Aviation History: Charles Lindbergh and Gary Powers

One of the smaller collections I keep has aviation history as its subject.  I have always enjoyed experiencing the adventures of aviators through their biographies.  The men and women who pioneered aviation in the early and middle part of the 20th century had some "serious thrill issues" (to quote a recent Pixar film)...they had to be a little crazy to do some of the stuff they did.  But they did those things...and the ones who lived to tell about what they did wrote some great stories.

Shown here are two of my favorites...Lindbergh's "We", a chronicle of his trans-Atlantic crossing written in 1927, and a cold war thriller with aviation as its center piece, Gary Powers' "Operation Overflight"from 1970.  

Both of these books are captivating and griping, albeit for different reasons.  Lindbergh writes about his early years in aviation up to the Spirit of St. Louis flight and then gives a blow by blow of the whole 33 hour journey to Paris.  Powers recounts in detail what it was like to be a pilot of a spy plane from the moment he got recruited to the fateful day he was shot down over Soviet Russia.

If you enjoy reading this sort of thing, these are both great reads that would work well for an upcoming summer read...unless of course you are already planning on reading a pile of vintage Donald Duck comics by Carl Barks!  

Until next time....