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

The Great Air Race: Glory, Tragedy, and the Dawn of American Aviation by John Lancaster. This is the story of the 1919 air race across the US, this was a race that was simultaneously from San Francisco to New York, and from New York to San Francisco. So two sets of planes took off simultaneouly from each coach, and passed each other on the way to their destintations. That in itself is a whacky enough idea, but the organizer of the event, Billy Mitchell, at practically the last minute decided to make it a round trip race. He did this in order to not have pay for the pilots and their planes to get back home.

Mitchell was a WW1 flying veteran and a member of the military administration for a long period, very forward thinking but also a risk taker with other people's lives. Most of the planes in the race were WW1 surplus and many of the pilots were veterans of WW1. Many people died participating in the race, many planes crashed and many people's reputations were established by participating in the race.

This book along with Into the Silence and the Moth and the Mountain have an intersection that is interesting. While early flight and 1920s Himalyan mountain climbing might not appear to have a lot in common, the people involved in them do. So many of these men were WW1 vets at a time long before PTSD was diagnosed. For many it seems that the manic pace and high risk of their lives may have been their own reaction to the horrors of participating in 'the Great War'. That would be an interesting research project.