Cecil R. Roseberry

“THE CHALLENGING SKIES” is a highly satisfactory and satisfying popular level history. "War has been the making of aviation," RAF's General Bracker said after World War I, at the outset of two decades of peacetime competition in the air. This then is the story of Americans and Europeans rising to the challenge of the skies, flying the Atlantic, the Pacific, over the Arctic and the Antarctic, flying first, farther, fastest. All the great names in aviation history are here (Billy Mitchell, show more Jimmy Doolittle, Lindbergh, Byrd, Sikorsky, Curtiss, backers Orteig and Levine, Amelia Earhart, etc., etc); the great flying ships from The Spirit of St. Louis to the Hindenburg, the Pan Am Yankee Clipper to Britain's Spitfire. The development of aviation with Billy Mitchell plumping for a separate air arm, the advent of air mail and passenger service, is an integral part of the story, as is the development of the airplane itself as an instrument of peace and, at the close, war. show less

The most complete and thorough study of Glenn Curtiss' life and contributions to the pioneer era of aviation. Well written and exceptionally well documented. Thorough and very detailed yet not ponderously weighed down by all the critical data necessary to understand the accomplishments and impact of this aviation pioneer. A must-read for anyone trying to understand the early years and efforts of pioneer aviators. Superb references, photos, documentation, and bibliography.

A biography of one of the most significant figures in the history of American aviation. It also provides a documented history of the development of the field of aviation and those involved in it through the first three decades of the 20th century.