Walter J. Boyne

A pair of bicycle shop owners struggle with their father's disapproval and the workings of such figures as Samuel Langly and Alexander Graham Bell, who sabotage and compete against their efforts to develop the first powered aircraft.

It's usually called the Yom Kippur War. Or sometimes the October War. The players that surround it are familiar: Sadat and Mubarak, Meir and Sharon, Nixon and Kissinger, Brezhnev and Dobyrnin. It was a war that brought Arab and Jew into vicious conflict. A war in which Israel almost unleashed her nuclear arsenal and set two superpowers on a treacherous course of nuclear escalation. And a war that eventually brought peace. But a peace fraught with delicate tensions, disputed borders, and a legacy of further bloodshed. The Two O'Clock War is a spellbinding chronicle of the international chess game that was played out in October 1973. It is a story of diplomacy and military might that accounts for many of the dilemmas faced in the present-day Middle East. This is a war that Israel never thought was possible. Surprised by the fury and excellent execution of the Arab onslaught, and perhaps more than a little complacent, Israel suddenly found itself on the point of losing a war because of a lack of ammunition, planes and tanks. The United States, after much vacillation, finally elected to help Israel, beginning a tremendous airlift (code name: Operation Nickel Grass) which incurred the wrath of the Arab states, and their sponsor, the Soviet Union. Fortunately the airlift came just in time for Israeli ground forces to stabilize their positions and eventually turn the tide in the Sinai and Golan Heights. And it was all made possible by an operation that dwarfed the Berlin Airlift and the Soviets' simultaneous efforts in Egypt and Syria. The Two O'Clock* War is bound to become the definitive history of a war that quite literally approached Armageddon.

Before the war-torn world of A Dewdrop Away, there existed a different world, a world where magic was more than a myth. Young Tiallin is part of this world, and as far as he knows, his colony is the only one of its kind left in Arborand. None of the other squirrel races seem to want anything to do with the magic-wielding, aloof white squirrels. To honor his eleventh season, Tiallin is awarded the fortune of working for blind King Sirius, who has grown paranoid due to the mysterious fate of the last white king. When Tiallin’s job becomes to investigate the king’s suspicions, he finds he knows even less about his own colony than he thought. Can Tiallin trust anyone when everyone, including his own family, seems to harbor their own secrets? Meanwhile, Edelle, a dutiful fox squirrel from a close knit community, embarks on a journey to save her colony from a crippling and puzzling famine, and Lute, a mixed breed misfit and former thief, is on the run from his second home and a crime he insists he didn’t commit. What happens when the destinies of three very different squirrels collide and intertwine and they are simultaneously forced to face the truth about themselves and the danger that has been patiently stalking them all from the beginning?

Beyond the Horizons: The Lockheed Story is the story of those turbulent eighty-two years during which Lockheed achieved fantastic successes and endured occasional failures. Lockheed aircraft set innumerable records and were flown by great pioneering aviators such as Amelia Earhart, Wiley Post, and Howard Hughes. Lockheed engineers achieved fame usually reserved for film stars: Men like the great Kelly Johnson and Ben Rich advanced the world of aviation with their genius, and were honored as legends in their own time. Yet the secret of Lockheed lies in the spirit of family that illuminated the corporation over the years and permitted it to gain great triumphs and survive great tragedies. Over eight decades, Lockheed's unique corporate culture has enabled the company to thrive despite fierce competition. Making the right choices in leadership and technology at the right time contributed to their success, and here is the inside story of the people responsible for transforming Lockheed into the most profitable, prestigious, and influential company in the aerospace industry.

A comprehensive history of the U.S. Air Force examines its leaders, victories, and flight technology, from the earliest incarnations to the stealth bomber

In 1927, the Mississippi River swept across an area roughly equal in size to Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Vermont combined, leaving water as deep as thirty feet on the land stretching from Illinois and Missouri south to the Gulf of Mexico. Close to a million people - in a nation of 120 million - were forced out of their homes. Some estimates place the death toll in the thousands. The Red Cross fed nearly 700,000 refugees for months. Rising Tide is the story of this forgotten event, the greatest natural disaster this country has ever known. But it is not simply a tale of disaster. The flood transformed part of the nation and had a major cultural and political impact on the rest. Rising Tide is an American epic about science, race, honor, politics, and society. Rising Tide begins in the nineteenth century, when the first serious attempts to control the river began. The story focuses on engineers James Eads and Andrew Humphreys, who hated each other. Out of the collision of their personalities and their theories came a compromise river policy that would lead to the disaster of the 1927 flood yet would also allow the cultivation of the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta and create wealth and aristocracy, as well as a whole culture. In the end, the flood had indeed changed the face of America, leading to the most comprehensive legislation the government had ever enacted, touching the entire Mississippi valley from Pennsylvania to Montana. In its aftermath was laid the foundation for the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Clash of Titans covers every aspect of the sea war, including the contributions of the lesser naval powers, France, Italy and the Soviet Union, as Walter J. Boyne evaluates strategies, analyzes major battles and examines the leading personalities on both sides. Both Germany and Japan, says Boyne, had their best chances at victory early in the war: Germany's U-boat fleet, small in number at the beginning of the war, threatened to starve England of food and fuel. The Japanese navy, highly trained and with the best torpedoes, optical instruments and pyrotechnics in the world, humiliated the U.S. Navy in one defeat after another. Yet, as time passed, the two great democracies, Britain and the United States, resilient and possessed of the productive power to create huge, technologically advanced navies, prevailed. Clash of Titans recounts all of the famous sea battles of World War II, weaving them together into a narrative that illuminates the strengths and weaknesses of each navy. The German submarine force, despite hard living conditions and high casualty rates, fought well to the end. The Italian Navy, despite several defeats, remained a threat until the surrender and was chiefly responsible for sustaining Axis forces in North Africa. The Japanese navy, which excelled in night fighting, was distinguished by brilliant commanders. The British navy demonstrated its pluck in a dozen hard engagements, from its slashing attack on the Italian fleet at Cape Matapan to its defeat of the Bismark. But it was the American navy that made the most dramatic comeback, recoiling from the terrible defeat at Pearl Harbor to win a decisive victory at Midway only six months later.

Clash of Wings is the first popularly written, comprehensive account of the role of air power over land and sea in World War II. Col. Walter J. Boyne, USAF (Ret.), brings extensive experience and an expert knowledge to this lively history. World War II was the first major war in history in which air power played a decisive role. Yet even today, fifty years after the events, there is still some disagreement about the lessons of the war. In this analysis of the major air powers, Col. Boyne offers some fascinating and surprising conclusions:. Air superiority in Europe was not won until American bombers were used as bait to lure the German fighters up to be destroyed. The Soviet Union's Air Force has been terribly underrated; its key role in turning back the Nazi invasion is still not fully appreciated. The Japanese Air Force, while initially superb in equipment and training, was too small to engage in a world war; its initial successes derived from British and American unpreparedness. Later, the Japanese were reduced to futile, suicidal kamikaze tactics. The Germans did not realize the huge number of aircraft they needed until it was too late. The Allies were slow to use air power effectively, but when they did, they changed the course of the war. The Axis powers never altered their fundamental strategies, even as those strategies failed. Boyne carefully analyzes the important technological breakthroughs, such as radar, which gave the RAF the decisive advantage in the Battle of Britain, and the jet plane, which came too late to save Germany. He sheds new light on the controversies over the strategic bombing of Germany and Japan and the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Clash of Wings also profiles the important, often colorful figures who directed the major air campaigns, among them Generals Arnold, Spaatz, LeMay, and Doolittle in the U.S.; Air Marshals Dowding and Harris in Britain; Reichsmarschall Goring and Generalleutnant Adolf Galland in Germany; Admiral Yamamoto in Japan; and General Balbo in Italy. Boyne discusses the principal air campaigns, including the invasions of Poland and Western Europe, the long hard fights in the desert, the mammoth campaign in Russia, and the day and night bombing campaigns, as well as the violent carrier battles that transformed war at sea from Pearl Harbor to Okinawa and beyond. In the process he applies his vast knowledge to critically evaluate all of the famous planes, both fighters and bombers, that made history, among them the Spitfire, Mustang, Hellcat, Fortress, Liberator, Messerschmitt, Thunderbolt, Zero, Shturmovik, and the B-29. He also analyzes lesser-known planes as well, including the Gladiator, Falco, Helldiver, Owl, and Oscar. Authoritatively researched and vividly written, Clash of Wings is a fresh, comprehensive look at pivotal events of World War II in the air.

Miss Amory Lorrimer, sole support for her 2 elderly aunts, accepts a job as social secretary for the wealthy Whitney family. While not included in the family, she is called upon occasionally to fill in at meals for missing guests. Upon her arrival, she meets a nephew of the house, Teddy, who is an accomplished pilot. Amory learns that Teddy's next flight will be dangerous but will set records if successful. She promises to pray for his safe return and gives him her copy of the New Testament to carry and read. After numerous reports of Teddy's progress, the family's routine is thrown aside when no further word comes and search parties are dispatched. In the meantime, another family nephew, a fine minister, is the target of a beautiful but scheming houseguest who plans to bring him down. The persistence of prayer plays a huge part in the story.