World Speed Record Aircraft: The Fastest Piston-Engined Landplanes Since 1903

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{detailed description}World Speed Record Aircraft traces the development of propeller-driven aeroplanes in terms of speed.
Beginning with the Wright biplanes, Bleriots and other pioneering types, the author traces the development of racing and record-breaking aeroplanes through the biplane era to the Macchi-Castoldi M.C.72, which still holds the seaplane record, the record-breaking Heinkel He 100 and Messerschmitt Me 209 and the types such as the North American Mustang and the Grumman Bearcat now dominating the racing scene in the United States.
First published by the Deutsches Museum as Weltrekordflugzeuge, the work is divided into three main sections up to 1940; a further section from 1940 to the present covers speeds of over 800 km/h.
Appendices record flights which lasted less than a minute, as in the case of the Wright Flyer in 1903, through to the North American Mustang and Grumman Bearcat speed records of the 1980s. There are technical details of the aircraft which include a large number of unbuilt projects. World Speed Record Aircraft is an important book for those who delight in the history of man's quest for speed and who have an interest in the technical advances which have been made while pushing flying machines to their very limits, and sometimes beyond.
Cover illustration: An original painting by Wilfred Hardy G.Av.A. which depicts Conquest I, a modified Grumman Bearcat. Flying Conquest I at Edwards AFB in August 1969 Darryl Greenamyer achieved an average speed of 776.449km/h.
{Author / Publisher / Date}by Ferdinand C. W. Käsmann
1990 1st edition. 241pp
{condition}near fine, d/j spine very slightly faded and rubbed at top edge
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