Airplane Stories and Histories

About the Book

Airplane Stories and Histories chronicles two hundred years of aviation highlights including the exploits of pioneers such as Sir George Cayley, the Wright brothers, Charles Lindbergh, Wiley Post, Amelia Earheart, R. J. Mitchell, Sir Geoffrey de Havilland, Allan Loughead, Frank Whittle, and Kelly Johnson. Notable events and developments are discussed, such as the first flight, first transatlantic flight, first around-the-world flight, the jet engine, Spitfire, Mustang, Mosquito, Comet, Concorde, Boeing 747, C-5 Galaxy, Avro Arrow, C-130 Hercules, and the advent of unmanned vehicles (drones). An extensive bibliography is provided for those who wish to explore subjects at greater depth.

About the Author

Norman Currey was born on the North Sea Coast if Scarborough, Yorkshire, in 1926. His first experience with aircraft was in the Air Training Corps from 1941 to 1943, and after high school he attended the de Havilland Aeronautical Technical School for four years at Harfield, a few miles north of London. After graduating, he worked as a stress engineer at de Havilland on the Comet, and then sailed to Canada where he was a design engineer at Avro Aircraft for 10 years, working mostly in its Initial Projects Office. He then worked Lockheed for 30 years on the C-130, C-5, JetStar and conducting research and development in their Preliminary Design department. Since retirement he did some consulting and presented lectures to the South Korean Agency Defense Development. He is a Chartered Engineer (UK) and a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, and has published many articles, presented papers at two SAE Systems Conferences, and has published a book on landing gear design (AIAA).