Books for the Aviator in Your Life

Name: Aviators in Early Hollywood
Brand: Shawna Kelly
SKU: 9780738559025
Price: 18.74 USD
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Aviators in Early Hollywood

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Area 51

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Lowry Air Force Base

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Edwards Air Force Base

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Vandenberg Air Force Base

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Beale Air Force Base During the Cold War

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Malmstrom Air Force Base

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Marine Corps Air Station El Toro

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The Navy in San Diego

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Los Angeles International Airport

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Alaska's Bush Pilots

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Moffett Field

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Pacific Southwest Airlines

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Gowen Field

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San Diego International Airport, Lindbergh Field

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The Navy at Point Mugu

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Idaho Aviation

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Southern California's World War II Aircraft

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1910 Los Angeles International Air Meet, The

$24.99 $18.74 Save 25%

The Coast Guard in San Diego

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San Francisco Bay Area Aviation

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Wyoming's Friendly Skies

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Space Launch Complex 10

$21.99 $16.49 Save 25%

Catalina by Air

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The Secret Genesis of Area 51

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Aviation in San Diego

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Barbers Point NAS

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San Diego's North Island

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Torrance Airport

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Grand Central Air Terminal

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The Navy in Norco

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Oakland Aviation

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Downey's Aerospace History 1947-1999

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Early Aviation in Long Beach

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Central Coast Aviators in World War II

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Aviators in Early Hollywood

9780738559025

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Hollywood's leading aviators were heroic knights of the sky on the screen as well as in real life. These leading aviators performed aerial stunt sequences and acted, plus some wrote and directed motion pictures. Directing giant Cecil B. DeMille was so enthralled with aviation that he owned three airfields. Charlie Chaplin's family airfield also doubled as a motion-picture set. Thomas H. Ince, the famous producer who invented the studio system, owned Ince Airfield, which became the hub of Hollywood aviation. Eternal legends Rudolph Valentino, Oliver Hardy, Harry Houdini, and Mary Pickford performed in aerials. Many aviators gave their lives making motion pictures; three fatalities were incurred for Howard Hughes's great air epic, Hell's Angels. Hughes himself broke records within aircraft and film production. Aviators brought their screen work to life between films through barnstorming. The roaring in 1920s Hollywood was often aviators soaring beyond limits.

Area 51

9780738576206

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Area 51, a top secret military installation for testing unacknowledged, or black, projects, lies in a desert valley northwest of Las Vegas. During the Cold War, CIA and Air Force officials chose this remote location to shield such efforts from foreign spies and US citizens. Although the base has been known by many names—Paradise Ranch, Watertown, and Dreamland, among others—the designation Area 51 has taken root most deeply in the public imagination. Since 1955, it has grown from a temporary camp into a national test facility supporting nearly 2,000 military and civilian workers and dozens of projects, including aircraft capable of cruising at Mach 3 and stealth airplanes that are virtually invisible to radar. Although secrecy surrounding Area 51 spawned rumors of UFOs and reverse-engineered alien spacecraft, declassified photographs provide a rare glimpse into the true nature of America's most famous secret base.

Lowry Air Force Base

9780738596648

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From 1937 to 1994, Lowry Air Force Base, located on the eastern edge of the city of Denver, served the nation and the surrounding community in many distinguished ways. The air base, primarily a technical training center, graduated more than 1.1 million enlisted members and officers in skills ranging from armament to photography, tremendously strengthening the country's war efforts in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Cold War. In addition, from the 1980s, Lowry Air Force Base remained one of Colorado's largest employers, with approximately 10,000 military and civilian men and women, providing an economic impact approaching $1 billion annually. Thus Lowry significantly contributed to maintaining the world's largest air force and to promoting the accelerated growth of the Denver metro area and Colorado.

Edwards Air Force Base

9780738580777

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Known for more "first flights" and record flights than any other place, Edwards Air Force Base is legendary. Centered around an ancient dry lakebed in the Mojave Desert 90 miles north of Los Angeles, activity at Edwards has sharpened the cutting edge of aviation and aerospace since the 1940s. The complex is a strategic flight test, research, and development center for the U.S. Air Force, NASA, and civilian contractors. Since the 1950s, almost every U.S. military aircraft has been partially tested here. The skies above Edwards have been the scene of remarkable achievements, including Chuck Yeager's world-famous breaking of the sound barrier in 1947. The base was first established near the small town of Muroc in 1933 and became renowned for its giant runways painted onto the flat, dry lakebed. Speed and altitude records were commonplace at Edwards during the 1950s. Suborbital space flights began there in the 1960s. In the 1970s it was the primary testing site for the space shuttle program. Dramatic aerospace research continues today at Edwards, America's proving ground for the future of high tech aviation.

Vandenberg Air Force Base

9781467132091

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A historical cornucopia ranging from native tribal lands and ranch living to infantry training grounds and missile launch site, the location currently known as Vandenberg Air Force Base has held an amazing legacy that continues today. Stretching over 45 miles of pristine California coastline and covering over 99,000 acres, the base has been the vanguard for the United States' space and missile program. Showcasing over 1,900 launches since 1957, Vandenberg put the world's first photoreconnaissance (spy) satellite into orbit and is the only launch location for America's operational intercontinental ballistic missile force. Within Vandenberg's lands are ancient rock drawings from the native Chumash tribe, hundreds of species of plants, insects, and animals, and untouched beaches—protected and thriving under the military's stewardship of the lands. Within these pages are stories and photographs that highlight Vandenberg Air Force Base's legacy as the free world's first missile base.

Beale Air Force Base During the Cold War

9781467130813

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KLAXON! The alarm immediately sent the aircrews at Beale Air Force Base, California, scrambling to their alert aircraft in a race to get airborne first. The KC-135 tankers were usually the quickest to taxi out, with the B-52 bombers following closely behind. Soon, the air filled with the rumble of engines as aircraft roared down the runway trailing great clouds of exhaust and disappeared into the skies of Northern California. It was a dramatic scenario practiced many times during the Cold War and one that Universal Pictures filmed at Beale AFB for its movie A Gathering of Eagles, starring Rock Hudson and Rod Taylor.

Malmstrom Air Force Base

9781467105484

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Malmstrom Air Force Base is located east of Great Falls, Montana. The base was activated as an operational Second Air Force training installation in 1942, when the first B-17 landed on Great Falls Army Air Force Base. B-17 combat crew training ended in October 1943, and Lend-Lease operations were begun to provide support to Russia during World War II. The base also served as the primary C-54 training site for Berlin Airlift aircrews. In 1954, the base was named after the 407th vice wing commander, Col. Einar Axel Malmstrom, who died in a T-33 crash. From 1954 to 1991, Strategic Air Command tankers were on the base, and in 1961, the 341st Missile Wing was activated and became the nation's first Minuteman ICBM wing, which continues today with the Minuteman III, one-third of the nation's land-based missile deterrent. Today, Malmstrom Air Force base is preparing to field the new Northrop Grumman Ground Based Strategic Deterrent intercontinental ballistic missile weapon system, program to replace the decades-old Minuteman III.

Marine Corps Air Station El Toro

9780738501864

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In 1943, the finishing touches on El Toro's construction turned a bean field into one of the country's finest military air stations. Located in a quiet valley at the base of the Saddleback Mountains and only a few miles from the Pacific
Ocean, Marine Corps Air Station El Toro stood proud and tall on behalf of the U.S. military for 57 years and four wars.
In this publication dedicated to the history of the Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) El Toro, with a sub-section covering MCAS Tustin, Thomas O'Hara presents a detailed account of the installation's achievements and activities during the entire period of its service to the U.S. military. Over 200 images--from photos of the first Woman Reserve Officers in 1943 to documentation of the annual airshow--illustrate the base's history from its role in World War II through Desert Storm.

The Navy in San Diego

9780738555508

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San Diego has never been afraid to call itself a Navy Town, and the positive and inspiring link between the navy and the city knows no equal across the country. For over 150 years, beginning with the U.S. Navy's capture of the city for the United States in the opening days of the Mexican War, the navy has been an indelible part of San Diego's lifestyle, culture, and vitality. Not only has the navy formed the bedrock of the region's economy, but it has helped shape the population while endowing the city with a sense of international and cosmopolitan awareness that separates San Diego from many other cities of its size. San Diego and its navy enjoy a special relationship, one deeply rooted in historic perspective that renews itself with each
passing year.

Los Angeles International Airport

9780738555829

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Growth on the flatlands along the western extents of Imperial Highway in the 1920s was once measured in beans, barley, and jackrabbits. After 2000, the site that became Los Angeles International Airport would be measured by the more than 60 million passengers and nearly two million tons of cargo passing through it each year. One of the world's busiest airports grew out of Mines Field and expanded quickly in the 1930s with the exploits of Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart, Howard Hughes and Will Rogers, Curtiss and Martin, and Boeing and Lockheed. After World War II, this large portion of coastal Los Angeles between El Segundo and Marina del Rey became the main airport for Greater Los Angeles. With the advent of the jet age in the town of the jet set, LAX became a nexus of international travel and a symbol of sophistication as the Gateway to the World, a cutting-edge center for the overlapping spheres of aviation, business, politics, and entertainment.

Alaska's Bush Pilots

9781467131834

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A thrilling ride alongside the daredevil aviators who first braved the unknown of Alaska's wilderness.

Bush pilots are known as rough, tough, resourceful people who fly their aircraft into tight spots in the worst of weather. Alaska's bush pilots are all of that and more. Acting as pioneers in a land with 43,000 miles of coastline and North America's largest mountains, Alaska's bush pilots were and are visionaries of a lifestyle of freedom. Flying came late to Alaska but caught on quickly. The first flight was made over a three-day exhibition at Fairbanks, July 3-5, 1913. James Martin first flew that aircraft, owned by him and his wife, Lilly, and investors Arthur Williams and R.S. McDonald. Ever since, Alaskan bush pilots have found that they were calculators of their own fate, flying in fragile aircraft over vast stretches of tundra or through towering mountain passes. This book examines the pioneer aviators and the aircraft types such as the Stearman, Stinson, and Lockheed, many of which were tested and crashed in the far north regions of Alaska.

Moffett Field

9780738531328

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The looming immensity of Moffett Field's Hangar One, built in 1933 to house the world's largest--and last--rigid-frame dirigible, is an unforgettable South Bay landmark. The lighter-than-air Macon cost 2.5 million Depression-era dollars and could hold 100 men and five Sparrowhawk biplanes, yet its silvery bulk hovered silently or sailed up to 80 miles an hour. It drew crowds as it darkened the skies around Mountain View until it broke up in a storm two years later. Other blimp squadrons, equipped with carrier pigeons instead of biplanes, succeeded the Macon. Moffett Field has at various times served the navy, army, and the air force. Now home to the world's largest wind tunnel, the NASA Ames Research Center also supports research that blazes the frontiers of supercomputing, robotics, space sciences, astrobiology, and nanotechnology.

Pacific Southwest Airlines

9780738581125

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With its low fares and friendly service, Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) was one of the most successful regional airlines in American history. Its distinctive orange, red, and white planes, complete with a beaming smile were immediately recognizable to those living on the West Coast. The airline was also known for employing beautiful and sociable flight attendants. Kenny Friedkin, the founder of PSA, started in 1949 with one leased DC-3 and expanded his fleet to serve millions of passengers each year. Although PSA is no longer in operation, its successful business model of low-priced, efficient service was copied by other airlines and today is considered the norm. In addition, former PSA employees still gather annually to relive the camaraderie they experienced as being a part of one of the most unique airlines of all time.

Gowen Field

9780738548234

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Gowen Field, located south of Boise's air terminal, is home to Idaho's adjutant general, the state's Army and Air National Guard, and to U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, and U.S. Marine Corps reserve units in the Boise area. Named in honor of Lt. Paul R. Gowen, a Caldwell native who died in an aircraft crash in 1938, Gowen Field was opened in the spring of 1941. Throughout World War II, the Army Air Forces used the field to train B-17 and B-24 aircrews for duty in both the European and Pacific theaters of war. Following World War II, the field was offered to the state of Idaho for use by the Air National Guard. Since that time, the Idaho Air Guard has operated numerous aircraft, including, but not limited to, the F-51, F-86, F-102, RF-4C, and the F-4G. Today the Idaho Air Guard operates the A-10 and C-130.

San Diego International Airport, Lindbergh Field

9780738589084

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Now formally known as San Diego International Airport, Lindbergh Field was named in honor of Charles Lindbergh and has been a center of aeronautic activity since its dedication in 1928. Many famous personalities and events have been associated with the airstrip, which quickly grew to include a Coast Guard Air Station, three airlines, two flying schools, and Ryan Aeronautical. In 1935, Consolidated Aircraft relocated to Lindbergh Field, transforming it into an aviation manufacturing center. Situated just three miles north of downtown San Diego, Lindbergh Field serves more than 50,000 travelers a day, making San Diego International Airport the busiest single-runway commercial airport today in the United States.

The Navy at Point Mugu

9780738575322

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Point Mugu has played a major part in naval history since 1943, when a small group of US Navy Seabees and several newly organized amphibious units headed across the Oxnard Plain to establish an advance base training facility. Toward the end of World War II, the small naval air base began testing newly developed guided missiles, pilotless aircraft, and special weapons to combat kamikaze pilots. This early testing transitioned Point Mugu from a temporary base into a pioneer in the world of science and national defense. On October 1, 1946, the Naval Air Missile Test Center Point Mugu and, later, the Pacific Missile Range were established to create, research, and test weapons systems. Point Mugu continues to support many diverse military missions, including testing weapons systems, operating space satellite systems, and providing radar and communication support to the naval aviation community.

Idaho Aviation

9781467107563

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Since the dawn of aviation, Idahoans have employed aircraft to carry people, groceries, mail, freight, and livestock over inhospitable terrain. Idaho's airstrips are the stuff of dreams, offering pilots, anglers, hikers, and river-rafters access to deep wilderness less than an hour from the city. Aerial firefighting was born--and is based--in Idaho. Flight instructors in Idaho prepared thousands of pilots to fight in World War II. As the birthplace of United Airlines, with its famed "friendly skies," Idaho is one of the country's most aviation-friendly states. Government officials, private landowners, and volunteers have worked together to create and then preserve an infrastructure of big-city, small-town, and backcountry airstrips that are the envy of pilots worldwide.

1910 Los Angeles International Air Meet, The

9780738571904

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America's first international air meet was held January 10-20, 1910, in Los Angeles on a mesa called Dominguez Hill, situated 13.5 miles south of the plaza at the pueblo of Los Angeles. Enthusiasm for aviation grew after the first international air meet in 1909 in Rheims, France, where American aviator Glenn H. Curtiss won three prestigious speed prizes and 36,000 francs. An even more spectacular air meet, which would also invigorate the local economy, was promoted for Los Angeles. Businessman Dick Ferris, the Los Angeles Merchants and Manufacturers Association, and the Los Angeles Examiner collaborated to make it possible. Most Americans had never seen the newfangled machines that soared in the skies. Initially skeptical, they soon were awed. So began America's love affair with aviation. The air meet influenced aviation in Southern California and transportation worldwide into the 21st century.

The Coast Guard in San Diego

9780738580142

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Located a few miles north from the border of the United States and Mexico, the U.S. Coast Guard has maintained a continual presence in San Diego since 1935. It was in May of that year that a single air detachment, led by Cdr. Elmer F. Stone, began operating out of a commercial hangar at Lindbergh Field. From those humble beginnings, a base was constructed on 23 acres of tidelands adjacent to the airstrip and eventually formed into Sector San Diego. Through the years, their units and missions have evolved as new technology and changing world events dictated new missions for the Coast Guard. Today Coast Guard Sector San Diego stands as a model of interagency cooperation for the Department of Homeland Security as the Coast Guard works with other federal agencies to protect San Diego's maritime domain.

San Francisco Bay Area Aviation

9780738547237

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From hot-air balloons to jets, no other location has a more diverse aviation history than the San Francisco Bay Area. Aside from private and commercial airline operations, the area has housed the NACA/NASA Research Center, the prestigious Boeing School of Aeronautics, and the dirigible USS Macon. It is currently the center for antique aircraft in Northern California and has been the site of numerous flight records, including the Dole Race and Amelia Earhart's circumnavigation attempts. San Francisco was also home to the pioneer Pan American Airways flying boat, which opened the Pacific Ocean to air travel.

Wyoming's Friendly Skies

9781467147637

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Boeing Air Transport, a precursor of United Air Lines, began carrying passengers in 1927 on small, uncomfortable airplanes with few amenities. Steve Stimpson, manager of Boeing's San Francisco office, considered hiring stewards to alleviate passengers' concerns. Ellen Church convinced him that employing women, especially nurses, as stewardesses would be a visionary solution. Eight brave young women entered Boeing's brief training program in Cheyenne in May 1930, making them the first airline stewardesses in the world. In 1947, United Air Lines established its Stewardess Training Center in Cheyenne, operating for nearly two decades. Authors Starley Talbott and Michael Kassel celebrate the world's first stewardesses, as well as the thousands who followed in their footsteps.

Space Launch Complex 10

9781467136310

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Situated in the sand dunes of California's Central Coast, Space Launch Complex Ten, often called SLC-10 or Slick Ten, is a National Historic Landmark that commemorates a powerful Cold War legacy. Home to Vandenberg's Space and Missile Technology Center, or SAMTEC, the facility contains the rich technological heritage of the U.S. Air Force's space and missile launch systems. As the only remaining Thor intermediate-range ballistic missile launch site in the world, SLC-10's noteworthy achievements span the globe. The complex trained British Royal Air Force missileers for Project EMILY, assisted during nuclear atmospheric tests in the Pacific and launched military weather satellites in support of the covert National Reconnaissance Program. Former air force space and missile officer Joseph T. Page II introduces these amazing stories of dedicated men and women who led the American military effort to explore space.

Catalina by Air

9780738559360

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For years, reaching the paradise destination of Santa Catalina Island, located miles out in the Pacific Ocean, was possible primarily by steamship. But as early as 1912, the first amphibious airplane landed in Avalon Bay, and the first air-passenger service was introduced in 1919. Seaplane service thrived on Catalina, and aircraft engine roars became a distinctive memory for many residents, along with the thrill of crossing the channel by plane and landing on the water. The "Airport in the Sky" opened in 1946, with United Airlines operating DC-3s, followed by other airlines operating land-based planes. Today helicopters carry passengers across the San Pedro Channel in less than 15 minutes. This unique photographic history covers public air transportation to and from Southern California's iconic island, featuring memories and stories from residents, visitors, and airline employees.

The Secret Genesis of Area 51

9781467138055

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In 1955, the Central Intelligence Agency established a clandestine base of operations in the Nevada desert with a mission to protect the United States from a growing communist threat. Special projects at Area 51 were shrouded in mystery, and the first was one of the world's most famous spy planes, the U-2. It fueled half-truths, rumors and legends for more than half a century. Now with many details of that endeavor declassified, the real story can finally be told. Author and Area 51 veteran TD Barnes sifts fact from fiction in one of America's most protected origin stories.

Aviation in San Diego

9780738547596

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For nearly a century, San Diego has been a hub of aviation development, air power, and flying adventure. The city's ideal weather and protected bay allowed San Diego to have an aviation history unrivaled by any local community. From the pioneering days of Glenn Curtiss and naval aviation at North Island to the present cutting-edge aerospace technology, Aviation in San Diego captures it all. With many never-before-published photographs, Aviation in San Diego documents the people and events that made San Diego's aviation heritage unique. From Ryan to Consolidated, Curtiss to Lindbergh, and everything in between, Aviation in San Diego is the preeminent photographic record of flight in "America's Finest City."

Barbers Point NAS

9781467133296

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Rising from the ashes of the Pearl Harbor attack, Barbers Point Naval Air Station would become a major staging point for US Navy aircraft for the war in the Pacific, culminating with the surrender of the Empire of Japan. With the end of World War II in the Pacific and throughout the Cold War, Barbers Point would be home base for the US Navy's fleet of maritime patrol aircraft that hunted the growing threat of Soviet submarines prowling the vast Pacific. From 1942 until its closing in 1999, Barbers Point was the US Navy's only naval air station in the Pacific.

San Diego's North Island

9780738547954

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San Diego's North Island is one of the most significant venues of aviation in the world. Starting in 1911, it was the home to one of the nation's first aviation schools, founded by Glenn Curtiss, who pioneered seaplane flight. He trained the nucleus of America's future air forces there, including Lt. Theodore Ellyson, the first naval aviator. When the United States entered World War I, the government took over the island with plans to build a training center for the nation's armed forces. The new army base was named Rockwell Field, and the navy portion was named Naval Air Station San Diego. By 1937, the army had moved out, and the navy became the sole tenant. Today NAS North Island is part of the largest aerospace-industrial complex in the navy and is headquarters for the Naval Air Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet.

Torrance Airport

9780738546629

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Californians were panicked by the Pearl Harbor attack of December 7, 1941, and civilian flights within 200 miles of the coast were immediately terminated. Airfields were commandeered and new ones hastily built. One of these was the Lomita Flight Strip, known today as Zamperini Field, the Torrance Municipal Airport, or TOA. This 490-acre parcel sent four squadrons of P-38 fighter pilots off to war with one commanded by the judge of the Charles Manson trial, an ex-Flying Tiger. Six other pilots became generals, two became commandants of cadets at the Air Force Academy, and one became the only fighter pilot with combat victories in both World War II and the Vietnam War. Japanese Americans returning from World War II internment camps found temporary housing at the field, and the world's largest manufacturer of civilian helicopters settled there in 1973. The first runway takeoff of a Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) aircraft was pioneered at TOA, and aerobatic champ Bob Herendeen trained at the site.

Grand Central Air Terminal

9780738546827

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From 1923, when it was known as the Glendale Airport, to the World War II era, when the military took it over, Grand Central Air Terminal was the main commercial airport serving Southern California and the ancestral home of what became Convair (General Dynamics) and Hughes Aircraft. The first scheduled transcontinental passenger service was flown out of Grand Central by Charles Lindbergh, with Amelia Earhart among the passengers. Grand Central had the first paved runway west of the Rocky Mountains, and was a terminal for Pickwick, TWA, American, and Pan Am's Mexican subsidiary. After Pearl Harbor, commercial operations ceased and the Army Air Corps turned Grand Central into a training center and a key element in the air defenses for Los Angeles when a Japanese invasion seemed imminent.

The Navy in Norco

9780738575261

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On December 8, 1941, sixty miles from the ocean, the US Navy rolled into Norco. There, on the grounds of the former Norconian Resort, the federal government built what may have been the finest and most complete World War II naval hospital in the nation. The first patients to arrive were those wounded during the attack on Pearl Harbor; they were cared for in luxurious rooms once reserved for movie stars. By 1945, approximately 5,000 sailors and Marines were being treated. In 1951, the smartest physicists, engineers, and mathematicians in the world set up laboratories in the hospital's tubercular wards and entered into the Cold War. Today the hospital is gone, but the magnificent buildings and top secret naval laboratory remain, along with thousands of photographs of one of the most historic and colorful sites in America.

Oakland Aviation

9780738556000

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From hot-air balloons to jets, no other place has had a more diverse and significant aviation history than the city of Oakland. Starting in the mid-1850s with balloons, the city has seen the development of many aircraft innovations, including gliders, the first powered dirigible in North America, some of the first powered airplanes, and even early flying boats. Oakland witnessed the advent of stunt flying, the first transpacific flights, and the Dole Race, as well as many early commercial aviation operations, and a host of other groundbreaking advancements.

Downey's Aerospace History 1947-1999

9780738569536

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The city of Downey has been host to one of aerospace history's most sacred sites. For more than six decades, men and women have gathered in this Los Angeles County town to make the dreams of tomorrow a reality—inventing the future and starting America's journey to the stars. A wealthy Los Angeles industrialist, E. M. Smith, began this history with the purchase of a portion of the Huynan Ranch in August 1929. His company, EMSCO Aircraft, was the first of what would become a memorable list of pioneers in aviation and space. The story of the site's aerospace history extends from North American Aviation's tenancy in 1947 to the site closure in 1999 when engineers and scientists designed and developed the aerospace technology that took man to the moon and established a permanent presence in space.

Early Aviation in Long Beach

9780738570839

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By 1920, when Amelia Earhart attended Earl S. Daugherty's air circus and then took her first airplane ride with Long Beach Poly High School graduate Frank Hawks, Long Beach was already a key part of the golden age of aviation. Balloonists had parachuted onto the city's beaches in 1905 near the Pine Avenue Pier, and stunt pilots such as Frank Stites took off and landed on its sands in 1908. The Long Beach Chamber of Commerce sponsored the altitude contest won by Arch Hoxsey in the second Los Angeles Air Meet in 1910. Cal Rodgers ended the first transcontinental flight in the water near Linden Avenue on December 10, 1911. A former Army Air Corps flight instructor, Earl Daugherty was known as the "greatest stunt pilot" and owned the area's first non-beach airfield. This volume offers glimpses of early aviation at one of its core development locales, including photographs never before published of Earhart's flight instructor, John G. Montijo.

Central Coast Aviators in World War II

9781467139526

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During World War II, thousands of volunteer combat aviators trained at places like Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo and Hancock Field in Santa Maria. Some air cadets and WASPs—young women pilots—lost their lives in training accidents. The graduates would go on to fight in both the Pacific and European theaters. They faced flak bursts and collisions that resulted in horrifying explosions and were sent on strafing runs that made them targets in a lethal shooting gallery. Downed airmen encountered both unexpected kindness and cruel deprivation as prisoners of war. Through interviews and official records, Jim Gregory tells the stories of heroic Central Coast veterans who fought a war that stretched from New Guinea to North Africa.