The Great Air Race: Glory, Tragedy, and the Dawn of American Aviation

The untold, almost unbelievable, story of the daring pilots who risked their lives in an unprecedented air race in 1919—and put American aviation on the map.

Years before Charles Lindbergh’s flight from New York to Paris electrified the nation, a group of daredevil pilots, most of them veterans of the World War I, brought aviation to the masses by competing in the sensational transcontinental air race of 1919. The contest awakened Americans to the practical possibilities of flight, yet despi...