 Vol. 1 No. 1 "FIRST WORLD FLIGHT - The Odyssey of Billy Mitchell" by Spencer Lane. 
Lane writes in a novelistic style that grabs you immediately and won't let you go until you have completed reading the entire book. He is a 10,000 hour ATP rated pilot and holds 4 world speed records. 15 years of research went into his book including exclusive access to the aviation memorabilia collection of Donald Douglas. It's hard to believe that in this information-overloaded internet era, there lays an untold aviation story of such monumental significance that only the moon landing rivals its importance.
The unstoppable General Billy Mitchell defied President Calvin Coolidge, and entered the U.S. in what was believed to be an impossible odyssey. His beloved Army Air Corps had been almost totally decimated with only 232 pilots surviving from the wartime total of 20,000. Coolidge believed a new World War was not possible and slashed our military down to its lowest level ever. Mitchell held that war with Germany and Japan was not only likely, but inevitable. He knew only a miracle would save U.S. Military aviation from complete destruction and our country from defeat in the coming war. Salvation could only come from a spectacular aviation achievement.
In 1924, three years before Lindbergh flew to Paris, a small group of U.S. airmen, flying open cockpit biplanes, forced to use obsolete and unreliable engines left-over from a previous era, took off from the Douglas aircraft factory in Santa Monica racing 6 other countries to complete the first flight around the world. Douglas built the lumbering but strong biplanes which flew 26,345 miles to complete the flight and propel his small aircraft company to international fame. Everyone knew they had little chance of completing that flight, let alone winning the race.
Lane brings the reader into the cockpit while these heroic airmen fight to stay alive through uncrossed oceans, blizzards, sandstorms, blinding snow, freezing temperatures, icing, typhoons, monsoons, banking and yanking to miss the fog-enshrouded icebergs looming high over them at every turn. With few airports in the world for refueling, only a compass for navigation and no life rafts, parachutes, radios or survival supplies, few ever expected to see those young pilots alive ever again.
You will find this suspenseful and engrossing story as difficult to put down as I did. When you complete this book, you will know far more about the roots of aviation, both in war and peace, in this country and others, than you ever imagined. This is the best aviation book I have ever read.
This 498 page book contains over one hundred vintage photographs. It is available as a hard cover, paperback or eBook on Amazon.com .
Click here
http://www.firstworldflight.com/fwf/FWFlightCh07.pdf
to read Chapter 7 for FREE!
If you like what you read then click here
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004XR4I86
to purchase the Kindle Version for just $2.99.
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FMI: www.firstworldflight.com
Fly some place today - you've earned it!
John Purner |
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