Books by United States Air Force

The radical Douglas X-3 Stiletto was built primarily of titanium, and was intended to test high speed flight and low-aspect ratio wing design. Initial requirements indicated the aircraft would carry the J-46 engine and be capable of reaching cruising speeds above Mach 2.0. Problems with the J-46 engine, led Douglas engineers to substitute underpowered J-34 turbojets. Although the plane once achieved Mach 1.2 in a dive, it never went supersonic in level flight. Nevertheless, the plane was a valuable research tool and produced critical data about inertial coupling. The X-3 first flew in 1952 and was retired in 1956. Originally printed by the U.S. Air Force and NACA (later NASA), this hand- book provides a fascinating glimpse inside the cockpit of one of history's great planes. Classified "Restricted", the manual was declassified and is here reprinted in book form. Although slightly reformatted, care has been taken to preserve the integrity of the text.

The Air Force's first all-jet strategic bomber, the swept-wing Boeing B-47 Stratojet had a range of 3,500 nautical miles and a payload capacity of 20,000 pounds. It served as the mainstay of Strategic Air Command in the 1950s into the mid 1960s. The B-47 was an outgrowth of WWII research and development efforts, and the prototype aircraft first flew in December of 1947. The unique six-jet design featured twin engine pods on the wing near the fuselage, and one outboard. It also incorporated an elegant bicycle-type landing gear with two-wheel struts on the forward and aft fuselage and outrigger wheels. In 1956, over 1300 B-47s and 250 RB-47s were on alert. It was the high water mark for the aircraft, which was fully supplanted by the B-52 by 1967. This B-47 pilot's flight operating handbook was originally produced by the USAF. It has been slightly reformatted but is reproduced here in its entirety. It provides a fascinating view inside the cockpit of one of history's great planes.

Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Lewis F. Powell, Jr., was one of a small group of people specially selected to accept and integrate ULTRA, the most secret signals intelligence from intercepted and decoded German military radio transmissions, with intelligence from all other sources. From May 1944 to the end of the war in Europe, he served as the ULTRA officer on General Carl Spaatz's United States Strategic Air Forces staff. Earlier, Colonel Powell had served as an intelligence officer with the 319th Bomb Group, the Twelfth Air Force, and the Northwest African Air Forces. He finished the war as Spaatz's Chief of Operational Intelligence in addition to carrying out his ULTRA duties. The Air Force is grateful to Justice Powell for his generosity in giving his time and recollections so that his experiences can be of benefit, through the medium of history, to the Service today and in the future.