What was the first aviation related book that you read?

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Hector Parra

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Hector Parra
With the risk of revealing your age... (I mean, flight hours) do you recall what was the first aviation-related book you read? Do you still keep it on your bookshelf? (Share a pic or link if you want)
Here's mine: "The Killing Zone". A book that may scare the s*** out of many aspiring pilots but that I loved (and still revisit every now and then).
 

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The earliest one I can recall is "Tom Swift and His Flying Lab." Haven't seen a hardcopy in years but it was fun to read it online recently.

flylab.jpg


"'I used to be a pilot,' he explained."
 
Major reader here. Got into aviation mid life and found Last of the Bush Pilots by Harmon Helmericks. His discourse on 1940s/50s Alaska bush flying is pretty self aggrandizing but at the same time quite inspiring.
 
Dana said:
The earliest one I can recall is "Tom Swift and His Flying Lab." Haven't seen a hardcopy in years but it was fun to read it online recently.

flylab.jpg


"'I used to be a pilot,' he explained."
Click to expand...
Ha! I was just about to post the same! I had about a dozen books in the series.
 
Can't be certain but it may have been this one:


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I recall studying some WW-II vintage Army Air Corps training manuals that the old man had lying around. But I couldn't say those were for sure the first. That was 60 some years ago.
 
"The Hawker Hurricane" by Francis Mason. I read this book at least twice when I was about 10-years old.
 
I think this counts.

When I was 7, for my last day of first grade, my parents bought me this book.

YUyAh3uGe9pv0yH6KjRdsC0xrWOsK43rjGycAAMwqiFbTxuAbHKXv1YWqGd21SIdoE9LNeKOaBqo4bnzt8_f1L2LfH5feqxmJ3jMDO0F_VwP9KEI0QRv79iI3s_NC1CNtZUDKMn4OdH19X3yJQgY0NZIQfF0CpwFxeUL-FeRep6D9k7PT24AjqvnvefMS4sVkTDJaz-O2-yXu9riMm-8P2TvCAFiY5nUqvRPAb409wUAFa4W0YX5qo1RER8rWZkoor8K6YE6TUF_C6f6Ue4xVzHy9XfcR8S7NdQXRDbLXgiet_ulO3uOseITHAdvqbZnx2z8DFZnxqMQNiJC4tzytteuBPu9LqXSuDGLXxin0Vr1DpSZHs918r8UUyAhJUYnipTxV_XPEhbDjyVN3iiaIM5h3HMY6xdVwknKoVJKOFh5SJlHTo1STCLMdEIqqB4i7iUEBhzMZZTj1QTPQFGGtlfb6a2awtGvcFepPjsgY1jCGYalsGvQv5imymrQXBSlM6Kt9w5gFSUPGs-hPe1FnySmTS_suO9cqxtZh0qbwEf5tL6FSv78Rr0kloHi6zS0DyWMO_TIjCiw4T5wcr6UGu3-07QvlBzrdIe5Z_WI8n8zdsOzJgCwEzNb1XKjH_lQkn-FgvxWREGTARHQw5P0wEHokhxHvFUlAHd9qWJ_BpqkXr88zzNbRlLOVP-js5x6sfeTYKpvDz94N16IYdUNlqeQ=w703-h937-no


I pored over it again and again. Lots of great stuff from locomotives to radio to rockets and motorcycles. But my favorites were always these two:

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mi7GQECq7kCl0AqZAwpJ0RHHe4u_Oi83EXgQZbB9xVdVST1JKsIluUgCyG2lPoLydBcOu4FNgzgbGdoS30ioBqDlLHT4euOcMRwmkicd2ClYfwAtRLm1uUQZAWx3Q1vbTQ9F2mo85Hvt84V13QLnELooiLT1YPN2UN5AT2BOO8BNBVxokGj8C2Uz8Q1x7af62fgh5_OfG3VocMYhoK8bu9qwUe4drhuTvold3XUbgUn5ZVfj66NdpEUWtmTuy-LMkD-2rIsYskH-cEaK7CW2VUBOIa5B01hOE8fqaufv1TamUbfOeK7iNjWh2spz9ri-yGBWvXrtw8ACv0vpdnU5kX-np1nsXoKAaDZun2D8iOXv70a8pLuHYXasEief6Qx5k6oLoOFLhEmJF7vzF_yWEKeZAbZI1hjUgUdpKhm6vLk7YczrVn0aCqS5wc-IaYza-aG6tF3O7JdyHQ0ukqhBbplVohfYWl0lxaLVqpBzqslH5hfc8awyOnmVOHA0TvPTB6RF91tFP7iXDPmDgYQ5cMawYnuNvnRkr8Pzi031b3Sn_V6DgPid2cM0EAhKTdaAY-SOsId-CSRnsKdQ58UHfM1bvopySlWKdbe-oZ2UmMhUhYq65e2dLNsNPjcpT7emz4MLU-baATD5cyC3wbwb14Eo6rvbRYS5F5RQHb7qNzFsXx-yJ8ud-cLH5HU3YaJErwCkeSrjsVHpJq_xFuFYeokl=w1250-h937-no


So I think this counts as an aviation book!
 
RussR said:
I think this counts.

When I was 7, for my last day of first grade, my parents bought me this book.

YUyAh3uGe9pv0yH6KjRdsC0xrWOsK43rjGycAAMwqiFbTxuAbHKXv1YWqGd21SIdoE9LNeKOaBqo4bnzt8_f1L2LfH5feqxmJ3jMDO0F_VwP9KEI0QRv79iI3s_NC1CNtZUDKMn4OdH19X3yJQgY0NZIQfF0CpwFxeUL-FeRep6D9k7PT24AjqvnvefMS4sVkTDJaz-O2-yXu9riMm-8P2TvCAFiY5nUqvRPAb409wUAFa4W0YX5qo1RER8rWZkoor8K6YE6TUF_C6f6Ue4xVzHy9XfcR8S7NdQXRDbLXgiet_ulO3uOseITHAdvqbZnx2z8DFZnxqMQNiJC4tzytteuBPu9LqXSuDGLXxin0Vr1DpSZHs918r8UUyAhJUYnipTxV_XPEhbDjyVN3iiaIM5h3HMY6xdVwknKoVJKOFh5SJlHTo1STCLMdEIqqB4i7iUEBhzMZZTj1QTPQFGGtlfb6a2awtGvcFepPjsgY1jCGYalsGvQv5imymrQXBSlM6Kt9w5gFSUPGs-hPe1FnySmTS_suO9cqxtZh0qbwEf5tL6FSv78Rr0kloHi6zS0DyWMO_TIjCiw4T5wcr6UGu3-07QvlBzrdIe5Z_WI8n8zdsOzJgCwEzNb1XKjH_lQkn-FgvxWREGTARHQw5P0wEHokhxHvFUlAHd9qWJ_BpqkXr88zzNbRlLOVP-js5x6sfeTYKpvDz94N16IYdUNlqeQ=w703-h937-no


I pored over it again and again. Lots of great stuff from locomotives to radio to rockets and motorcycles. But my favorites were always these two:

BdHkFW_eCnjkFkD5Im9dWe5Y50mJA7hSe7peM_cAPcxVTSZ3o63FwR3QvwIjDlnNpMoJkVfvNOo3XYM69TsHf87SSHvTUNxtGESKaOJ_m6rk1GHN7nBMnEdt5UraMKkPBLN68F8xeZA7Qb7JkB_l56rQi45miZGWherNhqxJzymaFXE7FzYmtS52SzwTd87ZHO-gNVLtJs7ydA-r-xAnidskhRw-FjOMzOqg4KDxXzEg1dIpzsCmY9Mk7vJo3ITpfs96-uEWZg8uwx5gP_CpMEoh7wok98jCwFxpf3Lb2PZpJ5cDCcoYie0-75GTiOvyoaLSpGJw1P2wELKCBymYdy5kKg42qcEJzqLLWdFcVi17TwWQnZMazNntznc3_apn1FS4AE9SCeF906GFLT7YqLDRuC8ls8nPVZWJWfZQs4e8S7phBOVarzh4crGoZbmNN8Xlvi9HbyzzUFoykIdTxl5r6kICeGZfyJDfo7ZHRWghBy06iKHoyv6UJPkQNSWwhwCGD0yQq-2Tv7NWGGxdURWJsR7FgrGgQIDJq-Jw5cKuUtqxb-AwtKC2lhwSOHQoYqgsl4RPXpZjYoVw_KffjaxRIdB9SDRvFuazL9_oU3DzCuEHDNHQkOVElfdpB45j-m5vyTr2ral-lXuhJRZTYlVTBMv4icaLGf2PO5AIMtpjWMUkn0TaupxlO6W1aE2M1wk44NWqYNaJXVaAr0jAFpJh=w1250-h937-no


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So I think this counts as an aviation book!
Click to expand...
Approved!
 
Kirchner (sp), but my first exposure to aviation was trips to the Worcester Airport to watch the last of the piston airliners. What hooked me was the ga flights on the show "Flipper".
 
A book about the pilot O’Hare is named after.

Sorry, I don’t remember the title.
 
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5096385-dave-dawson-at-dunkirk

I was about 9 when I discovered the I could check books out from the school library and take them home to read. I am sure I read every aviation book in the elementary school Library most of them multiple times.
But the Dave Dawson series is the 1st books I remember reading, probably because they were in one of my Grandfathers cabinets but were probably actually my Dad’s books. I am about 98% sure I still have tthe 3 or 4 books from the series he had.

Brian
 
brcase said:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5096385-dave-dawson-at-dunkirk

I was about 9 when I discovered the I could check books out from the school library and take them home to read. I am sure I read every aviation book in the elementary school Library most of them multiple times.
But the Dave Dawson series is the 1st books I remember reading, probably because they were in one of my Grandfathers cabinets but were probably actually my Dad’s books. I am about 98% sure I still have tthe 3 or 4 books from the series he had.

Brian
Click to expand...
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=dave+dawson&submit_search=Go!
If anyone wants to read them...
Mr. Dawson appears to have gotten around a bit.

Edit: One in audio form... https://librivox.org/dave-dawson-on-guadalcanal-by-robert-sidney-bowen/
 
Surprisingly the airplane flying handbook was my first!
 
I'm pretty sure Baa Baa Black Sheep was the first for me
 
Sled Driver. My girlfriend surprised me with it a while back and it instantly became my most prized addition to my office. I'd read many excerpts online, but the physical copy is too awesome for words. 15/10 highly recommend both the book as well as watching the author's (Brian Shul) speeches. Not just for Blackbird porn, his story is incredibly inspiring.

Edit: sorry, i kant read reel gud. That was the LAST aviation book I read. I couldn't tell ya what the first was. I remember a few fictional books from my childhood, but the titles escape me.
 
There were a bunch of Hardy boy books where they flew in their dad’s plane and later flew it themselves. The only one that likely ’counts,’ though, is the one with the engine fire on the cover.
 
"Flying Safely" by Richard Collins. A Christmas gift from my father who was never supportive of me flying.
Hat tip to the old man, I fly for a living.
 
I was an odd kid with a fascination about blimps/airships. I remember when my parents had this book special ordered for me and picking it up at Borders (turns out it was hard to justify shelf space for such obscure hobbies).
I still have the book to this day.

... It would be years later before I contemplated a fascination with aviation borne out of an interest in the Hindenburg was perhaps a bad omen for my flying career.

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