Aviation Biographies

 
 

The Rogue Aviator: In the Back Alleys of Aviation, 2nd Edition by Ace Abbott Paperback from iUniverse.com

R.G. Smith: The Man and His Art: An Autobiography (Schiffer Military History) by Rosario ""Zip"" Rausa, R.G. Smith Hardcover from Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.

Calculated Risk: The Extraordinary Life of Jimmy Doolittle-Aviation Pioneer and World War II Hero by Jonna Doolittle Hoppes Hardcover from Santa Monica Press

Yeager: An Autobiography by Chuck Yeager Paperback from Bantam 1986-08-01

Stars of the Sky, Legends All: Illustrated Histories of Women Aviation Pioneers by Ann Lewis Cooper Paperback from Zenith Press

Wings of Gold: An Account of Naval Aviation Training in World War II, The Correspondence of Aviation Cadet/Ensign Robert R. Rea Hardcover from University Alabama Press

Coming to Colorado: A Young Immigrant’s Journey to Become an American Flyer (Willie Morris Books in Memoir and Biography) by Wolfgang W. E. Samuel Hardcover from University Press of Mississippi

Sky Full of Dreams: The Aviation Exploits, Creations, and Visions of Bruce K. Hallock (Tailless Aircraft Designer, Builder, and Pilot) by Austin Bruce Hallock Paperback from Elevon Books

Saint Exupéry: A Biography
by Stacy Schiff
Listed under Saint Exupery
 

Turbulence Before Takeoff: The Life & Times of Aviation Pioneer Marlon Dewitt Green by Flint Whitlock Hardcover from Cable Publishing

A-Train : Memoirs of a Tuskegee Airman
Charles W. Dryden
Hardcover - 432 pages (April )
Univ. of Alabama Press ; ISBN: 0817308563
Highly recommended.

Ace! - A Marine Night-Fighter Pilot in World War II 
R. Bruce Porter, Eric Hammel
Paperback - 278 pages 
Motorbooks International; ISBN: 0935553312

American Heroes of Exploration and Flight (Collective Biographies)
Anne E. Schraff
Library Binding

Autobiography of Values
Charles A. Lindbergh
Listed under Pioneers

Baa Baa Black Sheep
Gregory Boyington
The Flying Tigers in China
Listed under The Flying Tigers

BARKER VC, The Life, Death and Legend of Canada's Most Decorated War Hero
Listed Here

Beryl Markham : Never Turn Back
Catherine Gourley, Rosellen Brown
Listed under Women in Aviation

Black Aviator : The Story of William J. Powell
(Smithsonian History of Aviation)
William J. Powell
Paperback 
Smithsonian Institution Press; ISBN: 1560983418

The Blond Knight of Germany
Raymond F. Toliver, Trevor J. Constable
A Soviet POW for 10 years, Germany's ace of aces Erich Hartmann scored 352 victories. Highly Recommended.
Listed under Luftwaffe

Bush Pilot With a Briefcase : The Incredible Story of Aviation Pioneer Grant McConachie
Ronald A. Keith, Sean Rossiter
Paperback - 368 pages (March )
Douglas & McIntyre Ltd; ISBN: 1550545868
Special Order

 

Bush Pilots of Alaska
Kim Heacox, et al
Excellent photographs of flying in Alaska.
Hardcover - 144 pages (July 1989)
Graphic Arts Center Pub Co; ISBN: 1558680128

 

Charles A. Lindbergh : A Photographic Album
Joshua Stoff
Listed under Pioneers

Chuck Yeager Breaks the Sound Barrier (Cornerstones of Freedom)
Richard Conrad Stein
Reading level: Ages 9-12
School & Library Binding

Dead Reckoning : Experiences of a World War II Fighter Pilot
Alan K. Abner
A P51 Mustang pilot of the Eighth Air Force spins a fine tale of air battles in the European Theater.
Listed under P-51 Mustang

Donald's Story
Sandra Merrill
Written fifty years after the death of a fighter pilot on Christmas Day of 1944, by his niece.

Paperback: 260 pages
Tebidine Publishing; ISBN: 0964954141; 1st edition (March )
Delivery sometimes delayed.

Fire and Air : A Life on the Edge
Patty Wagstaff, Ann L. Cooper
Hardcover
Patty Wagstaff  won the U.S. National Acrobatic Championship three times.

The First and the Last
Adolf Galland
One of the classics.
Listed under Luftwaffe

Flight of Passage
Rinker Buck
Hardcover

Flight of Passage : A Memoir
Rinker Buck
Paperback

 

Flying Cold : The Adventures of Russel Merrill, Pioneer Alaskan Aviator
Robert Merrill MacLean, Sean Rossiter
Paperback
Out of Print - Try Used Books
Also in Hardcover

 

Fokker : A Transatlantic Biography (Smithsonian History of Aviation Series)
M. L. J. Dierikx
Listed under Pioneers

 

The Forbidden Diary : A B-24 Navigator Remembers
John Lawrence Stewart
Listed under B-24 Liberator

From Nazi Test Pilot to Hitler's Bunker
by Dennis Piszkiewicz
The amazing story of Hanna Reitsch
Listed under Women in Aviation

Gabby : A Fighter Pilot's Life
Francis Gabreski, Carl Molesworth
Francis Gabreski was an ace who survived both the Second World War and the Korean War.
Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.; ISBN: 0764304429

Glenn Curtiss, Pioneer of Flight
Cecil R. Roseberry 
Listed under Glenn Curtiss

 

Hazel Jane Raines Pioneer Lady of Flight
Regina Trice Hawkins 
Hardcover

 

Heaven Next Stop : A Luffwaffe Fighter Pilot at War
Gunther Bloemertz 
Listed under Luftwaffe

How We Invented the Airplane : An Illustrated History
Orville Wright
Listed under The Wright Brothers

 

Jannus, an American Flier
Thomas Reilly
Listed under Aviation Pioneers
 

The Jolly Rogers : The Story of Tom Blackburn and Navy Fighting Squadron VF-17 Tom Blackburn, Eric M. Hammel The true story of one of the U. S. Navy's foremost World War II fighter squadrons, the VF-17 Jolly Rogers, in the Pacific and North Africa. Highly Recommended Pacifica Pr; ISBN: 0935553193 Out of Print - Try Used Books

The Last Enemy
Richard Hillary
Highly Recommended.
Listed under Aviation Favourites

Lindbergh
A. Scott Berg
Listed under Pioneers

Master of Airpower : General Carl A. Spaatz
David R. Mets, Jimmy Doolittle 
Paperback

North Star over My Shoulder: My Life in the Air, From Open Biplane to 747
by Robert N. Buck
A pilot since the early 1920s, at the age of 87 Bob Buck still flys gliders. Db.
Bob Buck may not be as famous as Charles Lindbergh, but he's well known among aviators for setting flight-distance records in the 1930s, flying a B-17 in the Second World War, and finally, becoming a commercial airline pilot who logged more than 2,000 trips across the Atlantic Ocean. North Star over My Shoulder is Buck's memoir of a life spent in the skies. He shares plenty of cockpit wisdom: "A copilot can make a trip or ruin it; get someone who talks too much, gripes about the company, tries to impress you, tells long and boring anecdotes, or is overly aggressive in suggesting ways to run the flight, and the taste is unpleasant." He also answers the question he says nonpilots are most likely to ask him: How do you overcome jet lag? "You don't," he says. Buck addresses offbeat subjects, too, such as what an airline pilot does when one of his first-class passengers is irate about the lack of caviar on a long trip. Readers fascinated by flight will enjoy this book, both for its historical perspective on advances in aviation ("a time no one will ever experience again") and the good advice that springs from almost every page ("sitting low tends to make you level off a little too high, while sitting up high tends to make you fly into the ground and not level off enough"). Pilots will appreciate this book, as will anybody who has ever wondered what it's like to fly a plane. --John Miller - Amazon.com
Hardcover: 446 pages
Simon & Schuster; ISBN: 0743219643; (April )

Mustang Ace : Memoirs of a P-51 Fighter Pilot
Robert J. Goebel
Listed under Mustang P-51

The Price of Honor : The World War One Letters of Naval Aviator Kenneth MacLeish
Kenneth MacLeish, Geoffrey L. Rossano (Editor)
Hardcover / Published 1991

 

Proud to Be: My Life, The Airforce, The Controversy
Kelly Flinn
Hardcover

The Quest for Mach One : A First-Person Account of Breaking the Sound Barrier
Chuck Yeager (Editor), et al 
Hardcover

Roscoe Turner : Aviation's Master Showman
(Smithsonian History of Aviation)
Carroll V. Glines, James H. Doolittle
Hardcover

 

Sagittarius Rising
Cecil Lewis
Highly Recommended - Written by a British WW1 Aviator
Listed under WWI Aviation

Skunk Works : A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed
Ben R. Rich, Leo Janos 
Paperback

So Many Worlds : Invention, Management, Philosophy, and Risk in the Life of Leroy Hill
H. Craig Miner
Hardcover

 

Soaring Above Setbacks : The Autobiography of Janet Harmon Bragg : African American Aviator
(Smithsonian History of Aviation Series)
Janet Harmon Bragg, et al 
Listed under Women in Aviation

Up in the Air : The Story of Bessie Coleman (Trailblazers)
Philip S. Hart, Barbara O'Connor
Paperback

Wager With the Wind : The Don Sheldon Story
James Greiner
Paperback / Published 1982

 

West With the Night
Beryl Markham 
Listed under Pioneers

Wilbur and Orville Wright : Young Fliers
Augusta Stevenson
Listed under The Wright Brothers

The Wright Brothers : A Biography
Fred C. Kelly
Listed under The Wright Brothers

Yeager : An Autobiography
This is a fascinating book - read about it here

Zemke's Stalag : The Final Days of World War II
Hub Zemke, Roger A. Freeman
Smithsonian Institution Press; ISBN: 1560980184

From Khaki to Blue
by Raymond Brownell
The autobiography of Air Commodore Raymond J. Brownell
Military Historical Society of Australia 1987
Out of Print - Try Used Books

The Brown Condor : The True Adventures of John C. Robinson
Thomas E. Simmons
Hardcover - 198 pages (December 1988)
Bartleby Pr; ISBN: 0910155097
Out of Print - Try Used Books

Sydney Camm and the Hurricane : Perspectives on the Master Fighter Designer and His Finest Achievement
John W. Fozard (Editor)
Hardcover / Published 1991
Out of Print - Try Used Books

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