Bernt Balchen was the first man to pilot an aircraft over both poles, the man who taught Amelia Earhart to fly on instruments so that she could solo across the Atlantic, and the man who flew Admiral Byrd across the Atlantic, when it turned out that Byrd himself was neither a flyer nor a navigator

Penrose made his first flight in 1919 with Alan Cobham in an AVRO 504K. There followed a career in aviation mainly as a test pilot, where he flew many unusual types such as the tail-less Pterodactyl and the Whirlwind. This work describes flights in "Airymouse" which he bought in his retirement.

Reader's Review: An enduring aviation classic. I first read this book as a high school student, and remembered well the hour by hour description of the flight over the Atlantic. On my second reading as an adult, I discovered an additional story within the story that can apply to everyone who has a desire to accomplish something great in their life.

Lindbergh traces how the very wisp of an idea, that an aircraft with enough fuel, powered by a reliable engine, and held on course, could fly 3,600 miles from New York to Paris. Once he realized that he had enough qualifications to make the flight by himself, and could see himself doing it, he was a changed man, he was a man who was going to Paris by air! Now he faced the problem of obtaining support, a task that filled him with more anxiety than the flying itself.

He nurtured his idea, protecting it from the naysayers, carefully confiding in those who could accept his reasoning that a single engine plane made more sense than the trimotor aircraft others were planning to use in that era. He fretted about obtaining an engine, and then an airplane, and met almost continuous obstacles in his path. Yet again and again, to his surprise, financial and technical support was provided, often from totally unexpected quarters.

This book is not only an aviation classic, it is a classic on project management, on turning a vision into goals, and goals into tasks, knowing where the milestones of success can be measured, and when the go/nogo decisions can be made.

If you are a pilot, or want to become one, then this book belongs in your library, and you should consider buying a second copy to give to your CFI. Our instructors represent an unbroken lineage of aviators back to the era described in the story.

But it would be a shame to limit this story to the aviation community. Everyone who has a burning desire to achieve something beyond themselves will gain new insight into how ideas change our lives. If you have read "The Path" by Laurie Beth Jones, then you will most certainly enjoy this book, too.

The story of Bach's cross-country trip in a 1929 open-cockpit biplane

Reader's Review:- A beautiful book about basic flying and a basic aircraft. This book is probably the authors earliest effort in writing about flying in its most basic environment. It is also about piloting a basic stick and rudder airplane, a biplane of 1929 vintage, across the American continent in the 1960's and the authors emergence into the "new age" inner thinking of his later books. The type of biplane he used in his story is a Parks and I have never, until recently, ever found this aircraft listed in any aviation books. However I have just acquired a magazine dated December 98 which shows a rebuild of a 1929 Parks biplane in Connecticut USA. This book made such a personal impression that it propelled me to finally learn to fly, after two earlier aborted attempts, and buy an older vintage airplane.

The first American woman to fly a plane ignored the orders of her flight instructor and unblocked the throttle he had rigged to prevent her takeoff. She lifted above where he stood on the tarmac for a few moments before returning, triumphant, to the ground. From that moment, the history of America's airwomen has been one such high-flying rebellion after another. In chapters that intercut profiles of the most important (and forgotten) American women aviators with a more general history of aviation, Amelia Earhart's Daughters revives this fascinating and under documented slice of American women's history

Review: Autobiography of Hanna Reitsch, exceptional glider and military test pilot during the Third Reich. Though the text is sketchy - Hanna even neglects to tell us when she was born, there are fine passages which give the reader a intimate idea of what it is like to fly. Hanna also provides some insight into why Hitler rose to power, interesting comments on Himmler, and rational for her advocation of suicide missions - the Morganthau Plan being one incentive. She left much out but it remains fine reading. B/W photos.

In America, Cody worked the same trails as Buffalo Bill and competed with Annie Oakley. In Britain, with his family, he formed the Great Codys and struck showbusiness gold. His fame reached its apex when he pioneered powered flight. This is a biography of his adventures.

A biography of the woman flier Amelia Earhart, whose disappearance on her round-the-world flight in July 1937 gave rise to numerous rumours that are finally laid to rest through the investigations of these two authors. Their conclusion - that she ran out of fuel - is well supported by new evidence.

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