Military Engineering

Kelly Johnson designed the Blackbird, a plane that flew non-stop from London to Los Angeles in less than four hours, outracing the sun and landing four hours before it had taken off, a remarkable feat - and this was more than 35 years ago. Johnson was the innovative genius behind Lockheed's "Skunk Works", and played a leading role in the development of more than forty aircraft, including some of America's most sophisticated planes such as the Constellation, Shooting Star, F-104, U-2, and the SR-71 Blackbird.

The continuing adventures of the survey starship Yellowjacket after an alien force larger than any in living memory sweeps through the worlds of the Engel Empire. Note: The Stars Dark series is an homage to thrilling pulp sci-fi of yesteryear. If you're interested in hard science fiction look elsewhere. But if you're looking for action-packed adventures on strange worlds with even stranger aliens, this series is for you!

In Too Far on a Whim, Tyler A. Pitrof presents a high-spirited revision of the US Navy's commitment to high-steam propulsion systems, the mainstay of its World War II fleets. Pitrof's research persuasively demonstrates that in its war against the Imperial Japanese Navy, the US Navy succeeded despite its high-steam propulsion systems rather than because of them. Pitrof provides an account that extends far beyond technology and into matters of naval hierarchies and bureaucracy, strategic theory, and ego.

Written by the Officer Commanding and former Red 1 Team Leader, Wing Commander David Montenegro, and full of never-before-shared tales from pilots past and present, this thrilling history is both a faithful record and a fascinating account of not only what it takes, but what it means, to be a Red Arrow.

A runaway proxy, a determined Alphan, and a searing claim that marks them both. Five months ago, Pei Ling Xiang’s life was turned upside down when Earth authorities broke into the bunker where her family had sheltered for the last eleven years, dragging her parents to prison and taking her and her sister to the Faction Embassy to be registered as proxies. When she learned she would be paired with an Alphan, she panicked and fled. If Brighton hadn’t taken her in, she would have been in a desperate situation. Once he catches her, she settles in with Zafer and grows to care for him, but ...

In the 1960s humans took their first steps away from Earth - and for a time our possibilities in space seemed endless. But in a time of austerity, and in the wake of high-profile disasters like Challenger, that dream has ended. In early 2011 Margaret Lazarus Dean traveled to Cape Canaveral for NASA's last three space shuttle launches in order to bear witness to the end of an era.

It all started with a virus that spread through the Earth, it was an uncontrollable pandemic. A slightly more virulent flu was called. Governments closed borders, not too many people were infected and died, the world economy stopped for a long time... That was not the biggest problem.

From the time G39, a marine rifleman in mankind’s distant future, is “born”, to the time he crash lands on an alien planet only a month later, his life is a dizzying onslaught of action and pain. Everything he does has to be in accordance with his superior’s wishes, or the control device implanted in the base of his skull will "correct" him…painfully.

When it comes to motley crews, the Blackout has most starships beat. But as a ruthless force swarms over the quadrant, crushing and enslaving all civilizations in its path, it falls to this unlikely band of non-heroes to turn the tide. If they don't kill each other first. Disperse, the third book in the Blackout series, is old-fashioned space opera at its best, perfect for fans of action-packed drama and fun! Note: The Blackout series is an homage to thrilling pulp sci-fi of yesteryear. If you're interested in hard science fiction look elsewhere. But if you're looking for action-packed ...

"What happens when goofballs go to war? Most Soldiers aren't the Infantry Boys, "running and gunning". People have seen a one sided, violent representation of the war in Iraq. Some Americans leave for war straight from their neighborhoods and families. Many of these citizen patriots have wicked skills and low impulse control. Men shooting guns in dramatic fashion is a tiny fraction of wartime activity.

The Army's wounded warrior First Lieutenant Petra Kayden Dace is "regrown" into a nationwide conspiracy to subjugate the American people. Using a new experimental project called "Cobalt", which regenerates DNA memory within its own cell structure, a secret government facility becomes a target by the conspirators as well as Petra along with the microchip in her brain called "Terprise", who gives Petra grief over her vanity and addiction to fructose products.

On 12th April 1981 a revolutionary new spacecraft blasted off from Florida on her maiden flight. NASA's Space Shuttle Columbia was the most advanced flying machine ever built - the high watermark of post-war aviation development. A direct descendant of the record-breaking X-planes the likes of which Chuck Yeager had tested in the skies over the Mojave Desert, Columbia was a winged rocket plane, the size of an airliner, capable of flying to space and back before being made ready to fly again.

The justification for the atomic bomb was simple: it would defeat Hitler and end the Second World War faster, saving lives. The reality was different. Fallout dismantles the conventional story of why the atom bomb was built. Peter Watson has found documents showing that long before the Allied bomb was operational, it was clear that Germany had no atomic weapons of its own and was not likely to. The British knew this, but didn't share their knowledge with the Americans, who in turn deceived the British about the extent to which the Soviets had penetrated their plans for the bomb.

When it comes to motley crews, the Blackout has most starships beat. But as a ruthless force swarms over the quadrant, crushing and enslaving all civilizations in its path, it falls to this unlikely band of non-heroes to turn the tide. If they don't kill each other first. Invade, the fourth book in the Blackout series, is old-fashioned space opera at its best, perfect for fans of action-packed drama and fun! Note: The Blackout series is an homage to thrilling pulp sci-fi of yesteryear. If you're interested in hard science fiction look elsewhere. But if you're looking for action-packed ...

More and more space arks are landing on Lumera. The humans' new home is breathtakingly beautiful, but dangerous plants and bestial predators punish every careless step. Sophisticated aliens keep themselves hidden, and they may be superior to humans. The human colony is beset by internal conflict. A civil war threatens.

Missions to alien planets have resulted in interactions with strange beings in the past, but never on this level. When Marine Corporal Goshawk becomes part of the search team tasked with locating some missing SEALs, he expected action and plenty of it. After all, they had to send in Marines to rescue SEALs. What he didn’t expect was that the mission would completely transform him, body and spirit. As new threats from strange beings continually challenge the team and their mission rapidly spirals out of control, odd allies emerge in unexpected places.

Five years have passed since Captain Maria Salus disobeyed orders by helping Ethan return planetside. But far from signaling the end of her military career, Maria’s actions opened the possibility of reconciliation between the UEC and GPS. But not everyone wants peace. Escaping planetside with the refugees, Maria again enlists the help of rangers, Ethan and Summer. Maria must find sanctuary from the planet’s deadly radiation, before Kurren’s crack military unit hunts her down. But the planetsiders have problems of their own.

The airplane changed the course of history. Above all, it changed the history of the United States. When the Wright brothers invented their flying machine, Americans lived in a nation of two dimensions, circumscribed by lines drawn on a conventional map. A century later, their nation existed - in fact, reigned - in three dimensions. Two million Americans slipped the surly bonds of earth daily, carried aloft by aircraft operating in every part of the world.

Is the conspiracy unraveling, or is it spinning itself into a more dangerous web? That becomes the constant question as Damien Stone and his crew are caught in a race against time. Old alliances are tested as new rivalries grow into something neither side expected. Friend or foe? Ally or double agent? The lines become blurred as the crew are pulled deeper into the intrigue. Has Damien really learned his lesson? Or is he just making the same mistakes in new ways and putting his trust in those who will hurt him? There’s only one way to find out.

The ongoing adventures of the Marathon, a gunship with a crew long on exotic creatures and short on common sense. They (almost) always get the job done. Eventually. Trapped is the third book in the Marathon series, an action-packed carnival ride of a space opera that will leave you breathless.