The Aviators by Winston Groom
Eddie Rickenbacker, Jimmy Doolittle , Charles Lindbergh and the Epic Age of Flight
Remember Forrest Gump? Well, here is another book of its famous author!
Groom combines the true stories of 3 impressive aviators starting with their childhood and family background influencing their later choices and steps in life.
Rickenbakker in the South Pacific 1942
Get to know Eddie Rickenbacker: getting his first job in a glass factory when 13 years old to support his family after his father’s death, he gets into touch with speed as a car mechanics when 15. Luck strikes when he is allowed as mechanic on board for the Vanderbilt Cup race by Lee Frayer in 1906. Soon he starts racing himself, becoming successful and famous in the years to come. Changing to aviation rather late in life with the only chance of professional training by joining the American army in World War one, developing fast to one of the aces of the 94th Aero Pursuit Swadron. Broke when 36 years old, he starts again from scratch taking different management positions in car sales and aviation at Eastern Air Lines. Rickenbacker survives a heavy plane crash in 1941 as well as being lost in the South Pacific in 1942.
Lindbergh in the South Pacific 1944
Surely we all know the story of Charles Lindbergh and his famous flight over the Atlantic in May 1927 which made him the most famous airman in America. This book does not only show the way towards this, but it also follows his fame and fall from grace in the years to come, his dedication for flying and his stubborness in handling the press. Follow his years in France, the abduction and death of his oldest son, his criticism of America entering WW II which eventually takes him out of army service. But Lindbergh does not give up and fights his way back: officially evaluating the American fleet as aviation technician, he sneaks himself into battle and flies more missions in the South Pacific than many official army pilots.
Doolittle Raid April 18th 1942
Last not least Jimmy Doolittle who wants to make flying safer, never giving up on his ideas of blind instrument flying and putting all his energy into new developments and research to make planes not only safer, but also to allow fixed schedules independent from weather and thus available as reliable public services. He succeeds on September 24 1929 at Mitchel Filed, New York Long Island starting a revolution in aviation safety. With a sound foundation of engineering studies, he enroles for the US Signal Corps aviation section in the last year of his university training where he soon became a flying instructor himself. At a time when “teaching men to fly is probably the most dangerous occupation in the world” he tries to be transferred overseas but never made it there. During WW II he puts theory into practise and gains fame by leading the Doolittle raid of Japan in 1942.
Read how the story of all three men gets intertwined: all of them are travelling to Europe, stating that the American aviation industry is far behind the current developments. All of them are confronted with the brewing of WW II, informing high ranking people they know about their observations – and are ignored. All of them are dedicated to make aviation safer, taking risks for new developments.
As the book says so itself: ‘They were raised in an age of horsecarts and buggies and lived to see men fly to the moon, and they could claim a part of that for themselves, because they were the pioneers. They were also the warriors, in the most dignified sense of the word – tough, smart, smooth, fair, patriotic and fearless, because they managed to overcome their fears for the greater good. …They became heroes first when the nation needed heroes….Theirs, in fact, is the almost perfect American story….They were giants who ruled the air.’
ISBN 978- 1-4262-1369-4