Titanic's Lifeboats
A dramatic retelling of the personal stories of the men, women, and children survivors of the Titanic lifeboats.Foot by foot Titanic's lifeboat No.11 slowly jerked its way down the sides of the great ocean liner as it slipped beneath the cold, dark waters of the Atlantic. For the fifty or so men, women and children crammed into the lifeboat, survival was all that mattered. Even then, though, the American fashion designer Edith Rosenbaum Russell ferociously clung to her pig-shaped music box until she was rescued, its tunes helping to quell the fears of the frightened children onboard. Unlike so many of those onboard Titanic that fateful night in April 1912, everyone in lifeboat No.11 would be rescued.Bridget McDermott had brought a new hat before she set off for America. Bridget climbed into one of the lifeboats, believed to be No.13, before realising she had left her precious purchase behind. She climbed out of the lifeboat, retrieved her hat from her cabin, ran back to the open deck and jumped fifteen feet from a rope ladder onto the lifeboat. Other garments played an important part in the survival of one of the lifeboats which sprung a leak, with the people onboard using clothes to plug the hole.Charles Joughin, the head baker aboard Titanic, floated in the near-freezing ocean for around two hours before being pulled out of the water onto one of the lifeboats. He had not succumbed to the cold due to the amount of alcohol he had drunk.Masabumi Hosono, a civil servant from Tokyo, was the only Japanese passenger onboard Titanic and, being a man, he accepted that the women and children first policy had sealed his fate. However, when a crew member shouted that there were two spaces left in a lifeboat, No.10, Hosono jumped in. As Japanese honour considered it far better for a man to suffer an honourable death than to survive in a shameful manner, when he reached his homeland he was ostracized by his family and lost his job.When it sailed, Titanic carried twenty lifeboats that, between them, could accommodate 1,178 people, a little over half of the 2,209 on board the night the liner sank. Eighteen of these life-saving craft were used that night, but tragically only 706 people found a space in them. This is the dramatic and moving story of the men, women and children who made it into the lifeboats that fateful night in April 1912.
Tall Ships 2026 12 X 12 Wall Calendar
SEAS THE DAY - The Tall Ships 2026 calendar sets sail with majestic images of towering masts, full sails, and historic vessels that capture the timeless romance of the sea. Each month brings a new breathtaking view sure to inspire your inner adventurer.
Tenerife 1977
On March 27, 1977, two fully loaded Boeing 747s met in the fog on the single runway of Tenerife's Los Rodeos Airport. In seconds, the world's deadliest aviation disaster unfolded, killing 583 people and sending shockwaves through the global aviation community. Yet from the wreckage came transformation.This book tells the complete, fact-based story of Tenerife-how a crowded ramp, deteriorating weather, strained communication, and momentary misjudgments converged into tragedy. It follows the disaster from the events on the ground to the desperate aftermath, the investigations, and the sweeping reforms that reshaped air travel forever.Meticulously researched and written as a narrative history, Tenerife 1977: How Two 747s Changed Safety Forever is not only the story of loss but also of change. It shows how lessons carved from catastrophe laid the foundation for today's safer skies, where pilots, controllers, and regulators still study Tenerife to ensure such a disaster never happens again.
Trijet Showdown
The 1960s and 1970s were a golden age of commercial aviation-a time when airlines expanded across continents, manufacturers pushed technological boundaries, and passengers embraced jet travel as never before. At the heart of this era stood three legendary aircraft: the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar, the McDonnell Douglas DC-10, and the Boeing 727. Each was born from unique engineering choices, market pressures, and political maneuvering. Each promised to redefine how the world flew. And each left behind a legacy still felt today.Trijet Showdown: L-1011 vs. DC-10 vs. 727 traces the full story of these remarkable aircraft, from their design battles and production struggles to their dominance of airline fleets and eventual eclipse by more efficient twinjets. It explores the technical brilliance of the TriStar, the rugged versatility of the DC-10, and the commercial juggernaut of the 727. Along the way, it reveals how these aircraft shaped the fortunes of airlines, the strategies of manufacturers, and the experiences of millions of passengers.This is not just the tale of airplanes-it is the story of an industry in transition, balancing ambition with risk, and innovation with economic reality. The trijet era was short-lived but unforgettable, a bridge between the pioneering days of jet travel and the modern era of efficiency-driven aviation.
The A320 Family
The Airbus A320 family is more than just an aircraft series-it is the machine that redefined modern aviation. From its groundbreaking fly-by-wire controls to its unmatched production milestones, the A320 has transformed the way the world flies. With over 11,000 aircraft delivered and thousands more on order, it is the backbone of airlines across every continent, equally at home with low-cost giants and full-service flag carriers.This book charts the full journey of the A320 family, from its origins as Airbus's gamble to break Boeing's dominance, to its evolution into the world's most successful narrow-body jet. It covers every aspect of its impact: technological leaps in the cockpit, improved passenger experiences, military and corporate applications, and its adaptability in times of crisis.With detailed accounts of orders, milestones, and global operators, the book also shows how the A320 family became not just a commercial success but a symbol of accessible, sustainable, and flexible air travel. It is the definitive chronicle of the aircraft that blurred the line between narrow-body and wide-body capabilities, and continues to shape the future of flight.
A380
The Airbus A380 was the aircraft that redefined ambition in commercial aviation. Towering above all rivals as the world's largest passenger airliner, it promised luxury in the skies, efficiency through scale, and a new era of global connectivity. From its dramatic launch with Singapore Airlines in 2007 to its unmatched reign with Emirates, the A380 became both an icon of travel and a lightning rod for debate over the future of flight.This book chronicles the full arc of the A380's story: the audacious engineering that made it possible, the airlines that embraced it, and the production troubles, shifting market realities, and twin-engine revolution that undermined its business case. It explores how passengers adored its comfort and space, how airports strained to accommodate it, and how a pandemic hastened its early retirements.Part triumph, part cautionary tale, the A380's journey is set against the backdrop of aviation history. It remains a cultural icon, remembered as both the last of the great four-engine giants and a symbol of innovation's fragile balance with market forces.
Engines of Partnership
From the pioneering CFM56 to the cutting-edge LEAP, CFM International has reshaped the skies and redefined what commercial engines can achieve. Born from a daring Franco-American alliance between General Electric and Safran, CFM's story is one of unlikely collaboration, relentless engineering, and unmatched reliability. For decades, its engines have powered the aircraft that carried billions of passengers, underpinned the rise of global low-cost carriers, and set new benchmarks in efficiency and dependability.This book traces that remarkable journey, from the joint venture's early struggles to win airline trust, through the CFM56's historic success as the world's best-selling jet engine, and into the new era of sustainable aviation with the LEAP program. With detailed analysis of engineering innovation, market battles, production challenges, and the people who made it possible, Engines of Partnership provides the definitive account of how CFM became inseparable from the evolution of modern aviation.
737
For more than half a century, one aircraft has defined modern air travel more than any other: the Boeing 737. From its modest beginnings as a short-haul jet in the 1960s to its reign as the world's most produced airliner, the 737 has carried billions of passengers, shaped airline strategies, and survived crises that might have ended lesser aircraft programs.This definitive history traces the 737's journey across generations-from the pioneering -100 and -200 models through the "Classics" of the 1980s, the Next Generation workhorses of the 1990s, and the ambitious MAX series of the 2010s. Along the way, it explores the aircraft's central role in deregulation, the rise of low-cost carriers, global expansion, and even military and government service.Yet the 737 story is not one of triumph alone. It is also one of setbacks, tragedies, and controversies, most notably the MAX grounding that shook aviation to its core. Through it all, the jet endured, adapted, and returned to service-cementing its place as a symbol of resilience and reinvention.737: The Jet That Changed the World is more than an aircraft's biography. It is a chronicle of how one airplane came to embody the hopes, anxieties, and ambitions of an industry, a machine that connected continents and transformed the very nature of flight.
Mh370
On March 8, 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 vanished from the skies, beginning one of the most perplexing mysteries in aviation history. The Boeing 777, carrying 239 passengers and crew on a routine journey from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, disappeared without warning. What followed was the largest, most expensive, and most complex search effort ever mounted-spanning years, oceans, and international borders.This book traces the story from the flight's final routine messages to the discovery of debris on far-flung coastlines. It details the unprecedented search operations across the Indian Ocean, the satellite data analysis that reshaped investigative methods, and the painstaking efforts to understand what could have happened to the aircraft. Alongside the technical and logistical challenges, it reflects on the human cost-the families waiting for answers, the communities involved in the search, and the enduring grief and resilience.Drawing on confirmed facts, official reports, and scientific evidence, MH370: What We Know, What We Searched, What Remains offers a comprehensive chronicle of the disappearance, the search, and its legacy. It is both a record of an extraordinary investigation and a sober reminder of the limits of modern technology in solving a mystery that continues to resonate worldwide.
de Havilland
From fragile wooden biplanes to the world's first commercial jetliner, de Havilland charted one of the boldest arcs in aviation history. Founded by Geoffrey de Havilland in the early years of flight, the company became synonymous with elegance, ingenuity, and innovation. Its aircraft trained thousands of pilots, set speed and distance records, and transformed both military and civilian aviation.The legendary Mosquito, built of wood yet faster than most fighters, proved decisive in the Second World War. The Tiger Moth taught generations of pilots to fly, while the Beaver and Twin Otter conquered the world's frontiers. And in 1949, the Comet leapt into the jet age, revolutionizing air travel and changing the face of global transportation.This book chronicles de Havilland's complete journey-from pioneering air races of the 1930s to Cold War jets and commuter airliners-while tracing its lasting legacy in the skies today. More than just a company history, it is a story of vision, triumph, tragedy, and reinvention.
Airbus
For decades after World War II, the skies were dominated by American giants-Boeing, McDonnell Douglas, and Lockheed. Europe, fragmented and reeling from economic and industrial decline, struggled to assert itself in the rapidly growing commercial aviation market. Airbus: Building Europe's Airliner Empire tells the compelling, fact-driven story of how a bold multinational vision evolved into one of the most successful industrial projects in modern history.From the early frustrations and political compromise of the Airbus consortium's founding, to the engineering triumphs of the A300, A320, and A350, this book charts the rise of a company that defied expectations and reshaped global aviation. It explores game-changing innovations like fly-by-wire controls, the challenges and triumphs of the superjumbo A380, and Airbus's response to fierce competition with Boeing in both widebody and narrowbody markets.Through detailed narrative and a deep understanding of industrial policy, aerospace engineering, and international cooperation, this book traces how Airbus navigated crises, transformed its corporate structure, and embraced global production to become the world's leading commercial aircraft manufacturer.With more than five decades of achievements, controversies, and bold decisions, Airbus's story is more than that of a corporation-it is a testament to the power of unity, vision, and technological ambition on a global scale.
Lockheed's Commercial Gamble
Lockheed's name is etched in aviation history as a symbol of daring engineering, military power, and boundary-pushing innovation. Yet its ventures into the commercial airliner market tell a story of breathtaking ambition and equally formidable challenges. From the elegant curves of the Constellation, a piston-powered masterpiece that defined luxury air travel in the postwar years, to the advanced but ill-fated TriStar, Lockheed's journey through the skies was as much about corporate risk as technological achievement.This book traces the full arc of Lockheed's commercial aircraft story, beginning with its transition from war contracts to passenger service, through the glamorous era of the Super Constellation, the troubled Electra, and the triumphant yet costly L-1011 TriStar. It examines not only the planes themselves but also the competitive pressures, airline relationships, political negotiations, and market forces that shaped Lockheed's fortunes.Drawing on decades of aviation history, Lockheed's Commercial Gamble captures both the triumphs and missteps of a company that helped redefine global air travel, only to ultimately withdraw from the passenger market. It is a story of innovation, rivalry, risk, and legacy-an essential chronicle for aviation enthusiasts, historians, and anyone intrigued by the high-stakes drama of the aerospace industry.
The Douglas DC-3
The Douglas DC-3 is more than an airplane-it is the machine that changed the world. Born in the mid-1930s as a practical response to commercial aviation's needs, it quickly became the gold standard for reliability, efficiency, and design. Airlines built their fortunes on it. Armies relied on it to carry troops, tow gliders, and drop supplies in history's defining conflicts. Governments, explorers, and relief workers trusted it to reach the unreachable.While its contemporaries faded into memory, the DC-3 refused to retire. It endured through the Jet Age, adapted into cargo carriers, firefighting tankers, aerial surveyors, and humanitarian lifelines. From the icy runways of Antarctica to the grass strips of Africa, from military airfields to airshow displays, the aircraft's unmistakable profile and throaty radial engines remain symbols of an era-and of persistence itself.This book tells the complete story of the DC-3: its origins, its wartime heroics, its global reach, and its astonishing survival into the 21st century. With detail and narrative flow, it captures how an aircraft became both an engineering milestone and a cultural icon, still alive nearly a century after its first flight.
Atlantic Jet Age
When the Boeing 707 first crossed the North Atlantic in 1958, it rewrote the rules of aviation. No longer did travelers have to endure multi-stop propeller journeys or lose entire days in transit. The 707 offered speed, reliability, and scale on a level never before imagined, shrinking the ocean into a manageable overnight hop.This book tells the full story of how the Boeing 707 reshaped the world's most competitive air corridor. It traces the aircraft's design lineage, its entry into service with pioneering airlines, and the way it forced airports, regulators, and governments to rethink the very meaning of long-haul travel. From the prestige flag carriers of Europe to the ambitious national airlines of Africa and the Middle East, the 707 became both a tool of commerce and a symbol of modernity.Beyond passenger service, the book examines how derivatives like the KC-135 supported Boeing's production line, how hushkits and regulatory battles altered aircraft economics, and how freighters and conversions extended the type's lifespan. Detailed appendices provide variant data, key milestones, operator lists, and surviving aircraft-ensuring the 707's Atlantic legacy is preserved for historians, enthusiasts, and aviation professionals alike.Richly researched and narratively told, Atlantic Jet Age positions the Boeing 707 as the practical start of true mass-market intercontinental jet travel, a machine that made the Atlantic smaller and the world more connected.
Regional Rivalry
In the final decades of the twentieth century, two companies from opposite corners of the globe changed the way the world traveled. Bombardier of Canada and Embraer of Brazil transformed short- and medium-haul aviation with their regional jets, reshaping airline route networks, redefining passenger expectations, and rewriting the economics of air travel. What began as bold experiments in the 1980s and 1990s grew into a full-fledged rivalry that spanned continents, boardrooms, and airports everywhere.This book tells the complete story of that competition-from the first CRJ and ERJ deliveries, through the explosive growth of the 1990s, the global expansion of the 2000s, and the high-stakes strategic gambles of the 2010s. It follows Bombardier's audacious leap with the CSeries, Embraer's disruptive E-Jet and E2 families, the impact of new entrants from Asia and Russia, and the lasting consequences of mergers, alliances, and exits.Drawing on fact-based narrative and global context, Regional Rivalry charts how these two unlikely challengers-once dismissed by larger aerospace giants-rose to dominate the skies between 50 and 130 seats. Their innovations not only powered regional airlines but reshaped the very architecture of global aviation.
Atr
For four decades, one aircraft family has quietly shaped the way the world travels. The ATR 42 and ATR 72 are not flashy long-haul jets or luxury flagships, but they are indispensable. From the Caribbean to the South Pacific, from the islands of Indonesia to the frozen runways of Canada, ATR turboprops have carried millions of passengers where no other aircraft could.This is the definitive history of ATR - a European success story born in Toulouse, yet made global through its unmatched ability to connect communities. It traces the company's origins, technological breakthroughs, and worldwide adoption, showing how ATR became the backbone of regional aviation. Along the way, it highlights stories of lifeline routes, airlines built around the ATR, and the aircraft's resilience through economic downturns, competition, and even a pandemic.Rich in narrative detail and global in scope, ATR: Turboprop Titan reveals how practicality, reliability, and adaptability turned a humble regional aircraft into a global icon.
Implementing Competency-Based Training and Assessment in Aviation
Implementing Competency-Based Training and Assessment in Aviation explains in detail, with examples, how to practically and effectively implement CBTA and EBT in aviation. It demonstrates how to develop competence models, assess workplace competence, and the role of competence models in recruitment and selection.Taking the framework published by ICAO, the book breaks it down into its component parts and explains how to identify the changes in behavior needed to enable individuals to act safely and efficiently in hazardous environments. It outlines the framework that underpins training intervention design and investigates tactics of intervention based on current evidence around efficacy. The book acts as a guide to constructing classroom activities that serve as vehicles for addressing the link between declarative and process knowledge under controlled conditions.Airline personnel, pilots, and aviation industry professionals involved in performance assessments and training will benefit from the book.
Bristol Brabazon
Open any book on strange or abandoned aircraft projects, and you will probably find the Bristol Brabazon featured. Over the years, this huge piston-engine powered, propeller-driven airliner, designed for the vital trans-Atlantic routes, has been referred to as the 'white elephant of the skies', or even 'one of the world's worst aircraft'. But, as the author reveals, such sentiments may well be undeserved.With a wingspan and size larger than the jumbo jets we are familiar with today, the Brabazon was designed to fly just sixty or so passengers in supreme luxury from London to New York. During their flight, these lucky individuals could while away the hours at the cocktail bar, enjoy the onboard movie theatre, or have a rest in the fully furnished sleeping compartments.Born during the Second World War, the Brabazon first flew in 1949. Maybe, the author asks, it was just ahead of its time. The twin-deck design, for example, is mirrored today in the Airbus A380 airliner, and several of the world's airlines have begun to express interest in using large aircraft configured to provide comfort and style for a limited number of passengers who would pay for such as experience.This book is more than just a technical review. Using a combination of existing documentation, archive material and original research, the author sets out to place the whole story of the Brabazon firmly in its cultural social and political context.How and why was this giant aircraft conceived? What led to it being cancelled in 1952, and the one flying prototype being sold for scrap after millions had been invested in its design, construction and marketing. Who were the people behind the revolutionary technical advances made during its creation? Why was a whole village demolished to accommodate this giant of the skies, and how did that lead to the eventual development of the Concorde SST?Whether you are an aviation enthusiast, interested in engineering history, political sciences or just the history of aviation industry, this study of the Brabazon will help you decide whether it was an engineering masterpiece or a great white elephant.
Evaluating Operational Readiness for Fixed-Wing Tactical Aviation Units
An Analysis of the Impact of Base Support Resources on the Availability of Air Mobility Command Aircraft
Locating Search and Rescue Stations in the Aegean and Western Mediterranean Regions of Turkey
