Cory Graff: 5 books

Even before there were runways, the area south of the city of Seattle was Washington�s aviation hub. Charles Hamilton, a daredevil dubbed �Crazy Man of the Air,� became the first flyer in the state when he coaxed his Curtiss biplane into the sky over Meadows Racetrack in 1910. He promptly crashed....

Descended from the F4F Wildcat (and sometimes called the Wildcat’s “big brother”), the Grumman F6F Hellcat debuted with the Pacific Fleet in mid-1943 and soon was taking on Japanese Zero fighters. Over the next two years, the Hellcat proved to be the most successful fighter aircraft in naval...

Even before settlers came to the Puget Sound, the U.S. Navy was exploring the sheltered inlets and deep water ports of what was dubbed "America's Mediterranean." In 1856, the sailors of the navy warship Decatur repelled an attack by Native Americans, saving a tiny village on the shores of Elliott Bay...

Get a comprehensive look at how World War II was fought from the air. Do you want to get an up-close look at some of the rarest airplanes in the world? Are you curious about combat aircraft from World War II? In deluxe hard-back volumes, Flying Warbirds brings U.S., British, German, Russian and Japanese...

The cities of Los Angeles and San Diego were boomtowns during World War II. California aviation companies designed many of the greatest combat aircraft of the era, and bustling armies of women and men helped quickly churn them out by the thousands. An astounding 41 percent of all US warplanes came...