Seventy-Five Years of Inflight Refueling; Highlights, 1923-1998

Washington, D.C.: Air Force History and Museum Programs, 1998. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Wraps. Very good. iii, [1],86, [2] pages. Illustrations. Appendices. Notes. Stamp of the author with North Carolina address. Signed and inscribed on the title page by the author. Inscription reads: For Donald Kang with Best Regards, R. K. Smith, 15 Jan 99 (Impeachment Time!). This is believe to Kang Dong-suk (born May 25, 1969; a.k.a. Donald Kang) is a yachtsman and adventurer from South Korea. On June 8, 1997, he became the first Korean to sail around the world single-handedly, when he completed a circumnavigation on a 30-foot (9.2-meter) sailboat Pioneer 2, covering over 70,000 kilometers in 3 years and 5 months. In 1991, he completed the first single-handed sailing voyage of the Pacific by a Korean in his first sailboat Pioneer 1, a 29-foot (8.7-meter) boat, traveling the distance of 11,700 kilometers in 7 months. After arriving in Korea, he donated the Pioneer 1 to the Korea Naval Academy. Richard K. Smith received his undergraduate degrees from the University of Illinois and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He is the author of The Airships Akron and Macon: Flying Aircraft Carriers of the United States Navy, the award-winning First Across! The U.S. Navy's Transatlantic Flight of 1919 and numerous articles on the history of aeronautics. Includes chapters on The First Refueling; The Question Mark and Its Answer; Aeronautical Flagpole Sitting; Refueling at Farnborough; The Modern Airplane Defers Refueling; A British Dilemma and the American Solution; Sir Alan Cobham and FRL, the British Solution; Wartime Might-Have-Beens; Refueling Frustrations and the Onset of the Cold War; The Aircraft and Weapons Board; The KB-29 and B-50; Lucky Lady II: Air Refueling Accident; The Probe and Drogue; The Cold War Gets Hot, Refueling Becomes Vital; Boom Versus Probe and Drogue Refueling; The B-52 and KC-135; Tankers Aweigh; Tactical Air Command Adopts Aerial Refueling; SAC, TAC, SIOP, and Tankers; In Europe: NATO and Others; The War in Southeast Asia; Refueling Helicopters; Moments of Truth; The Aerial Refueling Systems Advisory Group; Aeronautica Geriatrica; The Advanced Tanker Cargo Aircraft/KC-10; El Dorado Canyon: The Longest Fighter Mission; The Persian Gulf War; The Legacy of Curtis LeMay. Also includes Appendices on U.S. Army Air Service, Inflight Refueled Endurance Flight, August 27-28, 1923; Inflight Refueling Experiments Using a B-24D Tanker and a B-17E Receiver, Englin Field, Florida, June 1943; Tanker Support to Operation Power Flite Sending B-52s Nonstop Around the World, January 16-18, 1957; KC--135 Fuel Tanks, and Airlift Flight Profiles, United States to Israel.