MUST READ AVIATION BOOKS

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mbram
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Post by mbram »

I paid 15.00 for a unsigned 1953 edition of The Spirit of St Louis.
complete with the origninal jacket. $8.00 for a Seventh printing
November 1935 edition of North to the Orient. I look for the early
editions if they are available at a reasonable price.

Here is a link to a number of recently discovered photographs of the
Lockheed Sirius Hoist accident taken from the HMS Hermes.

http://www.charleslindbergh.com/history/orient.asp
Mike
N 9545A
mbram
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Post by mbram »

Here is another book featuring one of the Uniited States
finest aviators.

That's my Story
by Douglas Corrigan


Signed copies are available for $25.00
Mike
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iowa
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Post by iowa »

thanks mike
i'll order a copy
and add it to the list
dave
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1942 L-4B 2764C USAAC 43-572 (9433)
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C170BDan
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Book

Post by C170BDan »

Ah... like the lists I have seen... a few that are on my list...

Sigh for a Merlin - Henshaw
Flight of the Mew Gull - Henshaw
Nine Lives - Deere
My Secret War - Drury

Most of my reading is biographies - not so much fiction.

I have a large collection of Lindbergh books. Even some extras if anyone is interested in them. (I sell/trade aviation books for fun... guess you could call it "non-profit" because I dont make $ at it!!) Also have Corrigans book signed by him. Fun read. I have seen them for sale but not for $25! Find one that low grab it.
Dan
1956 170B N3467D
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Kyle Wolfe
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Post by Kyle Wolfe »

I'd add "Rescue of Streetcar 304" by Kenny Wayne Fields.

A good read about a rescue in Vietnam.
Kyle
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57 BMW Isetta
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markeg1964
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Post by markeg1964 »

Several weeks ago I finished reading The Spirit of St. Louis by Lindbergh. I’d have to say it was one of the more interesting books I have read in a long time.

Mark
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jrenwick
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Post by jrenwick »

markeg1964 wrote:Several weeks ago I finished reading The Spirit of St. Louis by Lindbergh. I’d have to say it was one of the more interesting books I have read in a long time.

Mark
Great! Now read "Carrying the Fire" by Michael Collins, who was the Apollo 11 command module pilot. Lindbergh wrote a preface for it. These two books really should be read in sequence, for the incredible contrasts. It'll give you a new appreciation for what Lindbergh did.

John
John Renwick
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Former owner, '55 C-170B, N4401B
'42 J-3 Cub, N62088
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russfarris
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Post by russfarris »

I don't think any has mentioned it yet, but "North Star over my shoulder"
by Captain Robert Buck published a few years back is a great book!
Buck set a trancontinental record as a 17 year old back in the early 1930s,
went on to fly for TWA, had just an amazing career as a special weather
project pilot...he retired from TWA in 1974 and only recently passed away.

Another book I don't think mentioned is "Song of the Sky" by Guy Murchie. Published in the 1950s, he was a navigator during the war. Great
poetic, almost lyrical descriptions of weather, celestial navigation and flying the oceans in a C-54.

If I had to keep only one aviation book, it would be "Fate is the Hunter" by Ernie Gann. After all these years, I think it is still the masterpiece...Russ Farris

P.S. I agree, "Carrying the Fire" is wonderful, easily the best space flight book ever written.
All glory is fleeting...
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cessna170bdriver
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Post by cessna170bdriver »

russfarris wrote:If I had to keep only one aviation book, it would be "Fate is the Hunter" by Ernie Gann. After all these years, I think it is still the masterpiece...Russ Farris
Amen Russ! I break it out and re-read it every 10 years or so. It still keeps me on the edge of my seat.

Miles
Miles

“I envy no man that knows more than myself, but pity them that know less.”
— Thomas Browne
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n2582d
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Re: MUST READ AVIATION BOOKS

Post by n2582d »

I'd like to revive this thread with a few good books I didn't see listed.
The Bishop's Boys: A Life of Wilbur and Orville Wright, Tom Crouch
Going Solo, Roald Dahl
Three-Eight Charlie, Jerrie Mock Her story about flying a C-180 around the world. Look for it in your library as Amazon is asking up to $500 for a used copy.
Rickenbacker: An Autobiography, Edward V. Rickenbacker It's been some time since I read this book but one detail I recall is that he refused to install autopilots in Eastern's DC-3s--said he that's what he paid his pilots to do.
These next two are only tangentially aviation books. Nevertheless I found them fascinating WWII accounts of survival following aircraft crashes.
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, Laura Hillenbrand
Lost in Shangri-la, Mitchell Zuckoff
Gary
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GAHorn
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Re: MUST READ AVIATION BOOKS

Post by GAHorn »

I found an autographed copy of Eddie Rickenbackers' book in a junk-shop. The asking price was 25-cents.
I bought it and read it,....finding it fascinating (even if it reduced my esteem of the author as someone who
thought too highly of himself and too lowly of other pilots.)
I gave it to my Hawker-mentor/QB-sponsor, Beryl Minard #12,999, Gone West.
(I wonder if his estranged airline-pilot-son even noticed the autographed book when he sold his father's estate.)
'53 B-model N146YS SN:25713
50th Anniversary of Flight Model. Winner-Best Original 170B, 100th Anniversary of Flight Convention.
An originality nut (mostly) for the right reasons. ;)
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blueldr
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Re: MUST READ AVIATION BOOKS

Post by blueldr »

I am always amazed at how few aviation oriented people know who Geraldine "Jerrie" Mock is. Most of the women pilots I've asked to name the first woman to fly solo around the world, have no clue. They all seem to revere the one who failed twice flying an air liner with a professional navigator. None seem to know the one who did it in the family four place airplane all alone.
BL
bagarre
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Re: MUST READ AVIATION BOOKS

Post by bagarre »

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerrie_Mock
I've seen that airplane a dozen times at the Udvar Hazy museum and had no idea why it was there. (same on me)
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blueldr
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Re: MUST READ AVIATION BOOKS

Post by blueldr »

David Ross,
You should make the effort to find and read "Three Eight Charlie". This lady was a 38 year old, petite, mother of three, who had a relatively limited amount of flying experience when she undertook this flight around the world in the family C-180. She had some very, to me, frightening experiences along the way. This was back in 1964, long before GPS, too. She used the radio ADF a good deal. I used to fly the Pacific Ocean too, but I did it in a four engined DC-6. I can't begin to immagine strapping a little four place GA airplane to my butt and departing Honolulu at dusk to start a 2400 mile flight at night over the ocean so as to be able to land at Oakland in daylight. Man, this takes guts.
It really chaps my ass that, seemingly, none of the alphabetic aviation organizations ever even mention her name. The last I read, she was still living in Florida. She would be about in her mid eighties now.
BL
bagarre
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Re: MUST READ AVIATION BOOKS

Post by bagarre »

I'd LOVE to read a book like this!

Extremely limited printing of that book and very desired by collectors put the used price around $250.00.
That is a true shame.
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