This powerful and widely acclaimed autobiography of Sindiwe Magona's early years in South Africa; announced the arrival of a major new black writer. Here she gives an account of her eventful first 23 years and tells a candid; unself-pitying story of triumph and endurance in the face of hardships relentlessly reinforced by the apartheid system.
#775783 in Books 2008-02-28Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.98 x .52 x 5.98l; .75 #File Name: 1563479338202 pages
Review
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful. Great Overview of ProgramBy Matthew W.I bought this book to use as a reference for a paper I was writing; and it also sounded interesting.This book has a great overview of the whole program; from the initial ideas for a supersonic plane; through the competition; and finally through production and use. It had many great details. The information about the design process was interesting; seeing how the design progressed and the requirements changed. Coverage of the manufacturing and testing; and also the service and NASA test programs was also really interesting.The book also came with a DVD that has some really cool photos and videos; as well as bunch of the manuals and documents pertaining to the different programs.If you are really interested in the SR-71 and its family of designs; this is a great book. The coverage from beginning to end and the details in between are great. I would have liked more detail in some parts; and the end seemed a little rushed; but you can't include everything. It was a great book and you can spend more hours going through the DVD content; really cool stuff.21 of 21 people found the following review helpful. All the technical details; and then someBy R. HeatonThis is a great little great book on the Blackbird - SR-71 or YF-12. This is not a pretty picture book on the Blackbird; like so many already out in print. Instead this book details the background on the aircraft's design; its development from a few drawings from Kelly Johnson; to the building and flying of the Blackbird. It even details the history of the D-21 Mach 3 drone; something unknown until it showed up in the bone yard in the desert. There are many line drawings detailing the design and technology in the Blackbird. But for me; an old aeronautical engineer; the most interesting section was the ten pages of discussion and drawings of the prolusion system. Here you can see some detail of how the J58 operated as a turbojet at takeoff all the way to transforming itself into a turbo-ramjet at mach 3+. But what was totally unexpected was the disk inserted into the back of the book. This CD had manuals; reports; images and several short videos of the SR-71. To go through the flight manuals of the SR-71; the YF-12and theA-12 was amazing. Granted it is more detail that most would want to know; but still extremely interesting. It is probably the most detailed technical collection of information on this unique aircraft that I have ever seen; at least all unclassified. The line drawings are interesting; with a wealth of detail; only an engineer could truly love. While this book reads like a detailed technical history; it will still interest every SR-71 enthusiast. But this book has the engineering detail for those interested in a deeper technical understanding. The manuals are just amazing with their wealth of technical details and mind-numbing at the same time; with numerous graphs; operational discussions and schematics. I would say that this is the last word on Blackbird details.6 of 6 people found the following review helpful. Technical and easy to read - What made it go.By W. PollockSuitably impressed and pleasantly surprised at the content and detail contained in this book of the blackbird. Its is easy to read and has information for all facets for those wishing to know more about blackbirds; for the novice to the really serious.It is one book I feel; anyone must have on the design and development; from a technical side; of these wonderful aircraft. The nuts and bolts of how this aircraft was developed and the specifications of how fast it climbed and flew are all held within the pages. Not a picture essay; a literary detailing of the how they did it with photos for clarity. And the DVD supporting materials - yahoooooooooooooooo - The flight and instruction manuals for all aircraft types in the Blackbird livery in PDF - Photographs; specifications; Movies - all on 3.7 gig of data on DVD. Highly recommended and a must for the library of all SR-71 fans.
