Biplane to Monoplane: Aircraft Development 1919 - 1939

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{detailed description}Volume 1 in Putnam's History of Aircraft series. Biplane to Monoplane Aircraft Development 1919-39
The world of aviation found itself in the doldrums following the armistice of 1918. Factories geared to the wartime mass production of engines and airframes suddenly found orders drastically cut back or cancelled, air arms were reduced to a fraction of their wartime strength, and the slowly developing postwar market for civil aircraft was swamped with cheap surplus military machines. Too many manufacturers scrabbled for too few military contracts, having found that the commercial market alone was insufficient to ensure their survival. Gradually the situation improved. Airlines stretched their spidery route webs across the globe, and the demand for bigger and faster passenger carriers, offering greater safety and comfort, was met by leading manufacturers such as Fokker, Farman, Handley Page, Curtiss, Junkers and Ford. As competition grew, a revolution took place in the USA. From Northrop, Lockheed, Boeing and Douglas came a new breed of advanced all-metal monoplanes heralding the dawn of a new era in the history of the aeroplane. Development was also fostered by competitive flying, most notably trailblazing long-distance flights, speed, range and altitude records, and air racing. All of these demanded pioneering research in the allied sciences and technologies: aerodynamics, structures, fuel, metallurgy and pressurisation. The military aeroplane, too, improved steadily, and with war clouds gathering in the 1930s designers and manufacturers strove to replace outmoded open-cockpit biplanes with sleeker and deadlier enclosed-cockpit monoplanes. Powering the new airliners and military aeroplanes were piston engines of unprecedented power and reliability, streamlined liquid- cooled in-lines and rugged air-cooled radials. Cockpits boasted new standards of instrumentation, and retractable undercarriages improved already smooth lines. In this volume, leading aviation writers record in broad perspective the key developments that earned the interwar era the title 'the Golden Age of Aviation'.
This volume includes:
Introduction
The Biplane's Fall from Favour
The Rise of Air Transport
Military Aircraft: the Late Developers
The Interwar Military Transport Aircraft
The Age of the Flying Boat
The Aeroplane at Sea
The Structural Revolution
Advances in Aerodynamics
Sophisticated Systems
Stowaway Wheels
Armament Development
Research and Test Flying
Aircraft Production Between the Wars
The Spanish Civil War
Index
{Author / Publisher / Date}by Philip Jarrett (ed.)
1997 1st edn. 264pp (large format)
{condition}fine, d/j rubbed at top edge, spine slightly faded, otherwise fine.
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