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The Great Air Race: Glory, Tragedy, and the Dawn of American Aviation
Maybe someday
36
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
34/100Critics
37/100Scholars
Author:
John Lancaster
Publisher:
Liveright
Date:
November 15, 2022
The story of the daring pilots who risked their lives in an unprecedented air race in 1919--and put American aviation on the map.
What The Reviewers Say
Among the many virtues of John Lancaster’s delightful The Great Air Race is how vividly it conveys the entirely different world of aviation at the dawn of the industry, a century ago.
Although the race took place during peacetime, Lancaster is in solid military-history territory as he recounts Mitchell’s background and discusses aviation success during WWI and the plan to use the race to prove that airplanes would be essential to the military of the future. The race itself was fraught with peril, and the author recounts in great detail the inherent struggles of trying to fly cross-country when there were no navigational aids, and the weather could prove deadly. In the end, there were numerous crashes, injuries, and fatalities, and Lancaster covers all of it, making for thrilling reading. The book also includes outstanding photographs. An excellent read for those interested in aviation, the military, and American history..
... a compelling book that succeeds by giving this chapter in history its due without overselling its significance.
In this well-researched text, Lancaster delivers an expert description of the planes (mostly ex–WWI fighters) and biographies of the volunteers, and he devotes more than half of the story to the precise details of the race.
