Wings of Their Dreams, livre ebook

Throughout more than 100 years of flight, Purdue University has propelled unique contributions from pioneer educators, aviators, and engineers who flew balloons into the stratosphere, barnstormed the countryside, helped break the sound barrier, and left footprints in lunar soil. Wings of Their Dreams follows the flight plans and footsteps of aviation’s pioneers and trailblazers across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, a path from Kitty Hawk to the Sea of Tranquility and beyond.

This third edition celebrating the 150th anniversary of Purdue engineering features exciting developments in the college and its school of aeronautics and astronautics, including the announcement of a prestigious, international Neil Armstrong Prize. The book includes a timely foreword from the world’s most-launched astronaut Jerry L. Ross, new profiles on commercial astronauts Sirisha Bandla, Audrey Powers, and private specialist astronaut Marc Hagle, and updated information about Drew Feustel, Beth Moses, Scott Tingle, Loral O’Hara, and others among the twenty-eight Purdue astronaut alumni. The volume concludes with a fresh perspective on the future of space, including manufacturing, assembly, and exploration by the private sector as well as governments.

Wings of Their Dreams reminds readers that the first and last men to land on the moon once trekked across the West Lafayette, Indiana, campus on their journeys into the heavens and history. This is the story of an aeronautic odyssey of imagination, science, engineering, technology, adventure, courage, danger, and promise. It is the story of the human spirit taking flight, entwined with Purdue’s legacy in aviation’s history.

Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 150 Years of Engineering Excellence
2 Leaving the Bonds of Earth
Charles Walker
3 Purdue’s First Birdman
Loren Shriver
4 Airplanes Are the Future
Gary Payton
5 A Proposal Flies to Campus
Donald Williams
6 First Flight Around the World
Richard Covey
7 A Midair Crash with Charles Lindbergh
Roy Bridges Jr.
8 Commercial Flight
Jerry Ross
9 The Purdue Airport
Guy Gardner
10 Amelia Earhart Comes to Purdue
Janice Voss
11 Civilian Pilot Training for World War II
John Blaha
12 Heroes at Pearl Harbor
John Casper
13 The Terror Arrives When the Mission Is Done
Mark Brown
14 Purdue Aeronautics Corporation
Michael McCulley
15 The First Spaceman
Gregory J. Harbaugh
16 To the Edge of Space Beneath a Balloon
David Wolf
17 “We’re Gonna Be in the Hudson”
Mary Ellen Weber
18 Purdue’s First Astronauts
Mark Polansky
19 Tragedy Pauses the Race to the Moon
Andrew Feustel
20 “The Eagle Has Landed”
Scott Tingle
Loral O’Hara
Beth Moses
21 A New Space Age
Sirisha Bandla
Audrey Powers
Marc Hagle
Yuri Kobo
Adam Fuhrmann
Notes
Index
About the Author