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Air Force: A Pictorial History of American Airpower PDF

248 Pages·1957·41.362 MB·English
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Preview Air Force: A Pictorial History of American Airpower

U PICTORIAL HISTORY AMERICAN AIRPOWER OF *9 \ •* S MARTIN CAIDIN ^^R ,..,1 --- J ^^^^^HH^HHH||. H| IN COOPERATION WITH THE UNITED STATES AIR FORGE $10.00 AIR A Pictorial History of American Airpower MARTIN CAIDIN In cooperation with the U. S. Air Force Although several "firsts" distin- — guish this valuable — and handsome volume, possibly the most important is that this is the first book wholly con- cerned with the exciting concept of air- power; it is a book about airplanes, aviation, and airmen only insofar as they are related to the central theme of American airpower. It is also the first book done with the complete coopera- tion of the U. S. Air Force and, coming on the 50th anniversary of that organi- zation, is a major contribution to the literature of the conquest of the air. Every single photograph in the U. S. Air Force files in the Pentagon (some 850,000) have been examined by Mr. Caidin, plus thousands more from the Institute of Aeronautical Sci- ences and private and industrial collec- tions. The result is the four hundred photographs here—clear, startling and dramatic. Only action photographs have been used, whether of men or machines. (continued on back flap) r? \ FORCE AIR A Pictorial History of American Airpower Some other books by MARTIN CAIDIN THE LONG NIGHT VANGUARD! WORLDS IN SPACE ROCKETS BEYOND THE EARTH ROCKETS & MISSILES: PAST & FUTURE ZERO! (with M. Okumiya & J. Horikoshi) THE ZERO FIGHTER (with M. Okumiya & J. Horikoshi) SAMURAI! (with S. Sakai & F. Saito) -»^-.-.'J^^ti'p-'iV-^,--7:v'v«s»'>' i^HHiiiiMHrfi MHiiiHi aiR' A Pictorial History of American Airpower MARTIN By CAIDIN In cooperation with tlie U. S. Air Force RINEHART & COMPANY, INC. New York Toronto for Colonel "Chuck" Whitehead, USAF AU6 m.- Published simultaneously in Canada by Clarke, Irwin & Company, Ltd., Toronto © 1957 by Martin Caidin Printed in the United States of America All rights reserved Layout by the author Typography by Edwin H. Kaplin Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 57-6575 Foreword AIR FORCE is a pictorial documentation of fifty years of the development of airpower within the United States Air Force and its preceding organiza- tions. It is not a book about airplanes, or even about airplanes within the We Air Force. have presented here only those airplanes which made definite and vital contributions to the development of airpower, either through their application in war or as vehicles used in peacetime to develop the techniques of air combat and to further a broader understanding of the proper use of the aerial weapon. The reader will find many historical photographs which are reproduced here for the first time. Indeed, we have been unusually fortunate in being able to demonstrate pictorially, for example, that virtually every method of bombing attack employed by the AAF in World War II had been practiced and developed before that war started. We have attempted to demonstrate the development and the use of the airplane through the years not merely as a shooting and a bombing plat- form, but as a iveapons system. Many of the photographs herein are not of airplanes, but of the men who flew them, of the many branches of the vast logistical army which enabled the weapons to be used. Airpower is a hand- maiden to the man on the ground; it has always been so, and so it will alway be. The writer personally searched through every single file in the vast USAF storage facility in the Pentagon. The historical files of the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences were generously made available to the author. Headquarters, USAF, requested its field organizations to participate in the enormous research project which went into the making of air force, and field OIS personnel performed a yeoman's job in forwarding material for consideration in this book. Several private collections of historical photo- graphs were opened for research, and the voluminous files of the major air- craft companies were examined for additional material. The contents of the book were studied in joint and lengthy conferences by members of the Historical Division, Air University, USAF, by members of air staff and policy divisions, Headquarters, USAF. Official records and documents which have never been seen by the public eye were plumbed to assure that air force woidd be the most authentic book possible on this subject. It would be difficult to list here all those persons and institutions whose contributions and long hours of effort made this book possible. The author wishes, however, to thank particularly Lt. Colonel Gordon C. Furbish, Chief, Still Picture Section, Office of Information Services, for "bird-dog- ging" much of the research effort. No two people worked harder than Mrs. Margaret Abendschein and Mrs. B. L. Hardesty, PRSD, USAF, to complete the Pentagon research work; their efforts were aided in no small degree by Mr. Joseph L. Albright. Flizabeth Brown of the I. A. S. was more than gen- erous in researching thousands of pictures for historical material, and special thanks are due to Peter M. Bowers for his World War I research effort. Captain James Sunderman, of the USAF Magazine and Book Branch, per- formed invaluable service in attending to many research problems, and I am particularly grateful for his assistance. Special thanks are due to Major Ray- mond E. Houseman, who has w^orked with the writer for many years in accumulating data and photographic material; to Major Keith M. Garrison, who proved particularly adept at ferreting out rare material; and. Captain Carl B. McCamish, who provided the writer with invaluable research mate- A rial not available in any other form. personal vote of thanks goes to Stewart Richardson; and, above all, to my editor, Robert D. Loomis, who was of enormous personal and professional assistance through every stage of the project. MARTIN CAIDIN \

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