This is the thrilling story of how test pilots in the USA and UK first pierced the sound barrier in the late 1940s. Much has happened since then, and as recently as 2003 thousands of fare-paying passengers were routinely enjoying intercontinental air travel at speeds of up to Mach 2. The author describes in accessible style the rules and ......

This account of aviation looks at the theory and implications of the speed of sound and the concept of the sound barrier, together with examining man's attempts to break this barrier. This book covers all aspects of supersonic aircraft - research, military and transport planes - as well as aerospace machines that can operate from ordinary airfields yet fly to the moon, of which the Space Shuttle is an early example. Bill Gunston is the author of Plane Speaking: A Personal View of Aviation History, Giants of the Sky: The Biggest aeroplanes of all Time and Rolls-Royce Aero Engines.

"Who has the fastest car in the world?"--Back cover.

Fields of Color explains Quantum Field Theory to a lay audience without equations. It shows how this often overlooked theory resolves the weirdness of Quantum Mechanics and the paradoxes of Relativity. The third edition contains a new solution to the measurement problem ("the most controversial problem in physics today") and shows the quantum basis for Einstein's famous E = mc2.

Fans of DreamWorks Dragons will love this deluxe storybook that features details of many dragons, similar to the Book of Dragons the Riders use. This is the ultimate source of information on dragons for the ultimate dragons fan! From the observations of Bork the Bold to Hiccup’s additions for the Dragon Academy, this book gathers all the facts, figures, and secrets that the Vikings have learned about dragons through the ages. A necessary book for every Dragons aficionado! How To Train Your Dragon © 2014 DreamWorks Animation L.L.C.

Sound is integral to how we experience the world, in the form of noise as well as music. But what is sound? What is the physical basis of pitch and harmony? And how are sound waves exploited in musical instruments? In this Very Short Introduction Mike Goldsmith looks at the science of sound and explores sound in different contexts, covering the audible and inaudible, sound underground and underwater, accoustic and electric, and hearing in humans and animals. He also considers the problem of sound out of place - noise and its reduction. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • At the end of World War II, a band of aces gathered in the Mojave Desert on a Top Secret quest to break the sound barrier–nicknamed "The Demon" by pilots. The true story of what happened in those skies has never been told. Speed. In 1947, it represented the difference between victory and annihilation. After Hiroshima, the ability to deliver a nuclear device to its target faster than one’s enemy became the singular obsession of American war planners. And so, in the earliest days of the Cold War, a highly classified program was conducted on a desolate air base in California’s Mojave Desert. Its aim: to push the envelope of flight to new frontiers. There gathered an extraordinary band of pilots, including Second World War aces Chuck Yeager and George Welch, who risked their lives flying experimental aircraft to reach Mach 1, the so-called sound barrier, which pilots called “the demon.” Shrouding the program in secrecy, the US military reluctantly revealed that the “barrier” had been broken two months later, after the story was leaked to the press. The full truth has never been fully revealed—until now. Chasing the Demon, from decorated fighter pilot and acclaimed aviation historian Dan Hampton, tells, for the first time, the extraordinary true story of mankind’s quest for Mach 1. Here, of course, is twenty-four-year-old Captain Chuck Yeager, who made history flying the futuristic Bell X-1 faster than the speed of sound on October 14, 1947. Officially Yeager was the first to achieve supersonic flight, but drawing on new interviews with survivors of the program, including Yeager’s former commander, as well as declassified files, Hampton presents evidence that a fellow American—George Welch, a daring fighter pilot who shot down a remarkable sixteen enemy aircraft during the Pacific War—met the demon first, though he was not favored to wear the laurels, as he was now a civilian test pilot and was not flying the Bell X-1. Chasing the Demon sets the race between Yeager and Welch in the context of aviation history, so that the reader can learn and appreciate their accomplishments as never before.