Nerves of Steel is the captivating true story of Tammie Jo Shults’ remarkable life—from growing up the daughter of a humble rancher, to breaking through gender barriers as one of the Navy’s first female F/A-18 Hornet pilots, to safely landing the severely crippled Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 and helping save the lives of 148 people.

The mighty, iconic A-10 Warthog was first thrust into battle in Operation Desert Storm. The men who took it through walls of flak and surface-to-air missiles to help defeat the world's fourth-largest army were as untested as their airplanes, so they relied on personal determination and the amazing A-10 to accomplish their missions, despite the odds.

Captain Laura Savino takes you directly into the cockpit for an exclusive look into the boy's club of airline pilots—told through the eyes of the first female pilot many of them ever flew with.

Discover the definitive history of DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, in this Pulitzer Prize finalist from the author of the New York Times best seller Area 51. No one has ever written the history of the Defense Department's most secret, most powerful, and most controversial military science R&D agency. In the first-ever history about the organization, New York Times best-selling author Annie Jacobsen draws on inside sources, exclusive interviews, private documents, and declassified memos to paint a picture of DARPA, or "the Pentagon's brain".

The Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge provides basic knowledge that is essential for pilots. This handbook introduces pilots to the broad spectrum of knowledge that will be needed as they progress in their pilot training. Except for the Code of Federal Regulations pertinent to civil aviation, most of the knowledge areas applicable to pilot certification are presented. This handbook is useful to beginning pilots, as well as those pursuing more advanced pilot certificates.

When NASA sent astronauts to the moon in the 1960s and 1970s the agency excluded women from the corps, arguing that only military test pilots—made up exclusively of men—had the right stuff. It was an era in which women were steered away from jobs in science and deemed unqualified for space flight. Eventually, though, NASA recognized its blunder and opened the application process to a wider array of hopefuls, regardless of race or gender. From a candidate pool of 8,000 six elite women were selected in 1978—Sally Ride, Judy Resnik, Anna Fisher, Kathy Sullivan, Shannon Lucid, and Rhea Seddon.

By combing through the journals that Hannah has kept for much of her life, this collection of narrative essays delivers a fuller picture of her life, her experiences, and the things she's figured out about family, faith, love, sexuality, self-worth, friendship, and fame. Revealing what makes Hannah tick, this sometimes cringeworthy, poignant collection of stories is sure to deliver plenty of Hannah's wit and wisdom - and hopefully encourage you to try your hand at her patented brand of reckless optimism.

Tammy Duckworth takes listeners through the amazing - and amazingly true - stories from her incomparable life. In November of 2004, an Iraqi RPG blew through the cockpit of Tammy Duckworth's US Army Black Hawk helicopter. The explosion, which destroyed her legs and mangled her right arm, was a turning point in her life. But as Duckworth shows in Every Day Is a Gift, that moment was just one in a lifetime of extraordinary turns.

God Talks is a simple process that will show you how to instantly break through any obstacle and create abundance in your life. By the time you are done, you’ll feel more energetic, more vibrant, and more alive. Your relationships will be better, stronger, and more meaningful. You will be more focused and fearless.

Nikki Burgess survived a terrible marriage and a worse divorce. She's just about given up hope of ever finding happiness. But when her ex-husband suddenly dies, she gets custody of her kids again - and a chance to start over. Dixie McPherson, on the other hand, has had way too much love. She has 11 tennis bracelets, dozens of trinkets, piles of sexy lingerie, and a tarnished reputation when all she ever wanted was true love, a partner, and a family. Carlisle Bartlett is loyal, kindhearted, and the funniest guy slinging drinks in the back of an airplane. But he has an ugly little secret. The only kind of love he's used to comes with bruises.

Involuntarily single. That's the true story of where Catherine Tidd finds herself just three weeks after turning 31. Widowed with three children under six years old, a rusty resume, no fix-it skills, and no clue how to live life as a widow, Catherine can't help but be a little exasperated with her dead husband for leaving her to deal with life on her own. Catherine's now in charge of her life in a way she never wanted to be, in a way that would have most of us reeling and numb. But she soon realizes that when you call the shots, you can make pedicures one of the stages of grief....

The daughter of a Chilean father and a Filipina mother, Cecilia Rodriguez Aragon grew up as a shy, timid child in a small Midwestern town. Targeted by school bullies and dismissed by many of her teachers, she worried that people would find out the truth: that she was INTF. Incompetent. Nerd. Terrified. Failure. Yet in the span of just six years, Cecilia became the first Latina pilot to secure a place on the United States Unlimited Aerobatic Team and earn the right to represent her country at the Olympics of aviation, the World Aerobatic Championships. How did she do it?

On takeoff from Denver during a winter blizzard, an airliner piloted by veteran Captain Marty Mitchell overruns a commuter plane from behind. Bizarrely, the fuselage of the smaller aircraft is tenuously wedged onto the wing of his Boeing 757, leading Mitchell to an impossible life-or-death choice. Mitchell’s decision will land the former military pilot in the crosshairs of a viciously ambitious district attorney determined to send him to prison for doing his job.

As the co-host of MSNBC's popular morning show Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski has established herself as a leading political news journalist and beloved television personality. She daily interviews world leaders - Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John McCain - and discusses the major events of the day with guests like Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather, Andrea Mitchell, Chris Matthews, Maureen Dowd, and Tom Friedman. But success hasn't always come easy for Mika.

Her marriage to successful airline pilot Captain X seemed like a dream come true. In reality, it was a nightmare. From the second they met, Captain X swept MrsXNomore off her feet, constantly showering her with gifts, flattery, and attention. He never left her side unless he was working his scheduled flights. Expertly he gained her complete trust and love. Soon they married, often traveling the world on major airways. Early on she underwent the physical and emotional stress of infertility and adoption with little help from her husband. Things were not adding up.

On January 15, 2009, the world witnessed a remarkable emergency landing when Captain "Sully" Sullenberger skillfully glided US Airways flight 1549 onto the Hudson River, saving the lives of all 155 passengers and crew. His cool actions not only averted tragedy but made him a hero and an inspiration worldwide. His story is now a major motion picture from director/producer Clint Eastwood and starring Tom Hanks, Laura Linney, and Aaron Eckhart.

Since he was a young boy, Joe Balzer dreamed of flying. He pursued his goal with passion and earned his pilot licenses, piling up hours of flight time with a wide variety of planes and jets with one overarching goal: to one day fly for a major airline. But Joe had a problem. He was an alcoholic and refused to admit to himself that he had a problem. His alcoholism caught up with him in March 1990, when Joe was arrested with two other pilots for flying a commercial airliner while under the influence of alcohol.

Boarding an airplane strikes at least a small sense of fear into most people. Even though we all have heard that the odds of being struck by lightning are greater than the odds of perishing in a plane crash, it still doesn't feel that way. Airplane crashes might be rare, but they do happen, and they’re usually fatal. David Soucie insists that most of these deaths could be prevented. He’s worked as a pilot, a mechanic, an FAA inspector, and an aviation executive. He’s seen death up close and personal - deaths of colleagues and friends that might have been prevented if he had approved certain safety measures in the aircrafts they were handling.

The world's worst air disaster happened more than 40 years ago on a remote Atlantic Ocean island, when two fully loaded 747 passenger jets collided after a horrendous series of human errors. One of the jets, KLM Flight 4805, was traveling more than 150 miles an hour and was within seconds of lifting off when it crashed into Pan Am Flight 1736 taxiing in its path. The loss of lives was staggering - 583 dead. The crash happened after a lengthy series of major and minor human errors. In the intervening years, has aviation advanced to the point that such a disaster can't happen again?

Nikki Burgess survived a terrible marriage and a worse divorce. She's just about given up hope of ever finding happiness. But when her ex-husband suddenly dies, she gets custody of her kids again - and a chance to start over. Dixie McPherson, on the other hand, has had way too much love. She has 11 tennis bracelets, dozens of trinkets, piles of sexy lingerie, and a tarnished reputation when all she ever wanted was true love, a partner, and a family. Carlisle Bartlett is loyal, kindhearted, and the funniest guy slinging drinks in the back of an airplane. But he has an ugly little secret. The only kind of love he's used to comes with bruises.

February 1, 2003. A light flashed over a Texas sky and twisted metal rained across the countryside. As images of the wreckage from the Space Shuttle Columbia streamed across the nation's television screens, they became forever burned into our memories. But behind those images were stories that remained untold...until now.

At age 19, pilot Dale Black miraculously survived an airplane crash that killed the other two pilots on board. Hovering between life and death for three days, he had a breathtaking experience of heaven. Against all odds and with insurmountable injuries, Capt. Black recovered from his injuries and returned to fly airplanes as a professional pilot. For 40 years he kept the story to himself at the urging of his grandfather to "live" his experience rather than talk about it.

In The Warrior Code, entrepreneur, philanthropist, reality star, and retired gunnery sergeant Tee Marie Hanible serves up 11 principles to awaken your inner badass and thrive in the face of adversity. With insightful honesty and wisdom and set against the backdrop of Tee’s life, The Warrior Code will help you understand that things can beat us back from realizing our true potential...but the key is finding the way to realize one’s own innate strength.

This is the story of James Leininger, who---a little more than two weeks after his second birthday---began having blood-curdling nightmares that just would not stop. When James began screaming out recurring phrases like "Plane on fire! Little man can't get out!" the Leiningers finally admitted that they truly had to take notice.

As the co-host of MSNBC's popular morning show Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski has established herself as a leading political news journalist and beloved television personality. She daily interviews world leaders - Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John McCain - and discusses the major events of the day with guests like Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather, Andrea Mitchell, Chris Matthews, Maureen Dowd, and Tom Friedman. But success hasn't always come easy for Mika.

On the afternoon of April 4, 1977, Georgia housewife Sadie Burkhalter Hurst looked out her front door to see a frantic stranger running toward her, his clothes ablaze, and, behind him, the mangled fuselage of a passenger plane that had just crashed in her yard. The plane, a Southern Airways DC-9-31, had been carrying 81 passengers and four crew members en route to Atlanta when it entered a massive thunderstorm cell that turned into a dangerous cocktail of rain, hail, and lightning. Forced down onto a highway, the plane cut a swath of devastation through the small town of New Hope.

In 1978, the first group of space shuttle astronauts was introduced to the world - 29 men and six women who would carry NASA through the most tumultuous years of the space shuttle program. Among them was USAF Colonel Mike Mullane, who, in his memoir Riding Rockets, strips the heroic veneer from the astronaut corps and paints them as they are - human.

The word conquer has changed meaning for Bryan Anderson. As a U.S. army sergeant in Iraq, it meant taking down the enemy. After becoming Iraq’s fourth triple amputee from a roadside explosive, what he had to conquer got a bit more personal. On October 23, 2005, the moment Bryan looked down and realized he no longer had legs, he cracked a joke. It was a tragedy that could break many, but Bryan transformed it into something positive, something that propelled him forward.

As hundreds of rescue workers waited on the ground, United Airlines Flight 232 wallowed drunkenly over the bluffs northwest of Sioux City. The plane slammed onto the runway and burst into a vast fireball. The rescuers didn't move at first: nobody could possibly survive that crash. And then people began emerging from the summer corn that lined the runways. Miraculously, 184 of 296 passengers lived. No one has ever attempted the complete reconstruction of a crash of this magnitude.

Heather Lawrence’s long-awaited vacation to Salzburg wasn’t supposed to go like this. Mere hours into the transatlantic flight, the Houston FBI agent is awakened when passengers begin exhibiting horrific symptoms of an unknown infection. As the virus quickly spreads and dozens of passengers fall ill, Heather fears she’s witnessing an epidemic similar to ones her estranged husband studies for a living - but this airborne contagion may have been deliberately released.