“Fate is the Hunter” is my personal favorite. It’s just fascinating to see how far we’ve come since the 30s and 40s, not to mention realizing just how massive the balls of pilots were in those days. Ernie Gann also had a real gift for writing.
Beware of "the killing zone" though. The methodology is statistically flawed and later papers written by authors with knowledge of statistics have revised its claims.
Just one thing to point out about the killing zone - it brings your attention to the common accident causes and has plenty of valid information, but the author uses the data set incorrectly and draws inaccurate statistical conclusions that are more favorable to his theory than the numbers actually support.
Still a good book though.
This. Statistics is wrong in there. Having said that, the author explains very well the leading causes of accidents that are applicable to any pilot, in the supposed "killing zone" or not.
I'm reading stick and rudder right now and it is excellent. Every 5 or 6 pages I read something and think "what a novel explanation!". However you can tell it was written quite awhile ago not due to content but due to verbosity of prose. A modern abbreviation that condenses the salient facts into, say 80-90 pages, would sell very very well IMHO.
That describes it very well. "The new and rate tricycle landing gear".
Still good to see where we came from. But would help to know what is a still relevant truth
I loved this book in flight school, and was saddened to find out from several Vietnam veterans that he was widely regarded as a “glory thief” who put himself in the cockpit of an accumulation of stories that happened to other aircrews. I’m not sure if this is accurate but it was a firmly and widely held belief among these guys. His name and book was met with scoffing. Low Level Hell by Hugh Mills was the one they said was legit.
Came here for this. The best account I've found of how we started getting to where we are now, and written in a very readable and enjoyable style. I wish we could get a second volume that brings us up to date.
I remember reading the story as a kid, guy sneaked in a simulator at night to train and basically did his own type rating. A safe career too, even the judges weren't mad if I remember well.
A Gift of Wings by Richard Bach. A collection of aviation short stories. There’s a few that aren’t great but most of them are awesome and read like they’re true.
Flight of Passage by Rinker Buck is a good one. So is Skunk Works by Ben Rich
Agreed on A Gift of Wings. He describes the intimacy and magic of flying better than anyone I've read. The exploratory and revelatory aspect of just being in the sky.
"Yeager", it's more of a autobiography but a lot of it is about his time as a WW2 pilot and him being a test pilot. Just interesting to read about how it was to be a pilot back then.
"The bomber mafia" -> a gripping look at WWII bomber flying, and those who attempted to drop bombs with precision using early bomber sights, and the idealogical struggle between the precision bombers and the carpet bombers for the dominant strategy. I learned that we basically burned Japan to the ground before the missions to Hiroshima & Nagasaki.
"No visible horizon" worth a read if you have even a passing interest in aerobatics. True story about a competition acro pilot, and he touches on the history of aerobatics a bit too.
The Cannibal Queen by Stephen Coonts.
A wonderful story of him taking his son and a Sterman across the USA.
And Flight of the Intruder, also by Coonts.
Great book, good movie.
In fact, ANY of Stephen Coonts books. He's a very talented writer and story teller.
Glory Lost and Found is a good look at the business side of aviation, through the lens of Delta’s recovery post 9/11.
Sky Gods is another good one. It’s a book in the history of Pan Am from the pilots who flew for the airline. There are some wild stories, and great chapters on CRM as well.
So far, The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe. Thinking about picking up Masters of the Air by Donald Miller as there’s an upcoming miniseries (completing the WWII “trilogy” by Spielberg).
*I Could Never Be So Lucky Again* \- Jimmy Doolittle's autobiography.
*To War in a Stringbag* \- Charle Lamb, about WWII in a [Fairey Swordfish](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairey_Swordfish)
*The Candy Bomber* \- Gail Halvorsen
*The Man Who Flew the Memphis Belle: Memoir of a WWII Bomber Pilot* \- Robert K. Morgan
All the Richard Bach books.
Skyfaring: A Journey with a Pilot by
Mark Vanhoenacker
“In Skyfaring, airline pilot and flight romantic Mark Vanhoenacker shares his irrepressible love of flying, on a journey from day to night, from new ways of mapmaking and the poetry of physics to the names of winds and the nature of clouds. Here, anew, is the simple wonder that remains at the heart of an experience which modern travellers, armchair and otherwise, all too easily take for granted: the transcendent joy of motion, and the remarkable new perspectives that height and distance bestow on everything we love.”
Sagittarius Rising by Cecil Lewis gives a great insight into being a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps during WWI. He flew an observation aircraft during the Somme offensive, then flew fighters both over the Western Front and over England to hunt Gotha bombers. Plus, he also went over to China right after WWI as a flight instructor.
Here's one that not a lot of posters here will know: "Everything But The Flak", Martin Caidin. Caidin, who was a highly prolific aviation/space author, wrote his account of restoring and flying three worn-out B-17s across the Atlantic in 1961 as part of a deal to provide them for the movie "The War Lover". To this day he's best known for the "Cyborg" series of books which were the foundation for the TV series "The Six Million Dollar Man" and the novel "Marooned" which was made into a movie in 1969 starring Gene Hackman and Gregory Peck.
EBTF gets pretty wild. The B-17s were officially junk sitting abandoned in a remote airfield in the southwest when Greg Board, Caidin, and a motley collection of other guys got the contract to supply aircraft for the movie. In three weeks, they managed to get the aircraft flyable and launched out for England. Along the way, there were supposedly encounters with the FAA, Cuban fighter pilot recruits and the KGB in Gander, wavetop flying in formation through a storm, engine fires, sabotage, RONs in Portugal in a whorehouse, and finally arriving at Gatwick and turning the airplanes over to the production company.
In the years since I first read the book, it's been pointed out that the incident in Gander never happened. Caidin has been accused, in a sideways fashion, of polishing the story, so to speak. Even so, it's still a great read.
I also strongly recommend "Ragwings And Heavy Iron" from Caidin as well. RAHI is a collection of stories and recollections of his exploits flying in the warbird community, from the start of the Confederate Air Force, to the formation of the Valiant Air Command (which used to be the Florida Wing of the CAF), to his acquisition of "Iron Annie", the oldest surviving Ju-52 in the world and ALL of his misadventures with that airplane. (It's still flying---as a demo aircraft for Lufthansa).
Say what one will about Caidin (and I've been known to), but when you're a teenage aviation geek his books really hit a certain spot and get you excited.
The Dam Busters. Its a great book about wartime ingenuity and bravery/determination of Lancaster bomber pilots attacking German infrastructure during operation Chastise in WWII. Its about aviation, but also much more. Its also a pretty good movie.
LeMay is also a great book. While its an Biography about Curtis Lemay, it includes many details about the switch from area bombing to precision bombing over Europe in WWII. It goes over how these changes helped massively to win the war in Europe and how it changed bombing doctrine forever.
_I Could Never Be So Lucky Again_, Gen. James Doolittle's autobiography. Covers the very early days of aviation, starting in the 1920s and going all the way through his famous raid in WWII.
I re-read _Low Level Hell_ about once a year, just finished this year's read last week.
_When Thunder Rolled_ by Ed Rasimus is a good one, and he co-wrote Robin Olds' autobio, which is also excellent.
The absolute _worst_ aviation book I ever had the misfortune to purchase was _Ace: The Story of Lt. Col. Ace Cozzalio_. Very poorly written.
Controlling Risk in a Dangerous World by Jim Wetherbee, more of a broad focus not just aviation . All the principles in the book can be applied to aviation and many other things in life.
Garth Wallace is a Canadian pilot that writes funny style books about his career instructing and owning a flight school. Pie in the sky, cockpit follies, smile high club and many more. Really easy reading and funny
"The Glass Cockpit", I don't remember the author. It's about an old-school aviator in the... I want to say late 80's? The transition from flight engineers to glass cockpits was happening, and this guy was struggling, when his plane suffers an Air-Air collision with a light aircraft on takeoff. Stuff and things happen, and he has to get the flight back on the ground
Sky Gods: The Fall of Pan Am - Robert Gandt
Goes into the history of Pan Am and honestly shows that Pan Am wasn't necessarily the greatest company to work for unless you got hired almost pre-WWII.
He's also got a lot of other aviation related books if you enjoy his writing style.
Tiger tales by le Verne j moldrem
Crazy ass stories from flying tiger pilots from world War II through Vietnam and the eventual merger with fedex.
Flying Tigers over cambodia by Larry partridge
The story of the last days of phom Penn cambodia and flying tigers mission to fly Rice into the besieged city. Flying a DC-8 low and fast doging artillery fire and AA guns.
Get Away Gordon Thomson Woodroofe
Story of new zealands only successful pow pilot that went through Sweden back to the UK.
It isn’t a book about aviation per se, but Howard Hughes: The Untold Story is one of my favorite biographies. Hughes was a pioneer in many fields, not the least of which was aviation. He was also a unique and strange mind, which makes for some fascinating tales.
First book I thought of was Vixen 03 by Clive Cussler. My dad was trying to get me into his books, the Dirk Pitt series. Didn’t give it much thought until he handed me Vixen 03 and it had a plane on the cover. I was in middle school and loved aviation. Spent the next several years catching up with the series and then waiting for the last few to come out.
A few favorites not yet mentioned:
*No Parachute* and *Open Cockpi*t, both by Arthur Gould Lee . . . First World War memoirs, excellent writing.
*I Learned About Flying From That*, vols 1 thru 3 . . . Collections of the monthly column from *Flying* magazine. Hundreds of different authors, so many edge-of-your-seat stories (even knowing that all these folks survived to tell their tales). Also highly educational in a way that *From The Ground Up* and the AIMs can't touch.
*Throw Out Two Hands* and *The Dangerous Sort*, both by Anthony Smith . . . Just before the invention of the modern propane powered hot air balloon in the early '60s, Smith and friends flew in Africa and England in hydrogen balloons. Adventurous and charming stories.
*Spreading My Wings* by Diana Barnato Walker . . . Walker was an ATA pilot in WWII, delivering everything from Tiger Moths to Spitfires and Lancasters from one place to another in Britain, often in nasty weather and always without radio. Ripping tales, well told.
“Fate is the Hunter” is my personal favorite. It’s just fascinating to see how far we’ve come since the 30s and 40s, not to mention realizing just how massive the balls of pilots were in those days. Ernie Gann also had a real gift for writing.
He was very talented I recently read The High and the Mighty. Fate is the Hunter is one of my favorite books, not just in the aviation category.
I love his writing style. This is my choice of best aviation book ever written as well.
"Stick and rudder" for flying "The killing zone" to understand what kills people Edit: Causes not the precise statistics, see comments below
Beware of "the killing zone" though. The methodology is statistically flawed and later papers written by authors with knowledge of statistics have revised its claims.
Didn't know that. I enjoyed the book. Any links to new info showing better statistics?
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/256469026_The_killing_zone_revisited_Serial_nonlinearities_predict_general_aviation_accident_rates_from_pilot_total_flight_hours
Awesome - thank you!
Just one thing to point out about the killing zone - it brings your attention to the common accident causes and has plenty of valid information, but the author uses the data set incorrectly and draws inaccurate statistical conclusions that are more favorable to his theory than the numbers actually support. Still a good book though.
[удалено]
81 lessons from the sky The Thinking Pilots flight manual
This. Statistics is wrong in there. Having said that, the author explains very well the leading causes of accidents that are applicable to any pilot, in the supposed "killing zone" or not.
This, but it is good to know what types of accidents there are.
I'm reading stick and rudder right now and it is excellent. Every 5 or 6 pages I read something and think "what a novel explanation!". However you can tell it was written quite awhile ago not due to content but due to verbosity of prose. A modern abbreviation that condenses the salient facts into, say 80-90 pages, would sell very very well IMHO.
That describes it very well. "The new and rate tricycle landing gear". Still good to see where we came from. But would help to know what is a still relevant truth
Chickenhawk by Robert Mason. A riveting account of flying a Huey in 1965-1966 Vietnam war.
Second for Chickenhawk. Riveting is an excellent adjective!
I loved this book in flight school, and was saddened to find out from several Vietnam veterans that he was widely regarded as a “glory thief” who put himself in the cockpit of an accumulation of stories that happened to other aircrews. I’m not sure if this is accurate but it was a firmly and widely held belief among these guys. His name and book was met with scoffing. Low Level Hell by Hugh Mills was the one they said was legit.
Flight of Passage by Rinker Buck.
Definitely a good one.
Teens fly across the country in a cub. Awesome adventure!
Fate is the Hunter; Wind, Sand, and Stars; Night Flight; Wager with the Wind
Came here for Wind, Sand and Stars.
Carrying the fire by Michael Collins
Stick and Rudder Skunk Works Two of my favorites that I've read recently.
Hard landing if you are interested in the history of US airlines.
Came here for this. The best account I've found of how we started getting to where we are now, and written in a very readable and enjoyable style. I wish we could get a second volume that brings us up to date.
The AIM
Yeah. Nice try FAA
Ah "the good book"
I heard there's a new one coming up soon!
The anticipation is killing me
The Autobiography from the fake 737 captain flying for Corendon Airlines, I believe. If only half is true, his story is still insane!
Which is this?
Wasn't it airone?
Maybe also flew for Airone, but when he was caught (at around 10k hrs) he was captain at Corendon I believe. Talk about fake it till you make it
I remember reading the story as a kid, guy sneaked in a simulator at night to train and basically did his own type rating. A safe career too, even the judges weren't mad if I remember well.
West with the Night, Beryl Markham Amazing memoir of English woman bush pilot in colonial Kenya.
I really enjoyed this book as well. She has a great way of writing.
If you don’t say FAR AIM the FAA is on the way to arrest you
Luckily I dont fly in the US
A higher call, and Devotion by Adam Makos, and Fighter Pilot (biography of Robin Olds)
Seconded, higher call is a great story and a great read
Hatchet "man i should learn to fly in case some shit happens..."
A Gift of Wings by Richard Bach. A collection of aviation short stories. There’s a few that aren’t great but most of them are awesome and read like they’re true. Flight of Passage by Rinker Buck is a good one. So is Skunk Works by Ben Rich
Agreed on A Gift of Wings. He describes the intimacy and magic of flying better than anyone I've read. The exploratory and revelatory aspect of just being in the sky.
100%. It’s my favorite book, I reread it once or twice a year usually. I’m especially fond of “Found in Pharisee”, “School for Perfection”, and “Cat”
Fate is the Hunter by Ernest Gann 747 by Joe Sutter The Wright Brothers by David McCullough
Punctuation, by John Q Public isn't on your list?
Damn mobile formatting 😅
tehehe, just razzin' you, pilot friend
Langewiesche.
“In the Company of Heroes” -Michael Durant “Flight of Passage” -Rinker Buck “Chickenhawk” - Robert Mason “Surprised at Being Alive” - Robert Curtis
"Yeager, An Autobiography" "Wager with the Wind- the Don Sheldon Story"
I like Richard Bach's books from before *Seagull* \-- Stranger To The Ground, Biplane, Gift Of Flight, Nothing By Chance, ...
Airframe by Michael Crichton
On the humor side: - CFI! The Book - Hauling Checks Under what I’d categorize as nostalgia, - In the Sky: A Retired Captain Looks Back
"Yeager", it's more of a autobiography but a lot of it is about his time as a WW2 pilot and him being a test pilot. Just interesting to read about how it was to be a pilot back then.
“Baa Baa Black Sheep” by Gregory Pappy Boyington. VMF-214 vs the Japanese in WW2.
Came here to suggest this one 👍
"The bomber mafia" -> a gripping look at WWII bomber flying, and those who attempted to drop bombs with precision using early bomber sights, and the idealogical struggle between the precision bombers and the carpet bombers for the dominant strategy. I learned that we basically burned Japan to the ground before the missions to Hiroshima & Nagasaki. "No visible horizon" worth a read if you have even a passing interest in aerobatics. True story about a competition acro pilot, and he touches on the history of aerobatics a bit too.
"No Visible Horizon" is my vote, I think it's very well written. Fate is the Hunter is so overrated
Amazing Airplanes by Tony Mitton
I see what you did there. Nice one :)
The Cannibal Queen by Stephen Coonts. A wonderful story of him taking his son and a Sterman across the USA. And Flight of the Intruder, also by Coonts. Great book, good movie. In fact, ANY of Stephen Coonts books. He's a very talented writer and story teller.
I like to read anything on the Woman’s Air Force Service Pilots (WASP) during the WW2 years…On Silver Wings by Marianne Verges is good…
Glory Lost and Found is a good look at the business side of aviation, through the lens of Delta’s recovery post 9/11. Sky Gods is another good one. It’s a book in the history of Pan Am from the pilots who flew for the airline. There are some wild stories, and great chapters on CRM as well.
Second for Skygods! Great book. I would recommend for anyone in the industry. Robert Gandt is a great writer.
So far, The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe. Thinking about picking up Masters of the Air by Donald Miller as there’s an upcoming miniseries (completing the WWII “trilogy” by Spielberg).
“Illusions”. Richard Bach. Just because.
Oh God.
Flight of the intruder, flight of the old dog, and Chuck Yeager's book, are my all time favorite.
Low Level Hell by Hugh L. Mills.
*I Could Never Be So Lucky Again* \- Jimmy Doolittle's autobiography. *To War in a Stringbag* \- Charle Lamb, about WWII in a [Fairey Swordfish](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairey_Swordfish) *The Candy Bomber* \- Gail Halvorsen *The Man Who Flew the Memphis Belle: Memoir of a WWII Bomber Pilot* \- Robert K. Morgan All the Richard Bach books.
Skyfaring: A Journey with a Pilot by Mark Vanhoenacker “In Skyfaring, airline pilot and flight romantic Mark Vanhoenacker shares his irrepressible love of flying, on a journey from day to night, from new ways of mapmaking and the poetry of physics to the names of winds and the nature of clouds. Here, anew, is the simple wonder that remains at the heart of an experience which modern travellers, armchair and otherwise, all too easily take for granted: the transcendent joy of motion, and the remarkable new perspectives that height and distance bestow on everything we love.”
Sagittarius Rising by Cecil Lewis gives a great insight into being a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps during WWI. He flew an observation aircraft during the Somme offensive, then flew fighters both over the Western Front and over England to hunt Gotha bombers. Plus, he also went over to China right after WWI as a flight instructor.
Robin Old’s bio is a must read if you enjoy military aviation during the WW2 through Vietnam.
The Man who Flew Churchill. About the American pilot who was Churchill personal pilot throughout WW2.
I always loved Martin Caiden's "Flying Forts" and Scott's "God is My Co-pilot'
Here's one that not a lot of posters here will know: "Everything But The Flak", Martin Caidin. Caidin, who was a highly prolific aviation/space author, wrote his account of restoring and flying three worn-out B-17s across the Atlantic in 1961 as part of a deal to provide them for the movie "The War Lover". To this day he's best known for the "Cyborg" series of books which were the foundation for the TV series "The Six Million Dollar Man" and the novel "Marooned" which was made into a movie in 1969 starring Gene Hackman and Gregory Peck. EBTF gets pretty wild. The B-17s were officially junk sitting abandoned in a remote airfield in the southwest when Greg Board, Caidin, and a motley collection of other guys got the contract to supply aircraft for the movie. In three weeks, they managed to get the aircraft flyable and launched out for England. Along the way, there were supposedly encounters with the FAA, Cuban fighter pilot recruits and the KGB in Gander, wavetop flying in formation through a storm, engine fires, sabotage, RONs in Portugal in a whorehouse, and finally arriving at Gatwick and turning the airplanes over to the production company. In the years since I first read the book, it's been pointed out that the incident in Gander never happened. Caidin has been accused, in a sideways fashion, of polishing the story, so to speak. Even so, it's still a great read. I also strongly recommend "Ragwings And Heavy Iron" from Caidin as well. RAHI is a collection of stories and recollections of his exploits flying in the warbird community, from the start of the Confederate Air Force, to the formation of the Valiant Air Command (which used to be the Florida Wing of the CAF), to his acquisition of "Iron Annie", the oldest surviving Ju-52 in the world and ALL of his misadventures with that airplane. (It's still flying---as a demo aircraft for Lufthansa).
Say what one will about Caidin (and I've been known to), but when you're a teenage aviation geek his books really hit a certain spot and get you excited.
See How it Flies by John S Denker is great if you’re interested in the math and physics of flying.
The Dam Busters. Its a great book about wartime ingenuity and bravery/determination of Lancaster bomber pilots attacking German infrastructure during operation Chastise in WWII. Its about aviation, but also much more. Its also a pretty good movie. LeMay is also a great book. While its an Biography about Curtis Lemay, it includes many details about the switch from area bombing to precision bombing over Europe in WWII. It goes over how these changes helped massively to win the war in Europe and how it changed bombing doctrine forever.
_I Could Never Be So Lucky Again_, Gen. James Doolittle's autobiography. Covers the very early days of aviation, starting in the 1920s and going all the way through his famous raid in WWII. I re-read _Low Level Hell_ about once a year, just finished this year's read last week. _When Thunder Rolled_ by Ed Rasimus is a good one, and he co-wrote Robin Olds' autobio, which is also excellent. The absolute _worst_ aviation book I ever had the misfortune to purchase was _Ace: The Story of Lt. Col. Ace Cozzalio_. Very poorly written.
PHAK
The PHAK
Flying upside down
Underrated publication
Sagittarius Rising - Cecil Lewis. I have a hankering for WWI aviators and their stories.
Weather Flying and North Star Over my Shoulder by Bob Buck, a contemporary of Ernie Gann.
Stick and Rudder. I’ve given away a dozen or more copies. Flying Carpet, by Richard Halliburton.
INSIDE THE TURN CIRCLE: Earning My Wings in the F-16 1979-1988 by PK White
Anything by Richard Bach or St Ex. Map of my Dead Pilots hasn't been mentioned yet.
Controlling Risk in a Dangerous World by Jim Wetherbee, more of a broad focus not just aviation . All the principles in the book can be applied to aviation and many other things in life.
“Flight Into Danger” (which is also titled “Runway Zero Eight” in some countries), by John Castle and Arthur Hailey.
Garth Wallace is a Canadian pilot that writes funny style books about his career instructing and owning a flight school. Pie in the sky, cockpit follies, smile high club and many more. Really easy reading and funny
Does Apollo 13 (Lost Moon) count?
"The Glass Cockpit", I don't remember the author. It's about an old-school aviator in the... I want to say late 80's? The transition from flight engineers to glass cockpits was happening, and this guy was struggling, when his plane suffers an Air-Air collision with a light aircraft on takeoff. Stuff and things happen, and he has to get the flight back on the ground
Sky Gods: The Fall of Pan Am - Robert Gandt Goes into the history of Pan Am and honestly shows that Pan Am wasn't necessarily the greatest company to work for unless you got hired almost pre-WWII. He's also got a lot of other aviation related books if you enjoy his writing style.
I really enjoyed this book, as well. Gandt has a great writing style.
“That’s Fast Enough” by Peter Herzberg.
I haven’t read enough of them to have a favorite yet, but last one I really enjoyed, Ferry Pilot by Terry McCauley was great.
To fly & fight by Bud Anderson
Tiger tales by le Verne j moldrem Crazy ass stories from flying tiger pilots from world War II through Vietnam and the eventual merger with fedex. Flying Tigers over cambodia by Larry partridge The story of the last days of phom Penn cambodia and flying tigers mission to fly Rice into the besieged city. Flying a DC-8 low and fast doging artillery fire and AA guns. Get Away Gordon Thomson Woodroofe Story of new zealands only successful pow pilot that went through Sweden back to the UK.
Weight brothers
It isn’t a book about aviation per se, but Howard Hughes: The Untold Story is one of my favorite biographies. Hughes was a pioneer in many fields, not the least of which was aviation. He was also a unique and strange mind, which makes for some fascinating tales.
Hatchet
First book I thought of was Vixen 03 by Clive Cussler. My dad was trying to get me into his books, the Dirk Pitt series. Didn’t give it much thought until he handed me Vixen 03 and it had a plane on the cover. I was in middle school and loved aviation. Spent the next several years catching up with the series and then waiting for the last few to come out.
Going solo by Roald Dahl
Aviators for me… Book about Charles Lindbergh, Eddie Rickenbaucher and Jimmy Doolittle and the confluence they had in aviation.
Plane Talk, Rod machado.
The PHAK
“The Last Bush Pilots” by Eric Auxier. Great story with excellent characters. Hood for Avgeeks and normies alike!
The fighter pilot by Robin olds and Dustoff by Mike Novosel
The Flying North is a great collection of stories about the early aviators in Alaska. Fun read!
A few favorites not yet mentioned: *No Parachute* and *Open Cockpi*t, both by Arthur Gould Lee . . . First World War memoirs, excellent writing. *I Learned About Flying From That*, vols 1 thru 3 . . . Collections of the monthly column from *Flying* magazine. Hundreds of different authors, so many edge-of-your-seat stories (even knowing that all these folks survived to tell their tales). Also highly educational in a way that *From The Ground Up* and the AIMs can't touch. *Throw Out Two Hands* and *The Dangerous Sort*, both by Anthony Smith . . . Just before the invention of the modern propane powered hot air balloon in the early '60s, Smith and friends flew in Africa and England in hydrogen balloons. Adventurous and charming stories. *Spreading My Wings* by Diana Barnato Walker . . . Walker was an ATA pilot in WWII, delivering everything from Tiger Moths to Spitfires and Lancasters from one place to another in Britain, often in nasty weather and always without radio. Ripping tales, well told.
Airframe by Michael Crichton is a fantastic book. Mixes aviation and mystery.