Race to Hawaii: The Dole Air Derby and the Thrilling First Flights That Opened the Pacific
James Ryan
History, aeronautics
This isn't a bad book. The subject matter is interesting, and the writing is clear (if rather simple). On the down side, Ryan is too digressive; perhaps it's an attempt to give context to the air madness of 1920s, but if so it's too unfocused and too anecdotal. The picture of just how big a deal this all was gets presented very effectively--tens of thousands of people showed up just to watch the airplanes take off. The significance of these events in the larger history of air travel and technology isn't.
What does come through is the absolute star-struck passion that the early aviators had. It's no wonder that primordial science fiction had as one of its staples the half-crazy, half-inspired rocket jockey who aims his untried craft at the moon: that's exactly what these guys were like. Their death rate was absurdly high. While they lived, though, they were touched with fire.
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