- Introduction
- The experimental era : U.S. Navy aviation before 1916
- Eyes of the fleet : how flying boats transformed War Plan Orange
- Ships in the sky
- Big guns versus wooden decks : naval aviation officer personnel, 1911-1941
- Admiral Joseph Mason "Bull" Reeves, father of navy carrier aviation
- Aviation in the interwar fleet maneuvers, 1919-1940
- The two-ocean Navy Act of 1940 : the impact on American preparedness for World War II
- U.S. aircraft carrier evolution, 1911-1945
- Foundation for victory : U.S. Navy aircraft development, 1922-1945
- Straight up : vertical flight in the U.S. Navy
- The transition to swept-wing jets
- Naval aviation in the Korean and Vietnam wars
- By land and sea : non-carrier naval aviation
- U.S. aircraft carrier evolution : 1945-2011
- Conclusions.
Published to coincide with the centennial celebration of U.S. Navy Aviation, this book chronicles Navy aviation from its earliest days, before the Navy's first aircraft carrier joined the fleet, through the modern jet era marked by the introduction of the F-18 Hornet. It tells how naval aviation got its start, profiles its pioneers, and explains the early bureaucracy that fostered and sometimes inhibited its growth. The book then turns to the refinement of carrier aviation doctrine and tactics and the rapid development of aircraft and carriers, highlighting the transition from propeller-driven aircraft to swept wing jets in the period after WW II. Land-based Navy aircraft, rotary-wing aircraft and rigid airships, and balloons are also considered in this sweeping tribute.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)
