Aviation discussion

Sorry, but I'm into the second season of Neil Armstrong's First Flights on Amazon Prime and it kind of got imprinted on my gray matter.

I typically have a self-imposed reading assignment of some kind and recently finished reading biographies of all the U.S. Presidents in chronological order (https://wp.me/p86xWT-7j). Funny how the more things change, the more they stay the same.

For my next challenge, I'm going to barnstorm through the annals of aviation in more or less chronological order, so I thought I'd post my reviews here. It will be combination of history texts and biographies. If you have any recommendations, please drop them here. I can use all the help I can get finding good books.

I hold Commercial Pilot and Certified Flight Instructor Certificates, ASEL (Airplane Single Engine Land). I've also written & published 6 novels and 2 novellas, many of which feature airplanes on the cover and in the story. They make an excellent deux ex machina.

For more info on me and my books, check out my goodreads profile or my website: http://www.mtbass.net

This overview was a great way to start my trek. An extremely pleasant surprise, The Airplane: How Ideas Gave Us Wings is not a traditional history of aviation, cataloging the different makes and models of aircraft through the years. Instead, Jay Spenser has authored the “biography” of a thing. And just as a man’s character can be revealed through the trajectory of events and experiences on his path from youth to adulthood, the Boeing 787 “Dreamliner” is understood as the “grown-up” Wright Flyer achieved through a lifetime of technological advances. As a pilot and aviation aficionado, I came away seeing the airplane in a new light and perspective. (5 of 5 Stars)

A Wright Brothers Twofer



I was cruising along in this bio and unexpectedly slammed head-on into the epilogue–well before Wilbur died and all of the patent hassles with Glenn Curtiss, et al. The Wright Brothers is less a history than an outstanding tribute to the Wright Brothers’ accomplishment, ending in 1910 with the first and only flight Wilbur and Orville ever made together at the pinnacle of their acclaim, having showcased their Flyer in Europe and America. Being familiar with their story, what David McCullough really captured for me was the impact on the times had by an invention we now take for granted. (5 of 5 Stars)



I started my reading journey through the history of aviation with Orville Wright’s first hand account of how he and Wilbur invented the airplane. It is an amazingly clear and concise telling of how the airplane came to be. A great read for both pilots and ground pounders with lots of drawings and pics that I had to see again after reading McCullough’s book. (5 of 5 Stars)

A Glen Curtiss Hat Trick



Like Orville Wright's book on aviation, this is flying history directly from one of the guys who made it happen. Very readable and understandable, even though it was written in 1912, less than 10 years after the Wright Brothers' first flight, it also presents a prescient view of where the new technology was headed. A must read for any airplane nut like me. (4 of 5 Stars)



While the Wright Brothers certainly deserve the laurels for being "first in flight," Glenn Curtiss was one of the real movers and shakers behind taking aviation from an invention to an industry -- and all the while fighting the Wright Brother's war on him over their patents. A comprehensive and even-handed biography of a sometimes over-looked American pioneer. (4 of 5 Stars)



After reading a biography of Curtiss, as well as his own thoughts on aviation, seeing his life and his works captured extensively in photographs was the Pièce de résistance. One of the perks with studying modern history. (5 of 5 Stars)

Please bear with me while I catch up. Thanks. ~MTB

I first met Harold H. Brown in the Tin Goose Diner at the Port Clinton airport, when he came over to our table to compliment our ride -- the RV-7A built by my student's dad in their garage. Since then, I've seen him speak a number of times and tell many of the tales recounted in this book. He's a great story-teller and Keep Your Airspeed Up: The Story of a Tuskegee Airman is as close as you can get to being in the room with him. What more can you ask of an autobiography?

Meeting someone who made history, as Dr. Brown did being one of the Tuskegee Airmen, is an amazing experience -- heightened even more by our mutual passion for aviation. We shared the boyhood dream of becoming a pilot. What we did not share were the unfair headwinds of a racism that is nearly unimaginable now, more than fifty years downstream from the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Keep Your Airspeed Up: The Story of a Tuskegee Airman brought home the realities of that period of history to me in a way that no other book, movie or even Dr. Brown's own "hangar talks" ever have before. But that was just the beginning of his long career in the Air Force and later in education.

Having shaken history's hand, this book really is the next best thing to being there. (5 of 5 Stars)

Only a decade or so after the Wright Brothers’ first flight, the airplane went to war, which proves that when motivated by self-preservation government can move rather quickly. While most of us pilots have a rather myopic view of the importance of the duels in the air by the likes of Rickenbacker and von Richtofen, Lee B. Kennett puts aviation’s role in the “War to End All Wars” into proper perspective as more of a supporting player–but certainly one that would quickly move to center stage just two decades later.

Besides Waldo Pepper, Rickenbacker, Richthofen and Brown are the only pilot names that come to mind from World War I. So, learning about America’s very first Ace of Aces, who was also the first aviator to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, was a great discovery for me as a pilot and a history buff. Luke’s missions against German observation balloons also revealed aspects of the air war over the trenches I had never known. (4 of 5 Stars)

If Rickenbacker were alive today, I can’t help but believe he’d be one of the wizards of Silicon Valley. An American Hero gives a fascinating account of his involvement, first, in the emerging automobile industry at the turn of the Twentieth Century — as a factory worker, a car salesman, a successful race car driver and team owner, then as a designer and manufacturer of his own brand and owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. With the coming of World War I, he set his sights (so to speak) on aviation and finagled his way into becoming Billy Mitchell’s personal driver as a stepping stone to a set of Army pilot wings and a seat in the cockpit of a “Hat-in-the-Ring” pursuit plane. From there he became the 94th Squadron commander, America’s leading ace and eventually president of Eastern Airlines. Written before the final chapter of Rickenbacker’s life was closed, this unfinished bio is not only the story of an amazing man, but in its narrative style is also a glimpse into a by-gone era. (4 of 5 Stars)

Written in 1927, less than 10 years after Richthofen's death in World War I, Floyd Gibbons gives an up close look, time-wise, at the former cavalryman and avid hunter who became World War I's "Ace-of-Aces." The best part of the book is also one of its weakest. The author tracked down and interviewed many of the pilots who survived being shot down by the Red Baron for their side of the dogfight to compare with Richthofen's own after action reports, which was fascinating. But about halfway through, it started to feel like the book had become just a long, detailed cataloging of the Baron's 80 victories. Then I realized that pretty much was the sum total of this man's entire life. I'd give it 4 stars for aviation aficionados.

A too brief biography of an early aviation game-changer, who, after dogfighting the likes of of the Red Baron during World War I, came home to do battle with the military-industrial complex in a mission to establish an independent air power service branch–a fight that that ended in his court martial, but paved the way for the Army Air Corps success in World War II. Stormy Petrel of the Air is a good high altitude fly-over look at the father of the United States Air Force, but left me hungry to learn more about Mitchell. (3 of 5 Stars)



On the one wing, Prophet without Honor is an interesting up-close look at General Mitchell from a man who knew him personally, offering insights into Mitchell’s relationships with other aviation pioneers like Glenn Martin and Hap Arnold and detailing his battles on behalf of air power against the Army and Navy brass before Congress, in the press and in the court room. On the other, Gauvreau’s obvious reverence and near idol-worship for the father of the U.S. Air Force became somewhat tiresome. His contemporary perspective also led to assumptions about the reader’s knowledge which left open some pretty big gaps, the worst of which was an inadequate explanation of the early Twentieth Century “Aviation Trust” working against Mitchell. (3 of 5 Stars)

“Mavericks of the Bureacracy” might be a fair alternate title for this book. While plenty of ink and/or pixels are devoted to pilots and planes, budget battles in Congress; political infighting between the Postmaster General and the U.S. Army for control of the air mail program; technological competition between planes, trains & automobiles; and postal officials butting heads with their own pilots over schedules versus safety form the back story of the government’s efforts to establish mail delivery by air. The events here predate Charles Lindbergh and Juan Trippe, so Rosenberg offers a unique perspective on the subject. I’m amazed he resisted the obvious comparison to the Pony Express—brave men relaying the mail across the county. (4 of 5 Stars)

This biography was such a long read, it felt like passage on the Pan Am China Clipper. But the story of Juan Trippe was worth the ride. Here is a man whose career in aviation spanned the years between the World War I rag wing Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny" to being instrumental in the development of the Boeing 747 as the launch customer. An American Saga: Juan Trippe and His Pan Am Empire is a fascinating read on the commercialization of airplanes, so often overshadowed by war stories.

As a pilot and aviation aficionado, my familiarity with the lives and exploits of Eddie Rickenbacker, Charles Lindbergh and Jimmy Doolittle gave me a case of literary empty field myopia, where at first I did not see and appreciate the story telling craftsmanship of Winston Groom (author of Forrest Gump). Like a Bach fugue, The Aviators tells three biographical tales simultaneously, taking the reader from rag wings to aluminum overcast. The result being that these giants of aviation somehow came off as even more larger than life for me. (5 of 5 Stars)

Thanks for this review, M.T. My alumni association at Air Force Academy is forming a book club, and they've chosen this book as the first read. I was on the fence about joining, but seeing your review, I'm signing up for the club now.

Thanks, Ray. Hope you enjoy the book.

Ray wrote: "Thanks for this review, M.T. My alumni association at Air Force Academy is forming a book club, and they've chosen this book as the first read. I was on the fence about joining, but seeing your rev..."

In James Salter novel fortune favors the bold--and not necessarily the skilled, the just, or the deserving. And is it any wonder that winning is everything, especially to the top brass? Not so much. The Hunters is like the dark underside of my favorite book from childhood, Sabre Jet Ace, Connell vs McConnell? Coincidence? Hmmm… This well crafted presentation of fighter pilot life strays a bit into the predictable. (4 of 5 Stars)

The most famous American fighter pilot I never heard of--not Rickenbacker, Bong, Boyington, Yeager, McConnell, Olds--but the one who re-rewrote the book on tactics; developed the engineering models that lead to the F-15, F-16, F-18 & the A-10; and he was the one who developed the OODA Loop (Observe-Orient-Decide-Act)--not some psychologist, but a damned fighter pilot. Probably not much of a surprise that he was hated by the guys with stars on their shoulders. Good. Ornery guys getting their way can be prickly--especially when they are right. (5 of 5 Stars)

You just keep your damn mouth shut and suck down your PBRs as Mark Garrison tells you what it was like driving a Huey in Vietnam. The tales sometime seem a bit disconnected like, “Oh, yeah, remember when we…” But he covers it all from flight training to checkrides to combat to coming back home to the very worst of America. (4 of 5 Stars)

You gotta love it when the whole Animal House Delta Tau Chi vs “The Establishment” thing works out in real life again! Give a lowly Lt. Commander 6 months and spare change to fix the whole air warfare mess over North Vietnam and what do you get? Topgun and a 22:1 U.S. Navy kill ratio. A great saga by Dan Pederson of his Naval Aviation career. My favorite part was the “Fight Club” in Whiskey 291 off San Clemente Island. Compare this story to Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War. Definitely a “Golden Era of Jet Aviation.” (5 of 5 Stars)

For anyone with an interest in First World War aviation, I highly recommend the following book ---

First to the Front: The Aerial Adventures of 1st Lt. Waldo Heinrichs and the 95th Aero Squadron 1917-1918 by Charles Woolley (whose father was one of the pioneer fighter pilots with the 95th Aero Squadron)



This book also sheds considerable light on how U.S. Army aviation blossomed during 1917 and 1918 as the U.S. Army Air Service established a presence over the Western Front. The 95th Aero Squadron was one of the first two U.S. Army fighter squadrons to see action during the Spring of 1918.