FlyingVizsla

Growing up in suburban Perth in the 1920s, the two Durack girls were fascinated by tales of the pioneering past of their father and grandfather overlanding from Queensland in the 1880s and setting up four vast cattle stations in the remote north. A year spent together on the stations in their early twenties ignited in the sisters a lifelong love of the Kimberley, along with a growing unease about the situation of the Aboriginal people employed there. Through war, love affairs, children and eventual old age, the Duracks continued to write and paint – their closely intertwined creative lives always shaped by the enduring power of the Kimberley region. With unprecedented access to hundreds of private family letters, unpublished memoirs, diaries and family papers, Brenda Niall gets to the heart of a uniquely Australian story that spans the twentieth century. Mary Durack married Horrie Miller, WWI pilot and founder of MacRobertson Miller Airlines.

The power and the glory of the D-Day landings as recounted by the men who fought their way ashore. A tale told by a master of prose this account is among the best you'll ever read of the greatest amphibious invasion ever. 12,000 aircraft, 7,000 vessels and three-quarters of a million men committed by both sides of the flight on D-Day.

Peter FitzSimons brings to life the story of the battle of Le Hamel - the Allied triumph masterminded by Australian commander Sir John Monash, whose strategies became the blueprint for modern warfare The Battle of Le Hamel on 4 July 1918 was an Allied triumph, and strategically very important in the closing stages of WWI. A largely Australian force, commanded by the brilliant Sir John Monash, fought what has been described as the first modern battle - where infantry, tanks, artillery and planes operated together as a coordinated force. Monash planned every detail meticulously, with nothing left to chance. Integrated use of tanks, planes, infantry, wireless (and even carrier pigeons!) was the basis, and it went on from there, down to the details: everyone used the same maps, with updated versions delivered by motorbike despatch riders to senior commanders, including Monash. Each infantry battalion was allocated to a tank group, and they advanced together. Supplies and ammunition were dropped as needed from planes. The losses were relatively few. In the words of Monash: 'A perfected modern battle plan is like nothing so much as a score for an orchestral composition, where the various arms and units are the instruments, and the tasks they perform are their respective musical phrases.' Monash planned for the battle to last for 90 minutes - in the end it went for 93. What happened in those minutes changed for the rest of the war the way the British fought battles, and the tactics and strategies used by the Allies. Peter FitzSimons brings this Allied triumph to life, and tells this magnificent story as it should be told.

The secret and dangerous operations of Australia's Pacific War Catalina crews told for the first time.

This book offers an intimate account of the Battle of Britain, related by young pilots in their most unguarded moments, talking with their chaplain. Guy Mayfield was the Station Chaplain at the Royal Air Force's Duxford base in the summer of 1940, and his diary is full of stories told by the pilots in his charge during that period of heroism and danger. Mayfield's notes on his conversations deliver unique insights into the mindset of these young men as they took to the skies night after night, risking death to defend their homes and countrymen. Rounded out with photographs of the men and a context-setting narrative by historian Carl Warner, the book gives us moving insights into the men who, through their commitment and sacrifice, ensured that Britain would survive its finest hour.

A man whose life was filled with secrets, including two wives on two continents at the same time. Bert Hinkler lived a life of soaring highs and turbulent lows, a restless, adventure-filled existence as one of the Lords of Distance in the golden age of flight.

Patrick Gordon 'Bill' Taylor was a pioneer of Australian aviation. As a fighter pilot during the First World War, he was awarded the Military Cross and discovered a life-long passion for flight and air navigation. Returning to Australia after the war, he became a close friend of Charles Kingsford Smith; they went on to form an incredible flying partnership, setting records around the globe. It was on a flight across the Tasman in Smithy's famous Southern Cross that Taylor earned the Empire's highest award for civilian bravery, the George Cross. With one engine out of action and another fast running out of oil, Taylor repeatedly climbed out of the cockpit to transfer oil to the stricken engine and keep the Southern Cross flying - all this while suspended over the sea in a howling slipstream. After the deaths of his friends Charles Ulm and Kingsford Smith in separate accidents, Taylor became Australia's greatest surviving aviator, pioneering vital new trans-oceanic air routes during the Second World War and receiving a knighthood in honour of his services to flight. The Man Who Saved Smithy is the enthralling account of his remarkable life and achievements.

A treasure of stories about these adventurous men and their planes in an age of flight infinitely more exciting than the supersonic era.

Ernest K. Gann’s classic memoir is an up-close and thrilling account of the treacherous early days of commercial aviation. In his inimitable style, Gann brings you right into the cockpit, recounting both the triumphs and terrors of pilots who flew when flying was anything but routine.

Translated from the Russian. Drawing on original interviews with survivors, Lyuba Vinogradova weaves together their untold stories. Her panoramic account of these women's lives follows them from society balls to unmarked graves, from landmark victories to the horrors of Stalingrad. Battling not just fearsome Aces of the Luftwaffe but also prejudice from their own leaders, women such as Lilya Litvyak and Katya Budanova are brought to life by the diaries and recollections of those who knew them, and who watched them live, love, fight and die.

Discusses human errors which impact the safety of air travel, including fatigue, communication, education, stress, boredom, conformity, and illusion

So how do you test drive a Jumbo? And why did a future civil aviation director once taxi a plane down Perth's main street to attend a ball? From the ridiculous to the downright dangerous, the story of Australian aviation is full of tales of adventure and nation building. It is also a story about tragedy and eccentric characters with wild larrikin spirits. In this surprising, fascinating and sometimes very funny collection, Jim Eames brings together the great forgotten and untold tales of Australian aviation. There are the stories of the Catalina flying boats that were Australia's only aviation link to the UK during World War II and that of Qantas' record-breaking non-stop flight across the world. And what of the long- forgotten hijacks and the dramas of the Darwin airlifts after Cyclone Tracy? Entertaining, nostalgic and very readable, the stories Jim tells will certainly make you want to take to the skies.