In 1933, the Boeing Aircraft Company set a new standard for air transportation by introducing the Boeing 247 a graceful, all-metal, twin-engined aircraft that was 50 percent faster than the competition. Van der Linden traces the development of the 247 and the odyssey from its brief period of dominan

Recounts the early history of the Boeing company, looks at the development of the 247, and explains how it revolutionized the air industry.

The award-winning journalist delves “into the confluence of modern airplane technology and pilot behavior to probe how and why flight disasters happen” (BookTrib). Aviation automation has been pushed to its limits, with pilots increasingly relying on it. Autopilot, autothrottle, autoland, flight management systems, air data systems, inertial guidance systems. All these systems are only as good as their inputs which, incredibly, can go rogue. Even the automation itself is subject to unpredictable failure. And what of the pilots? They began flight training with their hands on the throttle and yoke, and feet on the rudder pedals. Then they reached the pinnacle of their careers—airline pilot—and suddenly they were going hours without touching the controls other than for a few minutes on takeoff and landing. Are their skills eroding? Is their training sufficient to meet the demands of today’s planes? The Dangers of Automation in Airliners delves deeply into these questions. You’ll be in the cockpits of the two doomed Boeing 737 MAXs, the Airbus A330 lost over the South Atlantic, and the Bombardier Q400 that stalled over Buffalo. You’ll discover exactly why a Boeing 777 smacked into a seawall, missing the runway on a beautiful summer morning. And you’ll watch pilots battling—sometimes winning and sometimes not—against automation run amok. This book also investigates the human factors at work. You’ll learn why pilots might overlook warnings or ignore cockpit alarms. You’ll observe automation failing to alert aircrews of what they crucially need to know while fighting to save their planes and their passengers. The future of safe air travel depends on automation. This book tells its story.

What happens when a Seattle planemaker takes the most advanced, longest-ranged, highest flying super bomber of World War II (the B-29 Superfortress) and adapts it as the longest-ranged, highest flying transport of the immediate postwar world? The result was Boeing's Model 367, originally conceived as a long-range transport that would have had a role in World War II if the campaign had gone longer, but which was adapted for the commercial market as the Model 377 Stratocruiser. It was the first commercial passenger plane that could provide non-stop Transatlantic service. The Stratocruiser went on to serve with Pan American World Airways, Northwest Airlines, the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), and other airlines, flying both the Atlantic and the Pacific, as well as to the Middle East and South America. It became the gold standard of luxury and efficiency. When Elizabeth II made her first world tour as queen, she flew by BOAC Stratocruiser. And then there was the Cold War. To counter the Soviet nuclear threat, the Strategic Air Command (SAC) initiated an unprecedented build-up of jet bombers. Because these lacked global range, SAC also required an exceptional build-up of aerial refueling aircraft. The Model 367 became the KC-97, the first dedicated aerial refueling aircraft to be fielded in significant numbers, as 888 were built. As the family grew long in the tooth, yet another career awaited. Several of the original airframes were rebuilt as the inimitable "Guppies," the largest volume transports ever conceived. Working for NASA, they are credited with having made America's victory in the Space Race possible. This book tells and how service continued around the world, in the second decade of the twenty-first century, one of the Guppies is still flying routine missions for NASA.

Based on a 15-year successful approach to teaching aircraft flight mechanics at the US Air Force Academy, this text explains the concepts and derivations of equations for aircraft flight mechanics. It covers aircraft performance, static stability, aircraft dynamics stability and feedback control.

NEW YORK TIMES BUSINESS BEST SELLER • A suspenseful behind-the-scenes look at the dysfunction that contributed to one of the worst tragedies in modern aviation: the 2018 and 2019 crashes of the Boeing 737 MAX. An "authoritative, gripping and finely detailed narrative that charts the decline of one of the great American companies" (New York Times Book Review), from the award-winning reporter for Bloomberg. Boeing is a century-old titan of industry. It played a major role in the early days of commercial flight, World War II bombing missions, and moon landings. The planemaker remains a cornerstone of the U.S. economy, as well as a linchpin in the awesome routine of modern air travel. But in 2018 and 2019, two crashes of the Boeing 737 MAX 8 killed 346 people. The crashes exposed a shocking pattern of malfeasance, leading to the biggest crisis in the company’s history—and one of the costliest corporate scandals ever. How did things go so horribly wrong at Boeing? Flying Blind is the definitive exposé of the disasters that transfixed the world. Drawing from exclusive interviews with current and former employees of Boeing and the FAA; industry executives and analysts; and family members of the victims, it reveals how a broken corporate culture paved the way for catastrophe. It shows how in the race to beat the competition and reward top executives, Boeing skimped on testing, pressured employees to meet unrealistic deadlines, and convinced regulators to put planes into service without properly equipping them or their pilots for flight. It examines how the company, once a treasured American innovator, became obsessed with the bottom line, putting shareholders over customers, employees, and communities. By Bloomberg investigative journalist Peter Robison, who covered Boeing as a beat reporter during the company’s fateful merger with McDonnell Douglas in the late ‘90s, this is the story of a business gone wildly off course. At once riveting and disturbing, it shows how an iconic company fell prey to a win-at-all-costs mentality, threatening an industry and endangering countless lives.

An in-depth history of the controversial airplane, from its design, development and service to politics, power struggles, and more. The Boeing 737 is an American short- to medium-range twinjet narrow-body airliner developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, a division of the Boeing Company. Originally designed as a shorter, lower-cost twin-engine airliner derived from the 707 and 727, the 737 has grown into a family of passenger models with capacities from 85 to 215 passengers, the most recent version of which, the 737 MAX, has become embroiled in a worldwide controversy. Initially envisioned in 1964, the first 737-100 made its first flight in April 1967 and entered airline service in February 1968 with Lufthansa. The 737 series went on to become one of the highest-selling commercial jetliners in history and has been in production in its core form since 1967; the 10,000th example was rolled out on 13 March 2018. There is, however, a very different side to the convoluted story of the 737’s development, one that demonstrates a transition of power from a primarily engineering structure to one of accountancy, number-driven powerbase that saw corners cut, and the previous extremely high safety methodology compromised. The result was the 737 MAX. Having entered service in 2017, this model was grounded worldwide in March 2019 following two devastating crashes.? In this revealing insight into the Boeing 737, the renowned aviation historian Graham M. Simons examines its design, development and service over the decades since 1967. He also explores the darker side of the 737’s history, laying bare the politics, power-struggles, changes of management ideology and battles with Airbus that culminated in the 737 MAX debacle that has threatened Boeing’s very survival.

Mises' classic avoids the formidable mathematical structure of fluid dynamics, while conveying — by often unorthodox methods — a full understanding of the physical phenomena and mathematical concepts of aeronautical engineering.

“A lavishly illustrated and meticulously researched overview of the aerospace giant’s first century.” —Aviation Week Over the course of a century, the Boeing Company grew from a small outfit operating out of a converted boathouse—producing a single pontoon plane made from canvas and wood—into the world’s largest aerospace company. The thrilling story of the celebrated organization is filled with ambition, ingenuity, and a passion to exceed expectations. In this extensively illustrated book, Pulitzer Prize–nominated author Russ Banham recounts the tale of a company and an industry like no other—one that has put men on the moon, defended the free world, and changed the way we live. “Higher ably commemorates Boeing’s enduring achievement, gliding nimbly through its triumphs of design, engineering and manufacture and, not least, its memorable contributions to wars won.” —The Wall Street Journal