Download or read book High Altitude Spy Planes written by Bill Sweetman and published by Capstone. This book was released on 2008 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discusses the U-2 spy plane, its uses, engines, sensors, and future in the U.S. Air Force.
Download or read book Spy Planes written by David Baker and published by . This book was released on 1987 with total page 54 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discusses the history of surveillance from the sky and describes the development of different types of reconnaissance aircraft and their uses since World War II.
Download or read book Spyplanes written by Norman Polmar and published by Quarto Publishing Group USA. This book was released on 2016-12-20 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive history with descriptions of the world's most significant aircraft employed as "eyes in the sky."For as long as there has been sustained heavier-than-air human flight, airplanes have been used to gather information about our adversaries. Less than a decade after the Wright Brothers flew at Kitty Hawk, Italian pilots were keeping tabs on Turkish foes in Libya. Today, aircraft with specialized designs and sensory equipment still cruise the skies, spying out secrets in the never-ending quest for an upper hand.Spyplanes tackles the sprawling legacy of manned aerial reconnaissance, from hot air balloons to cloth-and-wood biplanes puttering over the Western Front, and on through every major world conflict, culminating with spyplanes cruising at supersonic speeds 85,000 feet above the Earth's surface. Authors Norman Polmar and John Bessette offer a concise yet comprehensive overview history of aerial recon, exploring considerations such as spyplanes in military doctrine, events like the Cuban Missile Crisis and the downing of Francis Gary Powers' U-2, the 1992 Open Skies Treaty, and the USAF's Big Safari program.Polmar and Bessette, along with a roster of respected aviation journalists, also profile 70 renowned fixed-wing spyplanes from World I right up to the still-conceptual hypersonic SR-72. The authors examine the design, development, and service history of each aircraft, and offer images and specification boxes that detail vital stats for each. Included are purpose-built spyplanes, as well as legendary fighters and bombers that have been retrofitted for the purpose. In addition, the authors feature preliminary chapters discussing the history of aerial surveillance and a host of sidebars that explore considerations such as spyplanes in military doctrine, events like the Cuban missile crisis and the downing of Francis Gary Powers' U-2, the 1992 Open Skies Treaty, and the USAF's current Big Safari program.From prop-driven to jet-powered aircraft, this is the ultimate history and reference to those "eyes in the skies" that have added mind-bending technologies, not to mention an element of intrigue, to military aviation for more than a century.
Download or read book Spy Planes written by Therese M. Shea and published by Gareth Stevens Publishing LLLP. This book was released on 2013-01-01 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today, the US military has spy planes that can fly faster than the speed of sound, take panoramic photographs in the blink of an eye, and fly so high that no bomb can reach them. It’s no wonder they want to keep their technology a secret. Readers take a thrilling peek into the world of secret missions and futuristic tools. They learn about the history of spy planes and the daring pilots that fly them. Accessible content will draw in military enthusiasts and James Bond fans alike. In-depth sidebars augment the text further, and colorful photographs of the latest plane models will engage readers throughout.
Download or read book The Black Watch written by Ernest Kellogg Gann and published by Random House (NY). This book was released on 1989 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Describes the planes, the missions, and the men who fly reconnaissance.
Download or read book Adventure As A US Air Force Pilot written by Nina Standafer and published by . This book was released on 2021-04-27 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Lockheed U-2, nicknamed "Dragon Lady", is an American single-jet engine, high altitude reconnaissance aircraft operated by the United States Air Force (USAF) and previously flown by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). It provides day and night, high-altitude (70,000 feet, 21,300 meters), all-weather intelligence gathering In a delightfully personal way, the author takes the reader through his adventures and escapades as an Air Force combat pilot who joined the select few who have flown the famous U-2 "spy plane." The author spent 17 years as a U-2 pilot and commander in that secretive intelligence collection program, followed by additional careers in commercial airline management and aviation education. Here he narrates aviation stories and anecdotes that lift the reader to the extreme heights of the U-2 and describes the hazards and travails awaiting those who fly at the edge of space. Buy this book now.
Download or read book The CIA and the U 2 Program 1954 1974 written by Gregory W. Pedlow and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 1998 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive & authoritative history of the CIA's manned overhead reconnaissance program (MORP), which from 1954 to 1974 developed & operated 2 extraordinary aircraft, the U-2 & the A-12 OXCART. Describes not only the program's technological & bureaucratic aspects, but also its political & international context. The MORP, along with other overhead systems that emerged from it, changed the CIA's work & structure in ways that were both revolutionary & permanent. The formation of the Directorate of S&T in the 1960s, principally to develop & direct reconnaissance programs, is the most obvious legacy of the events in this study.
Download or read book The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance written by Gregory Pedlow and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-03-15 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The CIA’s 2013 release of its book The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance 1954–1974 is a fascinating and important historical document. It contains a significant amount of newly declassified material with respect to the U-2 and Oxcart programs, including names of pilots; codenames and cryptonyms; locations, funding, and cover arrangements; electronic countermeasures equipment; cooperation with foreign governments; and overflights of the Soviet Union, Cuba, China, and other countries. Originally published with a Secret/No Foreign Dissemination classification, this detailed study describes not only the program’s technological and bureaucratic aspects, but also its political and international context, including the difficult choices faced by President Eisenhower in authorizing overflights of the Soviet Union and the controversy surrounding the shoot down there of U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers in 1960. The authors discuss the origins of the U-2, its top-secret testing, its specially designed high-altitude cameras and complex life-support systems, and even the possible use of poison capsules by its pilots, if captured. They call attention to the crucial importance of the U-2 in the gathering of strategic and tactical intelligence, as well as the controversies that the program unleashed. Finally, they discuss the CIA’s development of a successor to the U-2, the Oxcart, which became the world’s most technologically advanced aircraft. For the first time, the more complete 2013 release of this historical text is available in a professionally typeset format, supplemented with higher quality photographs that will bring alive these incredible aircraft and the story of their development and use by the CIA. This edition also includes a new preface by author Gregory W. Pedlow and a foreword by Chris Pocock. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.
Download or read book Spyplane written by Norman Polmar and published by Zenith Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Book discusses the requirement for and the design, development, and operation of the U-2, from 1954 when the design began, to the current overflights of the Balkans and Iraq. Includes extensive discussions of U-2 overflights of hostile countries (USSR, China, North Korea, North Vietnam) and NASA's use of the U-2.
Download or read book Low Altitude Large Scale Reconnaissance written by James W. Walker and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Stealth written by Peter Westwick and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2020 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story behind the technology that revolutionized both aeronautics, and the course of history.On a moonless night in January 1991, a dozen airplanes appeared in the skies over Baghdad. Or, rather, didn't appear. They arrived in the dark, their black outlines cloaking them from sight. More importantly, their odd, angular shapes, which made them look like flying origami, rendered themundetectable to Iraq's formidable air defenses. Stealth technology, developed during the decades before Desert Storm, had arrived. To American planners and strategists at the outset of the Cold War, this seemingly ultimate way to gain ascendance over the USSR was only a question. What if the UnitedStates could defend its airspace while at the same time send a plane through Soviet skies undetected? A craft with such capacity would have to be essentially invisible to radar - an apparently miraculous feat of physics and engineering. In Stealth, Peter Westwick unveils the process by which theimpossible was achieved.At heart, Stealth is a tale of two aerospace companies, Lockheed and Northrop, and their fierce competition - with each other and with themselves - to obtain what was estimated one of the largest procurement contracts in history. Westwick's book fully explores the individual and collective ingenuityand determination required to make these planes and in the process provides a fresh view of the period leading up to the end of the Soviet Union. Taking into account the role of technology, as well as the art and science of physics and engineering, Westwick offers an engaging narrative, one thatimmerses readers in the race to produce a weapon that some thought might save the world, and which certainly changed it.
Download or read book Area 51 written by Annie Jacobsen and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2011-05-17 with total page 604 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This "compellingly hard-hitting" bestseller from a Pulitzer Prize finalist gives readers the complete untold story of the top-secret military base for the first time (New York Times). It is the most famous military installation in the world. And it doesn't exist. Located a mere seventy-five miles outside of Las Vegas in Nevada's desert, the base has never been acknowledged by the U.S. government — but Area 51 has captivated imaginations for decades. Myths and hypotheses about Area 51 have long abounded, thanks to the intense secrecy enveloping it. Some claim it is home to aliens, underground tunnel systems, and nuclear facilities. Others believe that the lunar landing itself was filmed there. The prevalence of these rumors stems from the fact that no credible insider has ever divulged the truth about his time inside the base. Until now. Annie Jacobsen had exclusive access to nineteen men who served the base proudly and secretly for decades and are now aged 75-92, and unprecedented access to fifty-five additional military and intelligence personnel, scientists, pilots, and engineers linked to the secret base, thirty-two of whom lived and worked there for extended periods. In Area 51, Jacobsen shows us what has really gone on in the Nevada desert, from testing nuclear weapons to building super-secret, supersonic jets to pursuing the War on Terror. This is the first book based on interviews with eye witnesses to Area 51 history, which makes it the seminal work on the subject. Filled with formerly classified information that has never been accurately decoded for the public, Area 51 weaves the mysterious activities of the top-secret base into a gripping narrative, showing that facts are often more fantastic than fiction, especially when the distinction is almost impossible to make.
Download or read book Nasa Usra High Altitude Reconnaissance Aircraft written by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-07-18 with total page 106 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the equator, the ozone layer ranges from approximately 80,000 to 130,000+ feet which is beyond the capabilities of the ER-2, NASA's current high altitude reconnaissance aircraft. This project is geared to designing an aircraft that can study the ozone layer at the equator. This aircraft must be able to cruise at 130,000 lbs. of payload. In addition, the aircraft must have a minimum of a 6,000 mile range. The low Mach number, payload, and long cruising time are all constraints imposed by the air sampling equipment. A pilot must be able to take control in the event of unforseen difficulties. Three aircraft configurations were determined to be the most suitable for meeting the above requirements, a joined-wing, a bi-plane, and a twin-boom conventional airplane. The techniques used have been deemed reasonable within the limits of 1990 technology. The performance of each configuration is analyzed to investigate the feasibility of the project requirements. In the event that a requirement can not be obtained within the given constraints, recommendations for proposal modifications are given. Richardson, Michael and Gudino, Juan and Chen, Kenny and Luong, Tai and Wilkerson, Dave and Keyvani, Anoosh Unspecified Center AIR SAMPLING; AIRBORNE EQUIPMENT; AIRCRAFT CONFIGURATIONS; HIGH ALTITUDE; OZONE; OZONOSPHERE; U-2 AIRCRAFT; CRUISING FLIGHT; EQUATORS; MACH NUMBER; PAYLOADS...
Download or read book High Altitude Reconnaissance Aircraft Design written by D. Poladian and published by . This book was released on 1989 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Unlimited Horizons written by Peter W. Merlin and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Designed as a stopgap measure to provide overhead reconnaissance capability during the early years of the Cold War, the versatile U-2 has since evolved to meet changing requirements well into the 21st century. Though many authors have documented the airplane's operational history, few have made more than a cursory examination of its technical aspects or its role as a NASA research platform. This volume includes an overview of the origin and development of the Lockheed U-2 family of aircraft with early National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) involvement, construction and materials challenges faced by designers and builders, releasable performance characteristics and capabilities, use of U-2 and ER-2 airplanes as research platforms, and technical and programmatic lessons learned.
Download or read book Blackbird written by James Hamilton-Paterson and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-09-05 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fascinating story of the spy plane SR-71 Blackbird—the fastest manned aircraft in the history of aviation. The SR-71 Blackbird, the famed “spy” jet, was deliberately designed to be the world's fastest and highest-flying aircraft—and its success has never been approached since. It was conceived in the late 1950s by Lockheed Martin's highly secret 'Skunk Works' team under one of the most (possibly the most) brilliant aero designers of all time, Clarence “Kelly” Johnson. Once fully developed in 1964, the Blackbird represented the apogee of jet-powered flight. It could fly at well over three times the speed of sound above 85,000 feet and had an unrefueled range of 3,200 nautical miles. It flew with great success until 1999). Despite extensive use over Vietnam and later battlefields, not one was ever shot down (unlike the U2 in the Gary Powers incident). The Blackbird's capabilities seem unlikely ever to be exceeded. It was retired because its function can be performed by satellites—and in today's steady trend toward unmanned military aircraft, it is improbable that another jet aircraft of this speed and caliber will ever again be conceived.
Download or read book High Altitude Reconnaissance Aircraft written by Renee A. Yazdi and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
