By Nicholas A. Veronico

• A complete guide on how to research and locate aircraft wrecks
•Ten stories of crashed aircraft - thoroughly researched, from California to North Carolina
•A chapter taking the reader from start to finish in finding an aircraft
•Almost 500 aircraft crash sites listed by latitude and longitude
•64 Black & White illustrations

The complete guide to researching, locating, and possibly recovering aircraft wrecks. Wreck Chasing is now being done by most major aviation museums in an effort to acquire aircraft types that were once thought to be non-existent. Also, many individuals are combining aviation interest, research, and outdoor activities such as hiking and camping in personal searches for aviation history. Hundreds of aircraft crash sites, some remote, some accessible, lay dotted across the U.S. and Canada, many of them are rare vintage military aircraft. This book provides the methods and techniques from the start to guide you to and aircraft wreck. Much of the book is devoted to a selection of stories by individuals active in Wreck Chasing, who tell their techniques and stories behind the aircraft they have pursued. These include a B-24 bomber in Arizona, a P-63 Kingcobra in Oregon, and a Navy F2H jet fighter located less than a mile from a busy thoroughfare in the San Francisco Bay area. Also included are detailed appendices with the known location of nearly 500 aircraft crash sites listed by state. Included also are a selection of photos showing actual crash sites, historical photos, and examples of official records.

Published by Pacific Aero Press. 8.5"x11". Softbound. 84 pages.

I just manage to obtain five more copies. After they have sold that is it!

See Shipping Charge below
To order Wreckchasing, please send check or money order for $30.00 + S&H to:
AAIR
7644 S. 15^th Ave.
Phoenix, AZ 85041

By Gary Pat Macha & Don Jordan

•The 3rd Edition is greatly expanded with 27 detailed stories  by Don Jordan
•Details on more than 1500 aircraft accidents throughout California
• Date, aircraft type, serial number (if known), location
• Find out what happened to occupants and why plane crashed
• Historic and modern crashes from 1909 to 1996
• Resource Directory to help you with your research
• More than 350 photographs of California aircraft accidents

The most complete guide to aircraft wrecks in California, this book is a must for anyone who is researching aircraft crashes or would like to visit crash sites. Most listings have general directions to the the sites and a narrative on why the plane crashed and what happened to the pilot and other occupants. It is organized by region and will serve as an excellent starting point for your research and aviation archaeology excursions.

Published by Info Net Publishing. 6"x9". Softbound. 528 pages.

To order Aircraft Wrecks in the Mountains and Deserts of California, please contact:
Don Jordan at his web site: http://www.cyberlynk.com/djordan/

Book Review  

Martyn D. Tagg
Cultural Resources Manager
HQ Air Force Materiel Command

“Routine Training Flight:”  The Legacy of World War II Aircraft Training Accidents at Alamogordo Army Air Field, New Mexico.  Holloman Air Force Base Cultural Resources Publication 7 (October 2000, Matthew Vandiver and William B. Boehm)

 “As rifle fire shattered the winter afternoon and Taps reverberated over snow covered hills, residents. . .said goodbye to one of their own. . .[The] mother received a letter of condolence from the office of Henry “Hap” Arnold, commanding general of the Army Air Forces.  It stated in part that her son had ‘lived up to the promise of his training period and developed into a conscientious, trustworthy pilot.’ ” This incident, as quoted from George R. Herman’s “A Bad Day at Douglas Army Air Field” (The Journal of Arizona History 36 (4), 1995, 379), was repeated over and over again throughout the country during WWII as military aircrews died in plane crashes while training for combat.  As the daylight bombing campaign in Europe reached its height, casualties mounted and replacement crews were needed.  This resulted in shortened training schedules, a large number of training-related aircraft crashes, and crew fatalities as described by Herman: “The cost of a conflict is often tallied in battle casualties.  But the enormity of mobilization for WW II can also be seen in the observation that four years of war claimed the lives of 14,900 airmen in 6,000 fatal crashes of military aircraft within the continental United States.  This one fatal day at Douglas [Army Air Field—referring to a crash of four training planes in one day that claimed six lives] was a microcosm of that larger sacrifice.”  These stateside fatalities represent 12.5% of the approximately 120,000 U.S. Army Air Forces casualties during the war.

Alamogordo Army Air Field (AAAF-- now Holloman Air Force Base) in southern New Mexico was a Heavy and Very Heavy bomber training crew base during WW II.  Here, crews completed final flight training in B-17s, B-24s, and B-29s before receiving overseas assignments for the war in Europe and the Pacific.  These crews spent many hours in the classroom at the base, as well as flying training missions throughout the United States and over ranges such as the Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range.  As a training base, AAAF saw its share of tragedies – in one month in 1943 over 100 airmen died in training-related accidents!  The authors determined that as many as 117 accidents occurred during “routine training flights” that involved AAAF-based aircraft between 1942 (when the base opened) through 1946 (when the last bomber left).   To give the reader an impression of the risks inherent to the aircrew before they even faced the enemy, in 78 crashes alone, 540 crewmembers were involved and 171 were fatally injured

 This report, part of the Holloman Air Force Base Cultural Resource Publication series, documents the history of the base and the associated bombing range during WW II and details 78 of the 117 aircraft crashes that occurred during that time (only those for which information was located).  In addition to discussing the crashes, the authors describe attempts to identify four crash sites that have been found on the base.  The primary data was drawn from official crash records (Report of Major Accident and Report of Aircraft Accident) located on microfilm at the U.S. Air Force archives at Maxwell Air Force Base, Georgia.  Interspersed with this data are reflections from interviews with five veterans who served at AAAF during the war.  The report is also illustrated with 24 historic photographs and maps and 13 recent photographs of the four HAFB crash sites.     

There was nothing unique about the training that took place at AAAF or the accidents that occurred during this training.  These events were repeated many times over at hundreds of other bases throughout the country.  Thisreport documents the role of one such base in the struggle against Fascism, and it is dedicated to those who paid the ultimate price for that victory.

By Troy Turner

•Features almost 100 WWII accidents in Colorado.
•Detailed stories on the accidents.
• Photographs of the crash sites and the crew.
• Visit a crash site over 50 years later with the survivors who remember those who didn't.

8.5"x11". Softbound. 130 pages.

Sold Out!
I am trying to get more in stock.

• •True stories of courage and bravery behind the crash sites
• •Details of the research and recoveries
• •More than10 WWII crash sites in England
• •194 Black & White illustrations

A chronicle of aviation archaeology. Final Flights gives the complete story of the excavation of the sites as well as details behind the causes of the crashes. In this book, you follow the author throughout the entire process of documenting a site, from the initial research to placing the artifacts in museums. Learn the trials of gaining permission from land owners and the Ministry of Defense as well as dealing with difficult excavation environments, from the marshes of England to live 500 pound bombs. Discover the excitement of learning about our history through aviation archaeology.

Published by Haynes Publishing. 6-3/4"x 9-1/2". Hardbound. 256 pages.

To order Final Flights, please contact:
Zenith Books
(800) 826-6600

• • Memories are interwoven with fascinating examples of aviation archaeology

Here are 18 true life, moving illustrated accounts, never before published, about USAAF airmen flying in England during WWII. Some are the result of detailed research into aviation crash sites, others the memories of those lucky enough to survive the war, or from letters they wrote home to loved ones at the time. There are dramatic stories of spiraling dog-fights and appalling tragedies that will shock the reader, but we also hear of more mundane but no less vital everyday missions. Some stories are brought right up to date more than 50 years later with emotional reunions between airmen and their East Anglian hosts.

Published by Haynes Publishing. 6-3/4"x 9-1/2". Hardbound. 192 pages.
To order Fighter Stories, please contact:
Zenith Books
(800) 826-6600

Previously unpublished photographs rescued from destruction at the end of WWII provide the basis for this gripping collection of stories about the American 8^th Air Force based in East Anglia. Although the events in this book happened over half a century ago, they are described with such detail and urgency that the reader is left with a feeling curiously affected. There are graphic accounts of combat, collisions, battles against the elements and human error. The author, with an eye for human interest, puts over not only what the airmen did, but how they felt too. Readers are trapped, struggling inside the spinning bomber. They share the agony of watching a broken fuselage spilling aircrew into space, those without parachutes clutching the air with terrible futility. But there were fun times too- happy recollections, deftly described.

Published by Haynes Publishing. 6-3/4"x 9-1/2". Hardbound. 224 pages.
To order Bomber Stories, please contact:
Zenith Books
(800) 826-6600

Here is the first full account of USAAF Mission 311 on 22 April 1944 when American Bombers suffered their highest ever losses to German intruders. The book- which covers many famous USAAF, RAF, and Luftwaffer units- describes the ferocious action over Europe when the American Fortresses and liberators attacked Germany's largest railway marshaling yard at Hamm, and the subsequent carnage and confusion over England as they limped home, covertly followed by Luftwaffer fighters. Packed with powerful human interest stories, aviation archaeology, history and technical data. Night of the Intruders chronicles the mission fully from the initial planning stage to its bloody finale, untangling the facts behind what went so horribly wrong.

Published by Haynes Publishing. 6-3/4"x 9-1/2". Hardbound. 232 pages.
To order Night of the Intruders, please contact:
Zenith Books
(800) 826-6600

In The Bomber Mountain Crash, Scott Madsen reconstructs the strange tale of a young Army Air Force B-17 bomber crew headed for England in June, 1943. An ironic sequence of events join the youthful airmen in tragedy high in Wyoming's Big Horn Mountains. It is a war story, a romance, a mystery -- a TRUE story you won't soon forget.

It would be great if all crash sites were documented this well!

Published by Mountain Man Publishing. 5.5"x8.25". Softbound. 105 pages.

To order The Bomber Mountain Crash: A Wyoming Mystery, please contact:

Scott Madsen at his web site.(link dead)

 

•Discover Aviation Archaeology
•Exclusive Photographs
•Visit Remote Crash Sites
•New Discoveries
•The latest military and civil mishaps
•Relive Historic Tragedies

Unfortunately Lost Birds discontinued publishing their magazine. AAIR has a few back issues for sale. E-mail us for more information.

Videos

Pat Macha has a video on the history of California aircraft mishaps.
For more information:

Info Net Publishing
P.O. box 3789
San Clemente, CA 92674
(714) 489-9292
infonetpub@aol.com

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$9.00 International