Seawings

Ref: 3921

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{detailed description}No airplane ever quite captured the romantic fancy of the American people the way the majestic "flying boats" did. At their peak, these seaplanes blazed the way for transoceanic and intercontinental flight. In this book, Edward Jablonski traces the exciting rise and the abrupt decline of these uniquely beautiful aircraft.
The era of the amphibians was neatly enclosed by the two world wars —the first suggested the possibilities, while the second produced a series of aircraft that made them obsolete. But while they lasted, the amphibians provided the means to open up the Caribbean and Latin America to American flights, and then to stretch across the Atlantic and Pacific.
Edward Jablonski takes his readers into the cockpit with Charles Lindbergh, on the exploratory flights across the Caribbean, with Winston Churchill, piloting his own plane across the Atlantic at the height of World War II, and with Howard Hughes, showing the world that his famous wooden "Spruce Goose"—bigger even than a 747—would really fly. He includes portions of the flight log of the first China Clipper, and tells how these celebrated seaplanes helped make Pan American Airways and its leader, Juan Trippe, giants of commerical aviation.
Filled with fascinating anecdotes and extensively illustrated, Seawings will delight every reader who loves the air—or the sea, for it tells the story of the magnificent ships that conquered both.
{Author / Publisher / Date}by Edward Jablonski
Published by Robert Hale 1974 1st edn. 259pp profusely illustrated, index 19x27
{condition}bumped at foot of spine, a few minor annotations in pencil, otherwise very good in worn d/j.
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