U.S. Naval Aviation Hardcover - 2001

From the publisher

Working in conjunction with the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation, Levin Associates presents the story of Naval Aviation as it has never before been told. On May 8, 1911 the Navy ordered its first airplanes and United States Naval Aviation was born. The Navy's aviation arm was founded on the same courage and spirit that still define its ranks: self-taught flier Eugene Ely, wearing a football helmet and bicycle inner tube as a life preserver became the first man to both take off and land on the deck of a ship. Over the next nine decades Naval Aviation has roared forward on the backs of the most advanced aircraft and well-trained aviators and flight crews in the world. Now, 90 years after its founding, the spirit and essence of the United States Naval Aviation is celebrated for the first time in a definitive, magnificently illustrated, large format book published with the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation.Written by an outstanding team, including historians, authors, and experts associated with the National Naval Aviation Museum, and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, as well as several distinguished active and retired Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard officers, United States Naval Aviation has over 350 pages of riveting and informative text and stories of the Naval Aviation experience. Essays on Naval Aviation history and today's aviators, focus not only on the planes, helicopters, and aircraft carriers, but especially on the people that make it all work. The thoughtful incorporation of full-colour and vintage photography, portraits, recruiting posters, and historically inspired paintings complements the text while adding the excitement that only spectacular illustrations can bring to a book. United States Naval Aviation enables the history of America's naval aviators to be cherished permanently in a handsome package that every pilot and aviation personnel will be proud to own and -- with its unique medallion-inlaid cover -- to display.This book will be read again and again by past and present aviators, their families and friends, and the countless others that have been inspired by the exploits of the United States Naval Aviation.