What they didn’t want you to know
“We all watched in shock and disbelief when Challenger was lost. Probably no one felt more disappointment and regret than Allan McDonald, who had warned us not to launch that day. His story tells of loss, grief, and the eventual rebuilding and recovery.”–Robert “Hoot” Gibson, former Space Shuttle pilot and commander
“A major contribution to a difficult episode in the history of human spaceflight.”–Roger D. Launius, Division of Space History, Smithsonian Institution
“McDonald tells the heartbreaking tale of how he saw his words of warning ignored, and the fateful consequences of that decision.”–Donald C. Elder III, Eastern New Mexico University
On a cold January morning in 1986, NASA launched the Space Shuttle Challenger, despite warnings against doing so by many individuals, including Allan McDonald. The fiery destruction of Challenger on live television moments after launch remains an indelible image in the nation’s collective memory.
In Truth, Lies, and O-Rings, McDonald, a skilled engineer and executive, relives the tragedy from where he stood at Launch Control Center. As he fought to draw attention to the real reasons behind the disaster, he was the only one targeted for retribution by both NASA and his employer, Morton Thiokol, Inc., makers of the shuttle’s solid rocket boosters. In this whistle-blowing yet rigorous and fair-minded book, McDonald, with the assistance of internationally distinguished aerospace historian James R. Hansen, addresses all of the factors that led to the accident, some of which were never included in NASA’s Failure Team report submitted to the Presidential Commission.
Truth, Lies, and O-Rings is the first look at the Challenger tragedy and its aftermath from someone who was on the inside, recognized the potential disaster, and tried to prevent it. It also addresses the early warnings of very severe debris issues from the first two post-Challenger flights, which ultimately resulted in the loss of Columbia some fifteen years later.
“Sometimes, on certain mornings in early fall, when there is a light fog and the air holds a hint of moisture, I can recall so clearly the sound of a single’s exhaust. The mist put a layer of moisture on the chrome, and I’d wipe dew off the seat with a rag, tickle the carb and mount the bike. Using the compression release, I’d kick the piston through until it was on compression stroke and kick it without the compression release, maybe once, maybe more, until it fired. The exhaust was crisp, sharp, with a bark as I cracked the throttle.”
This book contains oral histories, essays, a long poem about riding motorcycles in the 1950s. First-hand accounts by guys who had the experiences. A journey into memory, back to a time that has to be called the Golden Age of Motorcycles, British bikes– BSA, Triumph, AJS, Matchless, Norton, Velocette –had invaded roads and race tracks previously dominated by Harley-Davidson and Indians. If there was a rule it was “run what ya brung,” never mind about insurance, licenses, headlights, mufflers, crash helmets. There was never a time when so many were so free on two wheels.
“Riding Bike in the Fifties” is jammed with first-hand accounts of riding and racing motorcycles in the 1950s and vintage black and white photographs and illustrations. Topics range from “What We Wore,” “Where We Rode,” to “The Morning Speed Run,” and “Three-Wheeling.”
The OFFICIAL 2012 Race Video 2 disc DVD
Reno 2012 – After the tragic events at Reno 2011 the future of the World’s Fastest Motorsport was unknown. Thankfully, through the tireless work of the Reno Air Race Association, the Cities of Reno and Sparks, the State of Nevada, and many others who devoted their time and efforts assured that the world’s most unique racing event would continue, at least for this year.
2012 was a year of rebuilding, not only for the Reno Air Race Association, the race teams, and the fans, but also for the video production team. This year we have two goals with the official DVD and HD Blu Ray video production. The first is that if you were here in attendance we wanted to provide you with a memory of what you experienced as well as to take you to some places that you weren’t able to get to, behind the scenes and up close and personal with the pilots, crew and performers. Secondly, if you weren’t able to attend the event in person, we wanted to provide you with something that would allow you to experience for yourself what it was like to be here with as many of the sights, sounds and smells that we could capture and contain with the capabilities of today’s video distribution technology.
This year’s video production is a tribute, a tribute to everyone that was affected and touched by the events of Friday September 16, 2011.
We kick things off with some thoughts from key individuals that give some insight in this area over the last year. We will feature an interview with each of the racing class President’s talking about the planes, the pilots, the course and how they’ve prepared for racing in 2012.
You’ll see highlights of all the medal races for each of the 6 classes and hear from each of the winners about how it was out on the course for each of them during the race. Included will be air show performances and interviews with Clay Lacy and Joe Clark flying the Lear Jet, Jim Peitz doing aerobatics in a very unassuming looking Bonanza, Kent Pietsch thrilling the crowd with his dead stick performance and landing his Interstate Cadet on the top of a specially modified truck bed as they both move down the runway.
The Patriot Jet Team excites the crowd with military precision putting their L-39’s through a great routine celebrating the red, white and blue of America. David Martin, always a crowd favorite, flies an amazing and award winning routine in his CAP 232 and shows why he has won both individual and team medals in multiple World Aerobatic Championships.
We’ll get a look at the F-22 Raptor, the U-2 as it flies by and some of the other crowd pleasing aircraft that were part of this year’s Reno 2012 air show performances, and even some that weren’t!
In addition to some other pleasant surprises you’ll find on the video we’re including a very special interview with Mr. Robert “R.A. Bob” Hoover and Mr. Clay Lacy sitting down together to talk about their first meeting, becoming great friends, and working together over the year’s.
You don’t want to miss hearing from Bob Hoover, also known as “The Pilot’s Pilot” and from Clay Lacy who, as far as we can best determine, has the greatest number of flight hours of any living human today, and he continues to increase that each time he takes to the skies today!
Run Time 6 hours
The GTA. An acronym for the lightened Gran Turismo: three letters deeply engraved in the collective memory of all fans – and not only – in the world of motor racing. Of the life and miracles performed by the machine from the House of Biscione, everything is now known: this book aims to tell the lesser-known part of the story about the GTA – its project, its technical side, the evolution that it has known over the years – until we get to to its incredible record of victories, unique in the history of sports cars. Vladimir Pajevic, passionate about the Alfa Romeo brand and at the time gentleman-driver, and Gian Luigi Picchi, great champion of Italian motorsport, who with the GTA won the European Touring Car Championship in 1972, wrote this book to answer questions (frequently asked and less so) about the GTA in plain and simple language. Despite the prevailing technical color of the material, it is a manual that can also offer an unskilled audience an overview of all the relevant technical data, as well as the direct experience of racing the GTA by Gian Luigi Picchi, one of the best voices from the glory days of the legendary car.
Text English and Italian
The world got a little smaller in July 1949 when the first jet-powered airliner took to the skies barely four years after the end of the Second World War.Not only was the de Havilland Comet 1 was a lot faster than previous airliners, it could fly higher and further. It was packed with new technology but, perhaps most importantly for those early passengers, it was a quiet, luxurious and even pleasant experience, something that could never be said for the noisy piston-engine aircraft that came before.The Comet’s leadership in jet travel for the future was assured until aircraft began crashing. The first ones were put down to pilot error but two disastrous events in 1954 grounded the fleet and Britain’s advantage over the rest of the world was lost. Boeing caught up with its ubiquitous 707 and the Comet was destined to become but a memory.However, rising from the ashes came a new Comet – one that was bigger and more powerful than before and designed for completely different roles. Where the first Comets had provided an expensive and plush way to travel for the rich few, the new Comet 4s carried more passengers to a multitude of destinations inevitably becoming key carriers for the early package holidaymakers. At the same time they became vital strategic transports for the RAF as the British Empire receded.This book tells the full story of the world’s first jet-powered airliner, from its remarkable beginnings, through its early flight trials program to its entry into service. The type’s military career is also covered, as is its construction; also included in this volume are details of the numerous variants produced and those still surviving as exhibits today. There are also twenty-four superb artworks by world-renowned aviation illustrator Juanita Franzi.
Whenever the airship flew over a village, or whenever she flew over a lonely field on which some peasants were working, a tremendous shout of joy rose up in the air towards Count Zeppelin’s miracle ship which, in the imagination of all who saw her, suggested some supernatural creature. As this paean to the Zeppelin from an early-20th-century issue of the German newspaper Thüringer Zeitung makes clear, the airship inspired a unique sense of awe. These phenomenal rigid, lighter-than-air craft―the invention of Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin (1838-1917)―approached the size of a small village. Although they moved slowly, there was no mistaking their exciting―or ominous―potential. Friends of the machine believed that it would revolutionize commerce, carry scientists to otherwise inaccessible places, and deliver bombs with great accuracy. Before the airplane proved its reliability and superior practicality―and before the fiery crash of the Hindenburg in 1937―Zeppelins made a deep impression on the minds of Europeans, especially in Germany.
In Zeppelin! Guillaume de Syon offers a captivating history of this technological wonder, from development and production to its impact on German culture and society. De Syon chronicles the various ways in which the airships were used―transport, war, exploration, and propaganda―and details the attempts by successive German governments―autocratic, democratic, fascist― to co-opt Count Zeppelin’s invention. Between 1900 and 1939, Germans saw the Zeppelin as a symbol of national progress, and de Syon uses the airship to better understand the dynamics of German society and the place of technology within it. Though few people actually flew in any of the 119 Zeppelins built, the rigid airship made one of the strongest impressions of any flying machine on Europe’s collective memory. Six decades later, there is still a mystique surrounding these technological leviathans, one that Zeppelin! addresses with insight and wit.
The OFFICIAL 2012 Race Video Blue Ray DVD
Reno 2012 – After the tragic events at Reno 2011 the future of the World’s Fastest Motorsport was unknown. Thankfully, through the tireless work of the Reno Air Race Association, the Cities of Reno and Sparks, the State of Nevada, and many others who devoted their time and efforts assured that the world’s most unique racing event would continue, at least for this year.
2012 was a year of rebuilding, not only for the Reno Air Race Association, the race teams, and the fans, but also for the video production team. This year we have two goals with the official DVD and HD Blu Ray video production. The first is that if you were here in attendance we wanted to provide you with a memory of what you experienced as well as to take you to some places that you weren’t able to get to, behind the scenes and up close and personal with the pilots, crew and performers. Secondly, if you weren’t able to attend the event in person, we wanted to provide you with something that would allow you to experience for yourself what it was like to be here with as many of the sights, sounds and smells that we could capture and contain with the capabilities of today’s video distribution technology.
This year’s video production is a tribute, a tribute to everyone that was affected and touched by the events of Friday September 16, 2011.
We kick things off with some thoughts from key individuals that give some insight in this area over the last year. We will feature an interview with each of the racing class President’s talking about the planes, the pilots, the course and how they’ve prepared for racing in 2012.
You’ll see highlights of all the medal races for each of the 6 classes and hear from each of the winners about how it was out on the course for each of them during the race. Included will be air show performances and interviews with Clay Lacy and Joe Clark flying the Lear Jet, Jim Peitz doing aerobatics in a very unassuming looking Bonanza, Kent Pietsch thrilling the crowd with his dead stick performance and landing his Interstate Cadet on the top of a specially modified truck bed as they both move down the runway.
The Patriot Jet Team excites the crowd with military precision putting their L-39’s through a great routine celebrating the red, white and blue of America. David Martin, always a crowd favorite, flies an amazing and award winning routine in his CAP 232 and shows why he has won both individual and team medals in multiple World Aerobatic Championships.
We’ll get a look at the F-22 Raptor, the U-2 as it flies by and some of the other crowd pleasing aircraft that were part of this year’s Reno 2012 air show performances, and even some that weren’t!
In addition to some other pleasant surprises you’ll find on the video we’re including a very special interview with Mr. Robert “R.A. Bob” Hoover and Mr. Clay Lacy sitting down together to talk about their first meeting, becoming great friends, and working together over the year’s.
You don’t want to miss hearing from Bob Hoover, also known as “The Pilot’s Pilot” and from Clay Lacy who, as far as we can best determine, has the greatest number of flight hours of any living human today, and he continues to increase that each time he takes to the skies today!
Run Time 6 hours
Published to mark the 50th anniversary of John Surtees becoming Formula 1 World Champion, in 1964, this long-awaited book is a photographic memoir by the only man to have won World Championships on motorcycles and in cars. Containing nearly 300 photographs from Surtees’ own collection as well as from the world’s finest motorsport picture libraries, this major book presents a complete visual record of Surtees’ life accompanied by fascinating commentary written in collaboration with co-author Mike Nicks. Royalties from sales of the book will go to the Henry Surtees Foundation, which was set up to honour the memory of John’s son Henry, who was killed in a freak accident at Brands Hatch in 2009.
• The early years (up to 1952): a childhood around motorcycle racing, apprenticeship with Vincent, then racing a Vincent Grey Flash.
• Getting established (1953–55): Moving on to ride mainly Manx Nortons, he did 86 races in one year, and in 1955 achieved his first grand prix win, in the 250cc Ulster GP on an NSU.
• The glory years (1956–60): dominating top-level motorcycle racing for five years with Italian team MV Agusta, taking seven World Championship titles on 500cc and 350cc bikes.
• The remarkable year of bikes and cars (1960): overlapping his last year of motorcycle racing with 17 car races, including four F1 World Championship events, the second of them – the British GP – bringing a second place with Lotus.
• Ferrari driver (1963–66): established in cars, he joined Ferrari, winning his first race – the Sebring 12 Hours for sports cars – and the following year becoming F1 World Champion.
• CanAm champion (1966): after recovery from a huge crash in a Lola T70 sports car and acrimonious departure from Ferrari, he bounced back in North America to win the spectacular CanAm series.
• Turning Japanese (1967–68): Honda invited Surtees to develop and drive its F1 cars, with a two-year programme in which victory in the Italian GP at Monza – Ferrari territory – was the highlight.
• Becoming a constructor (1970–78): going into single-seater racing, including F1, with Team Surtees and cars of his own manufacture; good results in F1 were sparse but Mike Hailwood won the European F2 Championship in 1972.
• The latter years (1978 onwards): fully active on the historic scene as a restorer and driver of motorcycles and cars, then nurturing son Henry’s career until the tragic accident.
