Pilots and the Pen - your favorites?
It could be argued that professional flying(civil and military) is under-represented in literature.Maybe doing it is not conducive to writing about it. And yet, ppruners daily demonstrate a flair for being concise, descriptive, witty, emotional and sonmetimes downright lyrical, witness KIFIS's marvellous ode to Kai Tak.
So what are your all time favorites? For me it would be Ernest Gann's 'Fate is the Hunter', Gibson's 'Enemy Coast Ahead' and Hillary's 'The Last Enemy' (both the last made more poignant by being written in wartime, before the authors made their final sacrifice.)
Covering test flying and early passenger jets, Beatty's 'Proving Flight' and Neville Shute's 'Slide Rule'. Pioneering flying - Lindbergh's 'Spirit of St Louis' (written as an hourly log) and Chichester's brilliant 'The Lonely Sea and The Sky.' Naval Aviation? Charles Lamb's 'War in a Stringbag.' Helicopters? Robert Masons's remarkable 'Chickenhawk'. Record-breaking- Alex Henshaw's 'Flight of the Mew Gull.'
I'm scatching the surface here. What have I missed?