The pilots who designed and flew the "Voyager" around the world tell of the cramped quarters, constant noise, turbulent trip, and other struggles they faced in realizing the dream of their historic flight

Voyager

Yeager, Jeana

Rutan, Dick

Patton, Phil

Reference

Harpercollins

From Mickey Mouse to the computer mouse--an intelligent and witty history of products that are uniquely American. This irresistible book is a rich and lively history of the artifacts that built America's economy, defined its character, and satisfied its deepest longings. Photos.

Made in USA: The Secret Histories of the Things that Made America

Penguin??Books

"Herbie." "Punchbuggy." "Beetle." The world's most recognizable automobile goes by many noms de plume. But did you know that the "Love Bug" was originally conceived as Hitler's "car of the people," or that it was the Manson "family"'s car of choice?Tapping into Americans' continuing obsession with the VW Bug, Phil Patton has written a kaleidoscopic history of the car from the 1950s to the 2000s. He describes the genius marketing strategy used in America to rid the car of its Fascist associations (VW hired a Jewish marketing team), and explains why designers are obsessed with its shape (the Bug, like the Pantheon, fits the Greek "golden ellipse" ideal of dimension). Patton posits that the Bug was the first car to cause Americans to "wrap themselves in a brand as an extension of their ideology," and turn up their noses at the huge, showy cars produced in Detroit. Amazingly, it worked, and, based on the Beetle's continuing status as an American cultural icon, it still does. As Jonathan Yardley asserted in the Washington Post Book Review: "The original Bug was more than a car, it was an experience."

Bug: The Strange Mutations Of The World's Most Famous Automobile

History

World

Da Capo Press

The Civil War: 30 Full-color Postcards of Dramatic Scenes and Battles of the War Between the States

Arts & Photography

Ballantine Books

A journey into the most secret place in America A story of secrecy, suspicion, and conspiracy A history of a place that does not legally exist Dreamland zooms in on Area 51--the nearly four million acres of Nevada airspace that has been a base for experimental military aircraft, the fount of UFO rumors, and the alleged site of alien insurrection. How this real-life legend came to exist is Phil Patton's tale. He explores the mystery and fantasy surrounding the place, peeks over the edge of paranoia, and tracks strange objects in the air above this country of the mind. He visits spies and counterspies, test pilots and secret agents, and tunnels into the subcultures of true believers and conspiracy buffs. Reviewers have applauded Dreamland as "brilliant," "fascinating," "weird, wonderful, sometimes spooky," "curiously epic, frequently humorous, and always entertaining." Dreamland is a novelistic tour de force that makes us all rethink our convictions about American know-how--and alien inventiveness.

Dreamland: Travels Inside the Secret World of Roswell and Area 51

Americas

Random House Publishing Group

A panoramic celebration of American ingenuity and engineering focuses on the myth of the open road as exemplified in the development of American highways and the roadside culture--franchises, motels, and ticky-tack--it has spawned

Open Road: Celebration of the American Highway

Business & Money

Simon&Schuster

Open Road: A Celebration of the American Highway

There is a place in the Nevada desert the size of Belgium that doesn't officially exist. It is the airbase where test flights of our top-secret experimental military aircraft are conducted and --not coincidentally--where the conspiracy theorists insist the Pentagon is hiding UFOs and aliens. This is Dreamland--or Area 51. For Phil Patton, the idea of writing a travel account of a place he couldn't actually visit was irresistible. What he found was a world where Chick Yeager and the secret planes of the Cold War converged with the Nevada Test Site and alien landings at Roswell. A think tank for aviation engineering, Dreamland can be seen from a summit outside the base's perimeter, a hundred miles north of Las Vegas. On Freedom Ridge, groups of airplane buffs gather with their camouflage outfits and binoculars. These are the Stealth chasers, the Skunkers, guys with code names like Agent X and Zero, hoping for a glimpse of the rumored raylike shapes of planes like Black Manta and "the mother ship." The most mysterious craft is Aurora, the successor to the legendary U-2, said to run on methane and fly as fast as Mach 6. Scanning the same horizon, the UFO buffs are looking for the hovering lights and doughnut-shaped contrails of alien aircraft. Are they looking at something sinister and mysterious? Imagined? Or more terrestrial than they think? Dreamland shows how much we need mystery in the information age, and how the cultures of nuclear power and airpower merge with the folklores of extraterrestrials and earthly conspiracies. Patton found people who found themselves in the mysteries of the place. John Lear, the son of aviation pioneer Bill Lear--who gave his name to the jet--served as a pilot for the CIA's Air America, but back home, he became fascinated by UFOs and eventually believed in it all: the underground bases, the alien-human hybrids, the secret treaties. But was he a true believer, or part of a disinformation campaign? Bob Lazar seems to know when the saucers will come, and has made three clear sightings at night along Dreamland's perimeter, but is his story real, or a vision of what's possible? Dreamland is an exploration of America's most secret place: the base for our experimental airplanes, the fount of UFO rumors, an offshoot of the Nevada Test Site. How this "blackspot" came to exist--its history, its creators, its spies and counterspies--is Phil Patton's tale. He tunnels into the subcultures of the conspiracy buffs, the true believers, and the aeronautic geniuses, creating a novelistic tour de force destined to make us all rethink our convictions about American know-how--and alien inventiveness.

Religion & Spirituality

New Age & Spirituality

Villard

Traces the history of the Volkswagen Beetle, from its first introduction as a Nazi propaganda tool and its postwar status as a countercultural icon to its successful revision in 1998.

Bug: The Strange Mutations of the World's Most Famous Automobile

Literature & Fiction

Genre Fiction

ISBN: 0752810448    ISBN-13: 9780752810447Publisher: ORION - 1997Format: Hardcover

Travels in Dreamland: The Secret History of Area 51

Occult & Paranormal

Orion Media

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Patton, Phil. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Patton, Phil