The Ultimate Aviation Book?

I bought Gift of Wings when it first came out.
I liked it then and still do, but as Bach himself admits in the forward, some of his earlier pieces in it (they are mainly republished magazine columns from Flying and other US GA magazines) are very heavy handed.
Very ernest, but in his early days, he tried a bit too hard.
As far a his works, I appreciate the variety of GoW, but I really like Nothing by Chance, a tale of latter-day barnstorming in the uppermidwest in the mid 1960s. That may be because I’ve been to that region and know what those towns were like at that time.
For GA-centric writing about the joy of flight, I’d also recommend Gordon Baxter who wrote a monthly column for Flying from 1970 to the early 90s.
He matches Bach’s missionary zeal for flying but with a lot more humor. And, being older than Bach he writes great stories about being a child in the prewar”Golden Age” of aviation. During the war, he served in the Merchant Marine and as B-17 gunner, though he doesn’t write of his combat experiences, you can sense his admiration those who served.
His columns have been reprinted as Bax Seat, and More Bax Seat.
If you like Bach, you’ll like Baxter.

As far as outstanding writing goes, I’d have to give my nod to Ernest K. Gann’s Fate is the Hunter, an autobiographical look at his career as an airline pilot from the mid-30s until the mid-50s (when he became a full time author). Pilots and non-flyers alike will appreciate his descriptions of battling thunderstormsd in DC-3s over America and flying C-87s out of India.

Serenade to a Big Bird is outstanding, telling the story of a young American college student (something very rare back them) who finds himself flying and fighting for his life over Europe.
I’m sure there are many similar accounts by airmen on both sides, but Stiles accounts of living in a foreign land and flying are not to be missed. You see him grow weary of war and the deaths of friends, yet he volunteered to switch to P-51s after completing his bomber tour.
For the rest of his story, I can recommend, a 1993 biography Serenade to the Blue Lady, The Story of Bert Stiles, by Robert F. Cooper.
Along with his private life as a college student and budding author, amplifies details of American aircrew life in the UK.

The ultimate Aviation Book

Depends upon your area of interest. My pick: War Prizes by Phil Butler.

There are so many books out there that would rate as excellent to someone but would be utter cr*p to the next person. A good book is, only, a personal feeling that can in most cases not be transferred to another person.

To state my favorite books, I´d have to start with Ernest K. Gann and Fate Is The Hunter. It is a book that has been on my bed time table for almost 15 years now and is well and truly worn – I´ll need a second copy before long! It is such a gripping description of the live of an aviator in times gone by, that it is nearly impossible to put down. And we airline pilots think we have it bad to day!!!:eek:

As for Richard Bach. I think I´ve got his complete set of novels on my shelfs, and my personal favorites are Gift of Wings and Illusions. But I´ve got to admit that Jonathan Livingston Seagull features quite regulary on my reading list:eek:

For non-fiction it has to be an Icelandic book called Dansað í Háloftunum, which I believe was also published in English as Dances in the Skies. It is the autobiography of the only Icelandic pilot to fight with the RAF from 1941 until 1945. His after the war years were covered in another book called Flugskírteini 13 and that was also published in english as Lucky 13 and was just as good as the first one

And the book that got me where I´m now? That has to be an Icelandic translation of a book that I´ve no idea of what was first called! In Icelandic it was called Flugvélabók Fjölva. It was published in Iceland in 1973 and the authors/editors were Rota Marco and Enzo Angelucci. The book has drawings/paintings of 1000 aircraft from the Wrights up to about 1960. It was given to me by my granny when I was 10 years old and over the years it has been gone through pretty thoroughly and is now falling apart with VERY dirty and greasy pages! Problem is, I can not replace it, as it is now unobtainable! My original copy now has a pride of place on my bookshelf, and is rarely used because of it´s rather fragile condition!

Thunder and Lightnings by Jan Mark (which would make an excellent film) or The Brylcreem Boys by Robert Freeman (which would also make an excellent TV series)…

Fly for your life Stanford Tuck Biography no question.

No brainer – A.J.Jackson’s ‘British Civil Aircraft 1919-72’. But if I had to offer a first reserve, it would be Arthur Ord-Hume’s ‘British Light Aeroplanes – their evolution, development and perfection 1920-1940’. I don’t expect very many others to agree because anoraks like me are pretty thin on the ground nowadays!

My choice also.

John

I’ve owned ‘Battle of Britain Then and Now’ since I was 13, and it is a truly wonderful book to me – although the ‘now’ – over 30 years ago – seems like another ‘then’ these days.

I had forgotten ‘A Gift of Wings’ and the feeling it gave me until it was mentioned here.

Mighty 8th was beautifully put together, while Spitfire, the History is chock full of facts but – and I’m amazed that in similar discussions before on here no-one has mentioned this – woefully edited and prrof read. Captions don’t match pictures, whole paragraphs repeat, others contradict each other and in one bizarre case the chapter title doesn’t relate to the chapter content.

My candidate? Flames in the Sky, Pierre Clostermann – now, there’s a pilot who really can write – poetically, historically and technically.

Even better read “Stranger To The Ground” by Richard Bach, at night and when there is a thunderstorm around.

A excellent book. I got mine from Amazon for 1p + postage; but beware you WW2 /BoB/Spitfires etc etc;. It’s about a flight by an ANG F-84F Thunderstreak over Europe at the time of Operation Stairstep.

My impression of the question was which book would you put on the shelf to draw someone in.

If it’s the one that got me, it was “Great American Fighter Pilots of World War 2” by Richard Loomis. I was about 8 and the only kid to check it out from the school library…over and over and over again.

Gift of Wings is a great book. Of the Bach stuff, “Illusions” is my favorite, with “Stranger to the Ground” a close second.

“Nanette” by Edwards Park about his love affair with his P39 would be my favorite fighter pilot story.

Really way too many to narrow the list down too far. “Wing Leader”, “Serenade to the Big Bird”, Bruce Robertson’s book on the Spitfire will always be my favorite. Joblonski’s book “Flying Fortress” Birdsell’s “Log of the Liberators”. It goes on and on.

For my birthday around the age of nine or ten I received a book entitled “Air Forces of the World” by Hickman, Sweetman, Wheeler and Gunston. It was first published in 1979.

I learned more about global geo-politics from that book than any Geography text-book up to and including A-level.

Even today if I want to learn about the formation and history of air forces / air corps / naval wings I first look in this tired old book. It still raises six quid for a used copy on Amazon and, best of all, there are no pictures of Spitfires 🙂

Just opened it at a random page and read that the RAF based Shackletons at Majunga during the oil embargo on Beira, flying alongside Madagascan Skyraiders. Evocative stuff.

“Evader” By Dennis Teare

“Evader” by Dennis Teare. Lancaster Crewman shot down France 1943, spent a year fighting with French Resistance. He did it, got the Tee-Shirt and is still with us. French folk still come over to see him. I salute him.

Bill T.

Cloud Cuckooland or Airymouse by Harald Penrose.

Peter

I would be torn between several I’m afraid.

The Mighty Eighth would probably be my ultimate choice as I have basically grown up with it since I discovered a copy in the library in Bury St Edmunds in about 1985 when I was ten.

Runners up would be Chickenhawk by Robert Mason, Air Raid by Michael Bowyer and Target Berlin by Jeffrey Ethell and Alfred Price.

No contest, thats the one for anyone that flies:)

And for some that don’t!;) JLS re-awakened my earlier passion for aviation and Gift of Wings confirmed my mistake in not following my heart fifteen years earlier!

I find it interesting that the two other proponents of Gift of Wings are also pilots.

Looking back I think it was reading this book that made me believe I could actually be a pilot, and than not to ever try would be barring myself voluntarily from a much better world.

It was given to me by a pilot, within a very few years I was alone in the RH seat of a PA38 over Warwickshire and the dream Bach had reawakened in me had come true.

Since then I have gifted a copy to two other trainee pilots, just to bolster their resolve and sustain them through the endless hours of circuit bashing.

Maybe it should come with a health warning on the cover?

This book can seriously damage your wealth.

Moggy

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Oh, and by the way, you Brits, there actually is more to aviation than endless Spitfires and one more recounting of the Battle of Britain.

To balance the score (slightly), two books that are older than me (and I’m no spring chicken) – batting for the 8th USAAF –
“Serenade to the Big Bird” by Bert Stiles, a poignant, well written and true story of B-17 operations. (Bert left bombers to fly fighters, was killed November 1944 in a P-51 on an escort mission to Hanover) and “Glasgow’s Fighter Squadron” by F.G.Nancarrow (1942) tells the story of 602 Fighter Squadron, and written at a time when the censorship was quite heavy : I would have to wait years for the full story of the men and exploits of 602 to emerge, but this book inspired my (this-far) lifelong interest in aviation. I would strongly recommend you seek them out if you can, both capture the spirit of the times. This Brit.

“Sigh for a Merlin”

Actually, I’d go for ‘Flight of the Mew Gull’. Proper Boys Own stuff!

Bruce

Oh, and by the way, you Brits, there actually is more to aviation than endless Spitfires and one more recounting of the Battle of Britain.

Absolutely; in the same way as there is more to music than the Beatles or Mendelssohn. Doesn’t invalidate them or stop them being the apogee though 😉

..I know where you’re coming from Stepwilk, but with apologies up-front here I go..

Alex’s “Sigh for a Merlin”

Baders “Reach for the Sky”

and the Freddie Laker book “Skytrain”

Oh, and by the way, you Brits, there actually is more to aviation than endless Spitfires and one more recounting of the Battle of Britain.

So, you wouldn’t be tempted to add First Light to your list then? I would….