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What's your favorite aviation book?

Three-Eight Charlie

I'm currently reading "Three-Eight Charlie" by Jerrie Mock about her 1964 flight around the world in a Cessna 180. Long out of print, this is a 50th Anniversary reprint available in both hardcover (recommended) or softcover.
Available from:
http://phoenixgraphix.us/
 
Unbroken

For those that haven't heard, Louis Zamperini died today at the age of 97. Trust me, that's not a spoiler for this book. I started reading it knowing he was still alive and it's still the most engaging book I've ever read.

If you haven't read this yet and you're at all interested in WW2 aviation, or just an amazing story of survival of the human spirit, you may want to read it before the movie comes out and you're tempted to take the easy way out.

Rest in Peace Louis, what a life...


I agree. What a story! If you read at all, you really should read this book. I was saddened to hear of Zamperini's death today. Truly one of America's WWII heros.
 
Favorite Book

You have to read "Into the Wind". I don't remember the author, and another friend has it now, but it is the story of Max Conrad and his long distance flights flying Piper airplanes. For example, Casablanca to San Diego.....non stop, in a Comanche 180!!! You will love it.

LLL
 
Another vote for UNBROKEN

Laura Hillenbrand packed her book with interesting detail, and Zamperini must have had incredible recall. Unbroken doesn't just tell Zamperini's story, but the stories of dozens of people he encountered. And, she's quite a historian, in that, she helps you understand the worlds Zamperini was passing through in his ordeal. The movie is good, but only scratches the surface. The book could change your life.
 
I've read too many aviation books to try to remember a favorite as almost all of them were "favorites". There is one exception, though.
I checked out Weekend Pilot (nonfiction) by Frank Kingston Smith from the school library when I was young. It was in the mid 1950s when I was about 9 or 10 years old. As an airplane fanatic all my life, the book brought to life the reality of flying for me.
After I received my Private in 1968, I subscribed to FLYING magazine and was happy to see that Frank was a columnist there at the time. I was able to enjoy his work for many years after.
Bob
 
I'm reading Eric 'Winkle' Brown's 'Wings upon my sleeve'.

He was the FAA's most decorated pilot (that's the Fleet Air Arm for those unfamiliar with that name!). A truly great pilot and a fascinating insight into the history that he had partaken.

You can get a taste of the character from his recent broadcast on Desert Island Discs : http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04nvgq1
 
"Through the back Doors of the World in a Ship that had Wings"

Book is by William M. Masland; published in 1984 by Vantage Press

Follows the author's initial flight training in the 1920-30's and eventual progression to Pan Am Captain flying the famous China Clippers. The book finishes with his run from San Francisco to China that occurred immediately before and after the start of WW II. Unable to get to China and unable to return the way he had come, Masland continued west eventually around the world to finish the flight in New York.

A truly fascinating read.

Pat Donovan
PA24 flying
RV9 building
 
I'm reading Eric 'Winkle' Brown's 'Wings upon my sleeve'.

He was the FAA's most decorated pilot (that's the Fleet Air Arm for those unfamiliar with that name!). A truly great pilot and a fascinating insight into the history that he had partaken.

You can get a taste of the character from his recent broadcast on Desert Island Discs : http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04nvgq1

If you have Netflix streaming you can watch a pretty interesting documentary on Brown with Brown himself commenting:

"Memories of a WWII Hero: Captain Brown's Story"
 
More good books (Higher Call and The Good Shepherd)

I have some great friends that love to read and recommend good books to me so I don't have to waste my time on bad ones. I'm just finishing up A HIGHER CALL by Adam Makos. It's been reviewed here before, but I'd like to add two cents. It's about b17 pilot Charlie Brown and bf109 pilot Franz Stigler and their amazing encounter over N Germany in WWII. Makos spent a lot of time with the subjects who both lived in N America until their deaths in 2008. Brown and Stigler must have been totally open because the book really goes into the internal conflicts and emotions they had to endure. Brown's survival of 28 combat missions was remarkable. Stigler's survival of more than 400 combat missions seems miraculous. Both were men of faith, a Catholic and a Methodist, who became close friends after the war.

Did you ever read anything by CS Forrester (African Queen and Hornblower books)? THE GOOD SHEPHERD is probably out of print, but I found it at my library. This is another WWII book and a fictional account of a destroyer commander escorting a convoy across the N Atlantic. It's only marginally about airplanes, but has the best description of submarine/destroyer battles I've ever read. (Very similar to dogfights.) Couldn't put it down.

John
 
Lots have been mentioned here before:

Fate is the Hunter. Ernest K Gann. A great read for so many reasons.

Pretty much anything by Bach but Illusions and Nothing By Chance are my favorites. I can smell the summer hay mixed with gas and oil when I read his stuff. I read them over and over.

Failure is Not An Option. Gene Kranz. I have so many questions I would love to ask him after reading the book.

Fighter Pilot. Ed Rasimus. The stories of Robin Olds. What a life he led.

Some that I haven't seen mentioned:

First Light. Geoffrey Wellum. True story of a WWII Spitfire pilot. No special heroics. Just a simple telling of his path through extraordinary times.

Palace Cobra and When Thunder Rolled. Ed Rasimus. Two books about tours in two different aircraft types. F-4 and the F-105. Both are great reads.

A Lonely Kind of War. Marshall Harrison. Stories of a Vietnam era OV-10 Bronco FAC. Thumping great read. I was hooked by the second page and read the entire book in a day.

Hero Found. Bruce Henderson. True story of a SPAD driver POW who managed to escape and evade recapture during the Vietnam war and what a character he was.
 
Bob Bu7ck

Fate is a hunter.

North Star over my Shoulder by Bob Buck

Bob also wrote Weather Flying.

Bob was a regular contributor to Air Facts Magazine. In the late 40's?? he was assigned by TWA to fly with Tyrone Power in a DC3 from LA across the South Atlantic to Africa, where they then did a lengthy tour of most of Africa. Bob wrote about this in a series of articles for Air Facts that is fascinating reading. EAA Museum Library has a near complete set of Air Facts.
 
Glacier Pilot

Just finished Glacier Pilot by Beth Day. She tells the story of Bob Reeves who pioneered high altitude glacier landings in the 1930's in order to haul freight to gold miners. Then, with war on the horizon, he flew countless tons of cargo into the Aleutians for the US Army with a Fairchild 71 and and an old Boeing Trimotor biplane.

The book was written in 1957. I can't get my head around the fact that Day was not a pilot. The descriptions of the weather flying, forced landings and airplane maintenance in the harsh Alaskan environment seem totally correct to me. (Or, at least plausible and understandable to a warm weather pilot.)

Many other Alaskan aviators and noteables are included in the book. The old black and white photos are worth the price of the book.

Would be interesting to know if anyone on this site remembers Bob Reeves or Reeves Aleutian Airways.

John
 
John,

I spent a year on Shemya island at the western end of the Aleutians in 1967. Reeves Aleutian flew out the islands twice a week with mail. They stayed overnight at Shemya. The stewardesses were the only women on the island during their overnight (lodged at the terminal building, far from everyone and everything).

They were flying Electras at that time. A story often told was that they had to have 10 runway lights in sight to take off and one time, the pilot said to the copilot, "I have five, do you have five? OK, lets go"

Jim Butcher
 
Some Not Listed

Agree with GLACIER PILOT reviews Great book. The FLYING NORTH is another accurate one as well-been to some of the places both books mention.

I've read through this thread. Was surprised to see some of the best only mentioned once, OPERATION OVERFLIGHT by Francis Gary Powers was one, interesting read.

Quite a few of my library has already been mentioned, these are the ones that seem to have been left out:
ROCKET FIGHTER by Mano Ziegler (1st person account on flying the ME163)
THE LONELY SKY by William Bridgeman (1st person account on flying the Douglass D558-II Skyrocket)
MEN FROM EARTH by Buzz Aldrin
MOON SHOT by Sheppard/Slayton
COME UP AND GET ME by Kittinger (tested spacesuits for the early astronauts by riding a balloon to over 100,000ft and then parachuting-he helped coach Felix Baumgartner in his record parachute jump a few years ago) National Geographic did a piece on him as well-The Long Lonely Jump
WING LEADER by J.E. Johnson (WWII top scoring allied fighter pilot)
THE FASTEST MAN ALIVE by Brig. Gen Frank Everest JR
IGOR SIKORSKY by Frank Delear
APACHE SUNRISE by Jerome Boyle (Vietnam Cobra Pilot)
CENTAUR FLIGHTS by Richard Spalding (Vietnam Cobra Pilot)
TEST PILOTS: RIDING THE DRAGON by Martin Caidin
FORK TAILED DEVIL THE P38 by Martin Caidin
John Glenn by John Glenn

Not so much a book on aviation: Photos taken by quite a few different astronauts: THE GREATEST ADVENTURE from MACH 1, Inc

The best movie about spaceflight: FOR ALL MANKIND from Criterion-Rob Riener was allowed into NASA archives, he spliced together all of the astronauts film footage into a movie. Many astronauts are quoted and shown. If you watch this movie, best to use the Astronaut Identification choice at the start so you know what mission you are watching. Mostly about Apollo missions to the moon, however, you will see Astronaut White do the first US spacewalk. Lots of moon footage!

As mentioned CHICKENHAWK is one of my favorites.

Currently reading, AT THE EDGE OF SPACE THE X-15 FLIGHT PROGRAMME by Milton O. Thompson bought it two weeks ago on eBay for less than $10. Interesting read so far!

ROCKET FIGHTER by Mano Ziegler is the best book about flying rocket powered airplanes, THE LONEY SKY is a close second. Both cover the dangers of flying rocket engines and the incredible power available.

If you decide to try ROCKET FIGHTER and THE LONELY SKY-try to get the hardbound versions, both have lots of interesting photos.

Best regards,
Mike Bauer
 
Glacier Pilot

Great stuff Jim. I also read Last Letter from Attu about the school teacher taken captive (along with the entire Aleut population of Attu) by the Japanese and interned in Japan for the duration. The life on those islands before scheduled air service sounded brutal... and pretty rough even after a few airports got built. Must have been quite an experience for you.

Thanks for the recommendations Mike. Lots of intriguing titles and authors in that list.

John
 
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"The Final Hours" by Johannes Steinhoff

An interesting but short book by a top WWII ace and Me-262 pilot
 
Two Short Novels

Spirit of Steamboat, by Craig Johnson. This is one of the more gripping books I've read.

If you prefer to get it directly from the author, get it here.

The Shepherd, by Frederick Forsyth, is a can't put down kind of book. Get the version with Lou Feck's illustrations.

I own and have read heaps of flying books. These are two of the very best, and perhaps the two best fictional works about flying.

Dave
 
I enjoyed "Skyfaring: A Journey with a Pilot" by Mark Vanhoenacker. Non-fiction about life as a 747 pilot.

"A Higher Call" was great as well.
 
We never forget our "first one"...

The title was "Eight Hours to Solo".
Cannot remember the author's name.
It was a book in the tiny "library", really just 3 bookshelves in our one-room country school. The story was about a young man nearing 16 years old who had scraped up enough money to buy a few hours of instruction in a J3.
The details of flight controls and procedures were quite extensive as I recall.
Took my first flight lesson in a J5 and I'll always remember the instructor saying "You've done this before".
Liked to think that reading and re-reading that book made a big difference. I had logged a lot of hours mentally flying by then.
 
Here is a great audio version of Forsyth's "The Shepherd" done several years ago by Al Maitland via the CBC.

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-the-shepherd-edition-2016-1.3907204

Over the years of reading your posts, Carl, I've come to greatly respect your opinions. In this instance I have to disagree with your opinion.

Al Maitland's reading of The Shepherd is THE quintessential interpretation of this work. There, I've said it - I disagree most strenuously with your assessment, Carl! :eek:

The first time I heard this rendition I was driving home in a blinding snowstorm with huge flakes of wet white swirling around the car, rendering visibility as close to zero/zero as one dared get. Snow was shushing along the belly of the car; the plows were wisely waiting out the worst of the storm before venturing out. I was travelling a remote northern secondary road with only the occasional house light passing by every few miles, and many miles with nary a sign of human presence to be seen.

I'm sure you can understand the effect of Al Maitland's voice under such eerie and similar circumstances as those featured in the plot line. The story sent shivers up my spine then and I still get goosebumps when I remember that night.
 
Second the book. The Bishops boys. Two truly amazing, interesting and intriguing men that changed history.
 
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"Nanette," by Edwards Park, is a charming book about a P-39 flying in the South Pacific during WW II.

To me, WW II aviation books generally run a bit boring. The experiential ones are often alike with long lists of flights flown and battles fought. They tend to run together.

This one stands out. It's essentially a romance between the airplane and her pilot. It's got more humor than I ever expected. I was chuckling almost every page.

This is a must-read.

Dave
 
No Parachute and You Want to Build and Fly a What?

No Parachute (A fighter pilot in world war I); Arthur Gould Lee

You Want to Build and Fly a What? (How I learned to fly, built a WWI replica, and stayed married); Dick Starks
 
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Nevil Shute's "Stephen Morris" has the best description of an aircraft design process that I have ever read. An extract:

Two days later Morris started work in the design office of Rawdon Aircraft Company (1919) Ltd. He did not find the work very difficult after the first few days. The whole business of designing an aeroplane he found to run on certain very definite lines. First of all, certain broad considerations governing the design of the machine came to the designer. Thus if it were a passenger machine for an air line, the air line had certain definite ideas as to what they wanted; the carrying capacity, the speed, the landing speed, and the ?ceiling? or maximum height that it was possible for the machine to attain. Such considerations as these would be settled in conference with the designer, who would indicate tactfully where they were asking for technical impossibilities. If the machine were a military one for the Air Force the procedure was, in general, much the same, with the difference that the purchaser had a habit of asking for technical impossibilities and refusing to discuss the matter. This made the design of military machines a very specialized business.

The conditions for the machine being determined, the chief draughtsman would draw a pretty picture of what he thought such a machine ought to look like, neatly indicating on this first layout the really important features of the machine, such as the way the door opened and the system of heating the cabin. This rough layout would be shown to the customer for approval; in the case of a commercial machine it would be passed without much question.
 
This Winged World

My favorite aviation book is usually the last one I completely finished.

The last one was Glacier Pilot, biography of Bob Reeves by Beth Day; some things that she heard from her research effort may have been misinterpreted a little but it is an easy read of recounts of the amazing early days of aviation in Alaska.

I am currently reading a very interesting book I found at the EAA Book Store this year at AirVenture '18. This Winged World: An Anthology of Aviation Fiction, 1943, Coward-McCann, Inc. New York. I generally stick to biographies and autobiographies. These are amazing short stories or snippet's (36 stories) from longer works about men flying throughout history starting with Daedalus and Icarus; including works by authors Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, H.G. Wells. Very unique and well worth finding.
 
Adam Makos

After you finish A Higher Call, another well researched book by the same author is Devotion. The biography is about the first black carrier pilot and a Medal of Honor recipient flying Corsairs in Korea.
 
"The experiential ones are often alike with long lists of flights flown and battles fought."

I find that the books don't cover what I want to know...what training and tactics were they exposed to? What did they learn on the job?

Mostly these books are a travelogue of sights they saw with an occasional air battle.
 
I have another one...

Came across this thread searching for something else, but I recently read “Indestructible” by John R. Bruning.

It’s the story of Paul “Pappy” Gunn in WWII and B-25 anti-shipping missions. I couldn’t put it down, highly recommend it!

Best regards,
Sam
 
There is no such thing as too many books..............

"The experiential ones are often alike with long lists of flights flown and battles fought."

I find that the books don't cover what I want to know...what training and tactics were they exposed to? What did they learn on the job?

Mostly these books are a travelogue of sights they saw with an occasional air battle.

Three books to consider that are heavy on training and tactics of the amazing F-14 by Dave "Bio" Baranek: Tomcat Rio, Before Topgun Days, and Topgun Days. All are an interesting look into Naval aviation from the prospective of a RIO rather than a pilot. Hard to put down....... Amazon has all three.........

His web site, www.topgunbio.com has some fun videos and other interesting things.

There is also a connection with JD who is the designer of the Infinity Aereospace military-style grips that is quite interesting......

Small world.............

The aviation book I've read the most: The Spirt of St. Louis. Something from a previous life draws me to that book every Winter. I'm about to read it again....
 
My Life As An Aircraft Designer
by Richard "Van" VanGrunsven...

yet to be conceived, written and published, unless anyone knows better?
 
The aviation book I've read the most: The Spirt of St. Louis. Something from a previous life draws me to that book every Winter. I'm about to read it again....

I agree with you on this one. Unlike most books you get detailed information from this one.
 
The Spirit of St. Louis

Anyone who has NOT read The Spirit of St. Louis owes it to themselves to read it. It is not just about crossing the Atlantic but about aviation in its very early years. The flying we do today had its roots back in those early days.

We had the replica Spirit in the Vintage area at OSH several years ago and it was depressing how many people had NO IDEA what it was or what it represented. It represents our shared history.......
 

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Although I have read a lot of aviation books, I have to agree with many on this thread, Fate of the Hunter by Gann is the best aviation book ever written.
 
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