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The Great Air Race: Glory, Tragedy, and the Dawn of American Aviation
Reader Score
77%
77% of readers
recommend this book
Critic Reviews
Good
Based on 6 reviews on
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.
Book Details
- Publisher: Liveright Publishing Corporation
- Publish Date: Nov 15th, 2022
- Pages: 368
- Language: English
- Edition: undefined - undefined
- Dimensions: 9.00in - 6.30in - 1.30in - 1.40lb
- EAN: 9781631496370
- Categories: ā¢ Aviation - Historyā¢ United States - 20th Centuryā¢ Aviation & Nautical
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About the Author
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What people are saying
All things books from The New York Times. You like reading, we do too.
Among the many virtues of John Lancasterās delightful āThe Great Air Raceā is how vividly it conveys the entirely different world of aviation at the dawn of the industry, a century ago. https://t.co/bEPDh9c7oB
https://t.co/O5X7ABYEXj. Assoc. Editor, Books at @WSJ. Known associate of the Amazing Sargasso. He/him.
Michael O'Donnell reviewed John Lancaster's "The Great Air Race," which follows the triumphs, fiascos and tragedies of the first American transcontinental flying competition https://t.co/xiO35w9TUK
Peter Baker is a journalist for the New York Times.
In "The Great Air Race," @johnlancasterA1 tells the story of Billy Mitchell and the early days of aviation. ā¦@JamesFallowsā© calls it "delightful," adding that he has read a lot of aviation books "but almost everything in this tale was new to me." https://t.co/8f561rRoQV
Criticsā reviews
Praise for this book
What people are saying
All things books from The New York Times. You like reading, we do too.
Among the many virtues of John Lancasterās delightful āThe Great Air Raceā is how vividly it conveys the entirely different world of aviation at the dawn of the industry, a century ago. https://t.co/bEPDh9c7oB
https://t.co/O5X7ABYEXj. Assoc. Editor, Books at @WSJ. Known associate of the Amazing Sargasso. He/him.
Michael O'Donnell reviewed John Lancaster's "The Great Air Race," which follows the triumphs, fiascos and tragedies of the first American transcontinental flying competition https://t.co/xiO35w9TUK