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The Great Air Race - Glory, Tragedy, and the Dawn of American Aviation (Hardcover)
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The Great Air Race - Glory, Tragedy, and the Dawn of American Aviation (Hardcover)
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Years before Charles Lindbergh's flight from New York to Paris
electrified the nation, a group of daredevil pilots, most of them
veterans of the World War I, brought aviation to the masses by
competing in the sensational transcontinental air race of 1919. The
contest awakened Americans to the practical possibilities of
flight, yet despite its significance, it has until now been all but
forgotten. In The Great Air Race, journalist and amateur pilot John
Lancaster finally reclaims this landmark event and the unheralded
aviators who competed to be the fastest man in America. His
thrilling chronicle opens with the race's impresario, Brigadier
General Billy Mitchell, who believed the nation's future was in the
skies. Mitchell's contest-critics called it a stunt-was a risky
undertaking, given that the DH-4s and Fokkers the contestants flew
were almost comically ill-suited for long-distance travel: engines
caught fire in flight; crude flight instruments were of little help
in clouds and fog; and the brakeless planes were prone to nosing
over on landing. Yet the aviators possessed an almost inhuman
disregard for their own safety, braving blizzards and mechanical
failure as they landed in remote cornfields or at the edges of
cliffs. Among the most talented were Belvin "The Flying Parson"
Maynard, whose dog, Trixie, shared the rear cockpit with his
mechanic, and John Donaldson, a war hero who twice escaped German
imprisonment. Jockeying reporters made much of their rivalries, and
the crowds along the race's route exploded, with everyday Americans
eager to catch their first glimpse of airplanes and the mythic
"birdmen" who flew them. The race was a test of endurance that many
pilots didn't finish: some dropped out from sheer exhaustion, while
others, betrayed by their engines or their instincts, perished. For
all its tragedy, Lancaster argues, the race galvanized the nation
to embrace the technology of flight. A thrilling tale of men and
their machines, The Great Air Race offers a new origin point for
commercial aviation in the United States, even as it greatly
expands our pantheon of aviation heroes.
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