The Aviators
- 2013 . 629.1309 GRO . Beaverton Library
Winston Groom 1944-2020
- p010-011 map of Pacific Theater 1942
- Palau 134°W 7°N was colonized by the Spanish, sold to Germany in 1899, annexed by Japan in 1914, captured by US in 1944, independent in 1981, Lorraine Smith moved there with US Peace Corps
p012 ch 1: These Three Men
p018 ch 2: The King of Dirt
- p023 Religious Rickenbacker mother "ominous 23rd psalm" ... "The Lord is my shepherd ..."
- "valley of the shadow of death" ... a better translation is "darkest valley"
- green pastures, protections, comforts, no retributions, no punishments - how is that ominous?
p039 ch 3: The Man with the Outside Loop
p063 ch 4: Can Those Be Stars
p084 ch 5. Air Combat is Not Sport, It Is Scientific Murder
p124 ch 6: New York to Paris
p128 de Havilland flaming coffins fuel tank behind copilot
- p129 Lindberg fuel runs out, parachutes from plane; pitch changes, fuel flows, engine restarts, threatens parachute
p130 Wright-Bellanca WB-1?? probably WB-2 with J-5 engine, one made, neither "upwards of 200 mph"
p131 1919 Transatlantic flight 2000 miles from Newfoundland to Irish bog crash landing
- New York to Paris 3600 miles
p132 Spirit stripped of nonessentials, leather seat replaced with wicker
p134 Bellanca, Travel Air, chose Ryan NYP
- p135 Measured distance with string on globe in San Diego library
p139 The competition Commander Byrd René Fonck Noel Davis Charles Nungusser Clarence D. Chamberlin Charles Levine
p141 Spirit assembled at Dutch Flats near San Diego
- p142 Lindbergh's flight from San Diego to Saint Lewis broke a cross-country flying record
p142 Curtiss Field on Long Island
p143 surrounded by many New York press photographers, "as competitive as piranha and as ethical as ghouls"
p144 moved the takeoff from Curtiss to the longer Roosevelt Field runway
- p154 After 21 hours aloft, saw/imagined/hallucinated semi-transparent "phantoms", written about decades latr
- p159 34 hours and 3600 miles, huge crowds, decoy with Lindbergh's flying helmet, then sleep at US embassy
p161 ch 7: Man's Greatest Enemy in the Air
p169 Jimmy Doolittle tested radio navigation and blind landing in fog, 15 minute flight
- p169 At dinner, everyone involved signed the tablecloth, signatures later embroidered in black by wife Joe (Josephine)
p170 Shell Oil offered Doolittle 3x army salary as air race sponsor, gave him a Lockheed Vega
p177 Doolittle persuaded RAF to convert from 87 to 100 octane gasoline for higher performance, outclimbing and outracing the Germans. "Those extra thirteen points ended the threat of any Nazi invasion of England"
- p178 Roosevelt orders inexperienced Army air corps pilots to fly the mail. Private airlines go bankrupt, 66 air corps crashes and more than a dozen killed.
- p179 Roosevelt then forbid contracts to prior airlines, which changed their names to become new companies
p179 United Aircraft became United Airlines. Lindbergh: "something to be found in Alice in Wonderland"
- p181 Nazis paid for new construction by conquering and robbing neighbors.
p181 Göering wore ridiculous uniforms but attracted stellar airmen such as Ernst Udet
p182 fast friends after spectacular Doolittle demonstration of a Curtiss Hawk
p183 Hawk became basis for the German Junkers Ju 87 Stuka
p186 ch 8: I Was Saved for Some Good Purpose
- p190 Rickenbacker tea with rich society matron "worse than an engagement with seven Fokkers"
p226 ch 9: An Inspiration in a Grubby World
p229 Lindbergh shunned alcohol, but accepted a glass of champagne from the French Aéro-Club
p236 ... Sertoma Club ... Exchange Club and the usual mammalian lodges
p245 honorary University of Wisconsin LLD 6 years after being expelled
- p255 "Banzai" means "may you live ten thousand years"
- Banzai shouted during suicide attack, ineffective tactic and waste of troops
p257 Lindbergh baby kidnapped through window left half-open for fresh air, 1932 March 1
- p261 ransom 1250 $20, 1500 $10, 2000 $5, about 5 kg if same mass as 2026 currency
p264 ch 10: His Halo Turned into a Noose
p267 Lindbergh created glass cardiopumonary bypass pump with Dr. Alexis Carrel book The Culture of Organs
p268 Bruno Hauptmann found with money, tools, and wood matching kidnap ladder in 1934, trial in 1935, executed 1936
p301 ch 11: The Raid
p342 ch 12: We Were Slowly Rotting Away
p378 ch 13: The Lone Eagle Goes to War
- plate 1943 Rickenbacker book about raid "Seven Came Through: Rickenbacker's Full Story"
p404 soldiers' billingsgate
p415 Lindbergh's 1946 Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy speech at Washington Aero Club
- p416 Lindbergh enthusiastic environmentalist
p417 ch 14: Masters of the Sky