Ford and the harnessing of American industry. It still holds the distinction as the most produced American military aircraft. The B-24 was used by several Allied air forces and navies, and by every branch of the American armed forces during the war, attaining a distinguished war record with its operations in the Western European, Pacific, Mediterranean and China-Burma-India theaters.This book focuses on the design, engineering, development and tactical use of the many variants throughout the bombers service life. The overall result is, as David Lee, the former Deputy Director of the Imperial War Museum at Duxford said upon reading the final manuscript, to be acquainted with ...all you never knew about the B-24!The book is enlivened by the many dramatic photographs which feature, and this coupled with the clarity of Simons' prose makes for an engaging and entertaining history of this iconic Allied bomber, a key component in several of their biggest victories and a marvel of military engineering.

Named after Mexican War general William Jenkins Worth, Fort Worth began as a military post in 1849. More than a century and a half later, the defense industry remains Fort Worth’s major strength with Lockheed Martin’s F-35s and Bell Helicopter’s Ospreys flying the skies over the city. Arsenal of Defense: Fort Worth’s Military Legacy covers the entire military history of Fort Worth from the 1840s with tiny Bird’s Fort to the massive defense plants of the first decade of the twenty-first century. Although the city is popularly known as “Cowtown” for its iconic cattle drives and stockyards, soldiers, pilots, and military installations have been just as important—and more enduring—in Fort Worth’s legacy. Although Bird’s Fort provided defense for early North Texas settlers in the mid nineteenth century, it was the major world conflicts of the twentieth century that developed Fort Worth’s military presence into what it is today. America’s buildup for World War I brought three pilot training fields and the army post Camp. During World War II, headquarters for the entire nation’s Army Air Forces Flying Training Command came to Fort Worth. The military history of Fort Worth has been largely an aviation story—one that went beyond pilot training to the construction of military aircraft. Beginning with Globe Aircraft in 1940, Consolidated in 1942, and Bell Helicopter in 1950, the city has produced many thousands of military aircraft for the defense of the nation. Lockheed Martin, the descendant of Consolidated, represents an assembly plant that has been in continuous existence for over seven decades. With Lockheed Martin the nation’s largest defense contractor, Bell the largest helicopter producer, and the Fort Worth Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Federal Medical Center Carswell the reservist’s training pattern for the nation, Fort Worth’s military defense legacy remains strong. Arsenal of Defense won first place in the Press Women of Texas Communications Contest (2012).