best aviation book you have read?
 

What is the best aviation book you have read? Mine would have to be `Fate is the Hunter` by Ernest Gann.

The aviation book that I have read, read and reread most often is (not surprisingly) "Fate is the Hunter" by Ernest K Gann.

Probably my most amusing aviation book is "Off The Beam" by Robert Chandler.

He was a Radio Operator who started in a workshop at Croydon in the 1930s and ended up on the Comet 1.

It is very refreshing to read a book written by a non-pilot. R/Os (like F/Es) had one thing in common with stagecoach drivers. They had to sit behind horses' arses like me!

Oh no, you've just made me realise something awful - I've hardly read any! :{ I got really into aviation during my A levels, and have always been doing some kind of study since. I've not had time to sit and enjoy books in the last few years. Amongst the books I have read though, Chickenhawk stands out. Incredibly vivid, no holds barred, and an ending that leaves you struck dumb. Oh, and Illusions!
I think I'll read Fate is the Hunter end to end as soon as I submit my thesis. :ok:

Chickenhawk was excellent. I also enjoyed Sagitarius Rising by Cecil Lewis and I remember Gemini to JoBurg being pretty good as well.

Serenade to the big Bird [flying B17s out of England] was well written and made an impact on me because I was twenty three when I read it, the same age as the author.

Not strictly speaking a flying book, but West with the Night was good too.

I read Rocket Fighter, the story of an Me 163 pilot and it contained the sobering passage where he described day one of the course where they threw a pork chop into a bucket of H2O2, so everyone cold see it dissolve. Served as a useful reminder of what their fuel could do to them.

http://www.bookhq.com/compare/1557781168.html

"Signed with their honor".

A story about RAF pilots flying the old Gloster Gladiators in Greece against great odds.

I must have read it over 50 years ago.

Yes, Chickenhawk is another `4 times read` book. Unfortunately i lent it to my father who gave it away. Another good read is `F4 Phantom A Pilots Story`. Once again I made the mistake of lending it and never saw it again. Oh No! Ive just realised i have recently lent my copy of `Fate is the Hunter`!!!

We've been here before.

'Fate' is near the top of my list, and F4 Phantom is up there as well (pity Robert Prest never wrote a follow-up).

Richard Bach's 'A Gift of Wings' is the definative book that got me flying in 1978. Probably my 'top' aviation book for that reason alone. Lots of his other stuff is pretty good, too, but some is wierd.

'Cloud Cuckooland' and 'Aireymouse' are well worth a read as well. I saw these reduced to £4.50 each at a bookstall at the Woburn Moth rally yesterday.

For aviation-based thrillers, Stephen Coonts takes some beating (he is an ex-US carrier based pilot and his books follow that theme).

But maybe the best aviation thriller writer is Brian Lecomber. He only wrote few, but they are absolute crackers. Try his description of a partial engine failure at take off from a tiny Dominican Republic jungle strip, and the subsequent circuit and land back, in a Pawnee fully loaded with banana oil; "thank you God. I have control now".

Superb!

SSD

Shadows by Michael Draper, tells the story of the Biafran war from an aviation viewpoint, i also enjoyed Behind The Cockpit Door by the late Arthur Whitlock.

Older book,

The Lonely Sky, B. Bridgeman, Dougas test pilot.
Lots of unknowns in the early supersonic days.

New(er) book,

Handling the Big Jets, Davies.
First read it in 1968, and found out first hand shortly thereafter how bad the handling qualities of the early swept wing jetliners were, as Davies described.
Very heavy long body non-fan 707's, especially.
Up close and personal with the far end of the runway.

I'd have to say "Fate Is The Hunter" but "The Island In The Sky," also by Gann, runs a close second. I also thought "No Highway" by Nevil Shute was pretty darn good.
Not exactly an aviation book, but "The Land God Gave To Cain" by Hammond Innes, was also a very good read. I flew 27 years for the railroad he writes about.:D

The "Balus" trilogy and "Wings of Gold" by Jim Sinclair, followed closely by my air mail edition of "Playboy"! :}

Just finished "You Live But Once" by Bobby Gibbes. A great read!

Fantastic book
 

For anyone interested in World War Two aviation i very strongly recommend
"I flew for the Fuhrer" by Heinz Knocke

Very vivid accounts of aerial combat, dogfights and attacks on bomber formations right through to the last days of the war. Also the relationships forged in war and the thoughts of a pilot during WW2.


Another great read is "Rocket Fighter" by Mano Ziegler

An account of the special test unit set up to test the experimental rocket propelled Me163 'Komet'. Test flight, friends being melted to death by the volatile chemical fuel. Thrilling stuff.

Of all E. Gann's books, and Iv'e read them all my favourite is "Blaze of Noon"

I was fortunate to have known Earnie and visited with him just prior to his passing away.

Yup. .no doubt about he really had a way with words.

Chuck

There was another book, the title of which escapes me, about an Australian gent that pioneered transpacific air routes with a PBY5. I remember they were stuck on some godforsaken island in a typhoon, and nearly lost the airplane.

Chuck, I met Ernie and his wife when the came through here for fuel during the London to Victoria air race. Drove them over to the flying club for a hamburger. Great guy.

As above, Fate is the Hunter is #1 for me.
#2 is Chickenhawk.
The autobiographies of Scott Crossfield, Milton Thompson, and many others.

PigBoat

The book you refer to is, I believe, "The Sky Beyond" by Sir Gordon Taylor. If so, I have to agree, it's a great book. Someone else has written (PILOT mag?) that the book does for your namesake what Gann did for the Dak.

Best Aviation book - they're all great so it's probably the one I'm reading at the time. The current tome is: 'First Light' by Geoffrey Wellum. It's the autobiography of a battle of britain pilot from school days through the B of B to the end of the war. Facinating read, couldn't put it down.

Although not strictly aviation, I would also recommend 'Between SIlk and Cyanide' - a codemaker's war 1941 - 1945. It covers the UK side of the SOE from a codebreakers point of view. Lote of first hand tales of contact with resistance fighters on brief and debrief following ops.

A

Bit different is "Throw Out Two Hands" by Anthony Smith - an account of a gas balloon expedition he made with Douglas Botting and Alan Root in East Africa in 1963. The desciption of the sometimes hair-raising flying, plus the local fauna and populace is brilliantly written and very funny. The description if the Tanzanian customs party coming to look for them after they ballooned across from Zanzibar is particularly excellent!

All the Douglas Robinson books about WWI aviation - simply excellent, one of the few writers who makes you feel you're in there with those young, brave souls.

Jamesel, thank you. That is indeed the one I was looking for. I shall have to try and find it somewhere, since my copy has gone AWOL.