Changing How the World Does Business: Fedex's Incredible Journey to Success - The Inside Story


Roger Frock - 2006
    The company's early years were an unending series of legal, financial, and operational crises that continually threatened its ability to stay in business. Yet FedEx's leaders and employees were incredibly resourceful and resilient. Pilots used personal credit cards to gas up planes, paychecks weren't cashed, and in one of the most famous episodes, founder Fred Smith literally gambled the company's last remaining funds to keep the planes flying. Becuase Roger Frock was with the companies from the start, he is able to chronicle these real-life hardships and hard-fought triumphs as only an insider can. With humor and insight, he describes how FedEx overcame impossible odds to become one of the world's greatest success stories, a revolutionary company that truly changed the way the world does business.

Kelly: More Than My Share of It All


Clarence L. Johnson - 1985
    “Kelly” Johnson led the design of such crucial aircraft as the P-38 and Constellation, but he will be more remembered for the U-2 and SR-71 spy planes. His extraordinary leadership of the Lockheed “Skunk Works” cemented his reputation as a legendary figure in American aerospace management.

The King: A Biography of Clark Gable


Charles Samuels - 2015
    The book traces Gable's life from its humble, hard-scrabble beginnings in Ohio, to his hard-work and determined efforts to achieve success on Broadway, to his meteoric rise to stardom in Hollywood, his time spent in the Army Air Force in Europe, and his many loves, including Carole Lombard who was tragically killed in an airplane crash in 1942. The King paints an intimate, contemporary portrait of Clark Gable the man, both on and off camera, and ends with Gable's work on his last film, The Misfits, and his subsequent decline in health and his death on November 16, 1960, at age 59.

3 Feet to the Left: A New Captain's Journey from Pursuit to Perspective


Korry Franke - 2018
    For the first time in his career, 31-year-old Korry Franke sits in the left pilot seat--the captain's chair--of a United Airlines Boeing 737. In many ways, the moment feels like the realization of success Korry has chased for years. But over the next whirlwind year, as he is pushed as a leader and shaped as a man by experiences both inside and outside the flight deck, Korry discovers that his definition of success--and possibly yours, too--is missing one critical, life-giving piece. Strap into the 737's extra flight deck jumpseat and fly along with Korry on his journey in search of success that fulfills the spirit and completes the soul. Feel what it's like to push the limits of comfort zones while battling mechanical malfunctions in the flight simulator, thunderstorms in Mexico City, and blizzards in Chicago. Experience the challenges, insecurities, successes, and failures of a new leader who is stepping up and taking command in the high-stakes world of airline flying. 3 FEET TO THE LEFT is a story about Korry, but it's really a story about all of us. Because in one way or another, we are all on our own journeys...three feet to the left.

Kursk Down: The Shocking True Story of the Sinking of a Russian Nuclear Submarine


Clyde W. Burleson - 2002
    Hailed as "unsinkable, " the "Kursk" was on maneuvers when mysterious explosions rocked the sub, causing it to sink to the bottom of the sea with its 118-man crew. This in-depth look at the disaster reveals previously unreleased information from family members of the deceased as well as from government officials.

Fins: Harley Earl, the Rise of General Motors, and the Glory Days of Detroit


William Knoedelseder - 2018
    It began in the Michigan pine forest in the years after the Civil War, traveled across the Great Plains on the wooden wheels of a covered wagon, and eventually settled in a dirt road village named Hollywood, California, where young Harley took the skills he learned working in his father’s carriage shop and applied them to designing sleek, racy-looking automobile bodies for the fast crowd in the burgeoning silent movie business.As the 1920s roared with the sound of mass manufacturing, Harley returned to Michigan, where, at GM’s invitation, he introduced art into the rigid mechanics of auto-making. Over the next thirty years, he functioned as a kind of combination Steve Jobs and Tom Ford of his time, redefining the form and function of the country’s premier product. His impact was profound. When he retired as GM’s VP of Styling in 1958, Detroit reigned as the manufacturing capitol of the world and General Motors ranked as the most successful company in the history of business.Knoedelseder tells the story in ways both large and small, weaving the history of the company with the history of Detroit and the Earl family as Fins examines the effect of the automobile on America’s economy, culture, and national psyche.

The Cartel: The Inside Story of Britain's Biggest Drugs Gang


Graham Johnson - 2012
    Billions in sales. But, unlike Tesco or BP, few have heard of it. The Cartel is Britain’s biggest drugs organisation, a shadowy network stretching from the freezing, fog-banks of the Mersey to the glittering marinas of Marbella, from the coffee shops of Amsterdam to the trading floors of Canary Wharf. Run by godfathers as rich as Branson but kept in line by a new generation of teenage killers. Here is the inside story.

Broken Arrow: How the U.S. Navy Lost a Nuclear Bomb


Jim Winchester - 2019
    The cruise from the Yankee Station to Japan was used to practice procedures for Armageddon.Douglas Webster was a young pilot from Ohio, newly married and with seventeen combat missions under his belt. On that day in 1965 he strapped into an A-4 Skyhawk bomber for a routine weapons loading drill and simulated mission. After mishandling the manoeuvre, the plane and its pilot sunk to the bottom of the South China sea, along with a live B43 one-megaton thermonuclear bomb.A cover-up mission began. The crew was ordered to stay quiet, rumours circulate of sabotage, a damaged weapon and a troublesome pilot who needed 'disposing of'. The incident, a 'Broken Arrow' in the parlance of the Pentagon, was kept under wraps until 25 years later. The details that emerged caused a diplomatic incident, revealing that the U.S. had violated agreements not to bring nuclear weapons into Japan. Family members and the public only learnt the truth when researchers discovered archived documents that disclosed the true location of the carrier, hundreds of miles closer to land than admitted.Broken Arrow tells the story of Ticonderoga's sailors and airmen, the dangers of combat missions and shipboard life, and the accident that threatened to wipe her off the map and blow US-Japanese relations apart. For the first time, through previously classified documents, never before published photos of the accident aircraft and the recollections of those who were there, the story of carrier aviation's only 'Broken Arrow' is told in full.

Tinman's Tale: Flying Air Force Heavy Iron in the 60s, 70s and 80s


Gary Goebel - 2020
    

Scream of Eagles: The Dramatic Account of the U.S. Navy's Top Gun Fighter Pilots and How They Took Back the Skies Over Vietnam


Robert K. Wilcox - 1990
     The place: TOP GUN In the darkest days of the Vietnam War, the U.S. Navy's kill ratio had fallen to 2:1 -- a deadly decline in pilot combat effectiveness. To improve the odds, a corps of hardened fighter pilots founded the Fighter Weapons School, a.k.a. TOP GUN. Utilizing actual enemy fighter planes in brutally realistic dogfights, the Top Gun instructors dueled their students and each other to achieve a lethal new level of fighting expertise. The training paid off. Combining the latest weaponry and technology, mental endurance, and razor-sharp instincts, the Top Gunners drove the Navy's kill ratio up to an astounding 12:1, dominating the skies over Vietnam. This gripping account takes you inside the cockpit for an adventure more explosive than any fiction -- in a dramatic true story of the legendary military school that has created the most dangerous fighter pilots the world has ever seen.

Forever Flying


R.A. Hoover - 1996
    Now, in Forever Flying, he tells his amazing story, sharing all the thrills and chills, spectacular stunts and death-defying exploits that have made him a living aviation legend.The true story of one man’s flight into history. Barnstormer, World War II fighter, pioneering test pilot, aerobatic genius—Bob Hoover is a true American hero. Now, in FOREVER FLYING, he tells his amazing story, sharing all the thrills and chills, spectacular stunts and death-defying exploits that have made him a living aviation legend. Climb into the cockpit with America’s original top gun for an astonishing inside look at flight in action—and on the edge. Read about: • Hoover’s dramatic dogfights as a decorated World War II fighter pilot...including the encounter that knocked him out of the sky • His daring escape from the Nazis’ infamous Stalag I prison camp—when he stole a German plane and flew it to Holland • The great aviators he has known, such as Orville Wright, Eddie Rickenbacker, Charles Lindbergh, and Neil Armstrong • Hoover’s one-of-a-kind maneuvers that have dazzled air-show crowds the world over.

The Making of Hero: Four Brothers, Two Wheels and a Revolution that Shaped India


Sunil K. Munjal - 2020
    

Hershey: Milton S. Hershey's Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire, and Utopian Dreams


Michael D'Antonio - 2006
    Hershey.The name Hershey evokes many things: chocolate bars, the company town in Pennsylvania, one of America’s most recognizable brands. But who was the man behind the name? In this compelling biography, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael D’Antonio gives us the real-life rags-to-riches story of Milton S. Hershey, a largely uneducated businessman whose idealistic sense of purpose created an immense financial empire, a town, and a legacy that lasts to this day. Hershey, the son of a minister’s daughter and an irresponsible father who deserted the family, began his career inauspiciously when the two candy shops he opened both went bankrupt. Undeterred, he started the Lancaster Caramel Company, which brought him success at last. Eventually he sold his caramel operation and went on to perfect the production process of chocolate to create a stable, consistent bar with a long shelf life...and an American icon was born. Hershey was more than a successful businessman—he was a progressive thinker who believed in capitalism as a means to higher goals. He built the world’s largest chocolate factory and a utopian village for his workers on a large tract of land in rural Pennsylvania, and used his own fortune to keep his workers employed during the Great Depression. In addition, he secretly willed his fortune to a boys’ school and orphanage, both of which now control a vast endowment.

Wrestling With Madness: John E. Du Pont and the Foxcatcher Farm Murder


Tim Huddleston - 2013
    Part of one of the most prominent and richest families in America: The du Pont Family. Then, strangely, he started losing his mind. This is what is known: du Pont was a fan of amateur sports and established a wrestling facility at his Foxcatcher Farm. He befriended several Olympic champions--including Dave Schultz, who he murdered. It was a never a question of if he did it; the question is why. What turns an otherwise sane man into a psychotic killer? This page-turning true crime story will take you into the mind of a man who had everything and let it all fall away due to madness and paranoia.

Fork-Tailed Devil; The P-38 Lightning


Martin Caidin - 1971
    The National War College, the Air Force’s Air University and several other institutions use his books as doctrine and strategy guides, historical references and textbooks. He twice won the Aviation/Space Writers Association award as the outstanding author in the field of aviation. Caidin died in March 1997.