Classic Planes by Ivor Wilkins

$85.00 NZD

Category: Aviation

New Zealand has long held a passion for its aviation history - the bravado, ingenuity and trailblazing spirit says a lot about who we are. Classic Planes celebrates that legacy, from the first fledgling beginnings to the present day. With eloquence and colour, bestselling author Ivor Wilkins itraces the story of planes in New Zealand, beginning with the exploits of Richard Pearse and shining a light on other local pioneers, Jean Batten and Tim Wallis among them. He also examines the machines from bygone eras, celebrating those who lovingly restore planes in the modern day, and revels in our ongoing love affair with winged wonders. Tiger moths and taperwings comingle with staggerwings, spitfires, mosquitoes and Mustangs, all figures of our airborne past. In Classic Planes, breathtaking new photography is complemented by archival imagery, revealing a truly special and important celebration of planes and people. As the author notes in his preface- 'love is in the air' . . . ...Show more

My Throne A Cockpit by Owen Williamson

$19.99 NZD

Category: Aviation | Reading Level: Near Fine

When your office is the cockpit of a topdressing aeroplane, it's hard not to think of your seat as a throne. As your daily commute takes in the grandeur of the mountains, the beauty of the sunrise and the sight of the world going about its business below, ...

Flight Path Dunedin: A History of Aviation in Otago by Jim Sullivan

$49.99 NZD

Category: Aviation

Did New Zealand aviation begin in Arrowtown in 1869? Did a Dunedin man make New Zealand's first flight in 1910? The story of aviation in Otago throws up some intersting questions and the answers, along with the detailed history of Dunedin's airports at Green Island, Taieri and Momona, provide a fascinat ing story of how we have ambraced flyings as "the way to travel". Published to mark the 50th anniversary of Dunedin Inernational Airport at Momona. ...Show more

Higher: 100 Years of Boeing by Russ Banham

$75.00 NZD

Category: Aviation

Over the course of a century, the Boeing Company has grown 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 one filled with ambition, ingenuity and a passion to exceed expectations. In this lavishly illustrated book, published to coincide with Boeing's 100th anniversary, 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. ...Show more

Spitfire VC vs A6M2 Zero-Sen: Darwin 1943 by Peter Ingman; Jim Laurier (Illustrator); Gareth Hector (Cover Design by, Illustrator)

$34.99 NZD

Category: Aviation | Series: Duel Ser.

The little-known yet fascinating story of when two of the most iconic aircraft of World War II dueled in the skies above Australia. Fully illustrated with detailed full-color artwork, this is the gripping story of two iconic aircraft facing off against each other above Australia. Just weeks after Pear l Harbor, Darwin was mauled by a massive Japanese attack. Without a single fighter to defend Australian soil, the Australian government made a special appeal to Britain for Spitfires. A year later the Spitfire VC-equipped No 1 Fighter Wing, RAAF, faced the battle-hardened 202nd Kokutai of the IJNAF, equipped with A6M2 Zero-sens, over Darwin. This was a grueling campaign between evenly matched foes, fought in isolation from the main South Pacific battlegrounds. Pilots on either side had significant combat experience, including a number of Battle of Britain veterans. The Spitfire had superior flight characteristics but was hampered by short range and material defects in the tropical conditions, while the Japanese employed better tactics and combat doctrine inflicting serious losses on overconfident the Commonwealth forces. ...Show more

The Story of an Aviator (The Explorer's Library) by Clint Twist

$45.00 NZD

Category: Aviation

Many a Close Run Thing by Tom Enright

$39.99 NZD

Category: Aviation

A New Zealand squadron leader, flying-boat captain and airliner pilot on a life of aerial adventure Though rarely seen above the small sheep farming town called Ranfurly in Central Otago in the 1940s, Tom Enright developed a fascination with planes from an early age. He joined the Royal New Zealand Air Force as an engineer in 1951 and was sent to England at just 16 to attend the revered Royal Air Force college in Cranwell, graduating as a pilot. He returned to New Zealand to join the Vampire fighter squadron in Ohakea and became a member of the RNZAF aerobatic team, before becoming chief flying instructor at Wigram air base. Later Tom spent time flying an old Sunderland flying boat to isolated communities in the South Pacific, often to the upper limits of the Sunderland's endurance, picking up victims of tetanus, taking KFC to the Cook Islands, and flying into secret US airbases. This is his story of the thrills, near-misses and high-altitude drama of a pilot ace. ...Show more

Me 262 vs P-51 Mustang by Robert Forsyth; Jim Laurier (Illustrator); Gareth Hector (Cover Design by, Illustrator)

$34.99 NZD

Category: Aviation | Series: Duel Ser.

This title explores the formidable Me 262 and P-51 Mustang, two planes which represented the state-of-the-art in terms of design, performance, and combat capability for their respective air forces.Arguably two of the finest fighters built during the course of World War II, the Me 262 and P-51 Mustang he ralded new dawns in aircraft performance. Making its operational debut in the summer of 1944, and powered by the Jumo 004 jet engine, the Me 262 outclassed Allied planes in terms of speed and firepower ratio, offering a formidable punch with four 30 mm MK 108 nose-mounted cannons. However, in the P-51, fitted with the Rolls-Royce (Packard) Merlin engine and drop-tanks, the USAAF finally had a fighter that had the "legs" to escort its heavy bombers deep into Reich airspace and back. If flown to its strengths, the P-51 was more than capable of taking on the feared Me 262 on an equal footing, despite the differences in power and top speed. Indeed, the Mustang proved to be the Luftwaffe fighter arm's nemesis. When the P-51D sortied over Germany from the summer of 1944 onwards, it shredded through the ill-trained and depleted Gruppen of the Luftwaffe's defense wings.This book examines the two fighters in detail, exploring their history and development and containing accurate descriptions of the combats between the P-51 Mustang and the Me 262 in what were some of the most bitter and large-scale aerial actions fought over Europe in 1944--45. ...Show more

Flying Kiwis: A History of the OE by Jude Wilson

$45.00 NZD

Category: Aviation | Reading Level: Very Good

This first book-length history of the OE (Overseas Experience) phenomenon is based on the oral accounts of several hundred New Zealand travellers, representing every decade of the OE and supported by the ephemera of popular culture that surround it, including advertising and overseas media material. Fly ing Kiwis also presents a comprehensive history of the unique support network and industry that has emerged and evolved as a consequence of the OE. It is illustrated throughout and provides a record of a dynamic travel phenomenon that has, over the past six decades, involved hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders. ...Show more

On a Wing and a Prayer: The Race that Stopped the World by Diane Websdale-Morrissey

$38.00 NZD

Category: Aviation

In 1934, Melbourne's Lord Mayor announced a London-to-Melbourne air race to celebrate his city's centenary. The audacious plan captured imaginations across the globe: newspapers and magazines everywhere were filled with it; the world's pilots scrambled to get sponsorship; and the organisers scrambled t o get the rules straight and permission to fly in foreign air space.Sixty-four entrants from eleven countries signed up, but only twenty planes eventually took off on 20 October 1934. The winner arrived in Melbourne seventy-one hours later--but three planes crashed and two pilots died in the attempt. The world followed the progress and applauded the winners, Britain's Grovsenor House (outright) and The Netherlands' Uiver (on handicap), but the real climax of the story is the astonishing efforts by the town of Albury in saving the Uiver as it battled through a fierce thunderstorm with no navigational aids, guiding the tiny plane to an emergency landing in the middle of the town with the most quick-thinking, imaginative response to its terrifying predicament. This heroic race, considered the greatest single sporting event in the history of aviation, is a tale of eccentric characters, daring deeds and sublime courage. Di Websdale- Morrissey's page-turning account will have readers holding their breaths, just as the world did eighty-five years ago. ...Show more

More Luck of a Lancaster: 109 Operations, 315 Crew, 101 Killed in Action by Gordon Thorburn

$69.99 NZD

Category: Aviation

From 11 June 1943 (the date of Lancaster Mark III EE136 WS/R's first op) to her last with 9 Squadron (on 19 October 1944), eighty-six Lancasters were assigned to Number 9\. Of these, fifty were lost to enemy action, another five crashed at home, three crashed in Russia on the first Tirpitz raid and four were transferred to other squadrons only to be lost by them, leaving just twenty-four still flying. As more came in, three of those twenty-four were transferred to a new squadron, the reforming No 189\. These were EE136 (93 operations), PB146 (36 ops), and LM745 (four ops). All three saw the war out, unlike so many others. During 189 Squadron's operational period featuring EE136 (1 November 1944 to 3 February 1945) thirty-four Lancasters came on the strength of which nine were lost in that time. Over the operational lifetime of Lancaster EE136, forty-two different skippers took her on her grand total of 109 trips. Altogether, 315 men flew on ops in this machine, many of them more than once - the most 'capped' captain, F/O Roy Lake, twenty-two times - and of those men, 101 were killed in other aircraft. Those are the statistics. But this is the story of the men behind the numbers. ...Show more

The Lightning Boys 2 - More True Tales from Pilots and Crew of the English Electric Lightning by Richard Pike

$35.00 NZD

Category: Aviation | Series: The\Jet Age Ser.

The sequel to the bestselling The Lightning Boys, Lightning Boys 2, now available in paperback for the first time, is a must-have companion and continues the theme of tales from pilots and other crew connected with this iconic aircraft, giving a rare insight into post-war fighter operations. In twenty s eparate stories to intrigue, amaze and amuse, the book has also been compiled and written by Richard Pike. The reader is taken to situations as diverse as intercepting sixty plus enemy aircraft, a desperate struggle in a cockpit flooded by tropical downpours, the difficulties of being affected by sudden and painful toothache at high altitude, and the curious encounter with an unidentified flying object. Yet another chapter paints a dramatic reconstruction of a scene in Germany when a Lightning, having entered an inadvertent, out-of-control spin, began an earthwards plunge towards a town center. ...Show more