What was the first aviation related book that you read?

I was about 12:

s-l1600.jpg

And OP, don't let that book scare you...the author Paul Craigs math has been shown to be seriously flawed.
 
GaryM said:
Ha! I was just about to post the same! I had about a dozen books in the series.
Click to expand...

Yep, added "want to be an engineer" to the already firmly established "want to be a pilot" to my future.
 
Pugs said:
Yep, added "want to be an engineer" to the already firmly established "want to be a pilot" to my future.
Click to expand...
For me, it added “want to be Tom Swift”, but I guess it helped make “want to be a scientist” the backup plan, and that one worked out.
 
This one. I was in the 8th Grade. First book longer than 75 or so pages I ever read. This is the very copy. I read it again about every 3-4 years.IMG_3045.JPG
 
Randomskylane said:
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.
Click to expand...
The Ghost at Skeleton Rock.

This summer cleaning out my folks' house I found that and "The How and Why Wonder Book of Flight," and "The Hardy Boys Great Airport Mystery."
 
Tom Wells said:
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.

2136264.JPG
Click to expand...

that reminded me...I need to change my answer. It would have been the entire A volume of my parents' World Book Encyclopedia. I probably read through all of the aviation and airplane stuff a hundred times
 
Your Wings by Assen Jordanoff. Published in 1936 or so, it was my older brother's.
I really think it helped me a lot. I soloed at 16 in 1954.
 
Probably some 1st grade Dick and Jane primer. See Dick. See Dick fly. See Jane. Jane says can I go to?
 
The earliest I remember is some encyclopedia of WW2 planes I had my mom buy me at the book store at the AFB we were stationed at when I was like 6. I was a weird kid. As for actual literature, probably some memoir from a pilot during Pearl Harbor or a B-17 gunner. I don't have any of these any longer unfortunately nor do I recall the exact names.

At the moment however I'm reading Skyfaring by Mark Vanhoenacker. Anyone else read that one? He's a former 747 pilot and is an absolute poet. He encapsulates the wonder and beauty of flight and of our planet better than nearly anyone else in the modern age that I've read. Massively recommended to anyone interested in the subject.
 
Oh, so many books and so much fun!
I’ll give big thanks to Martin Caidin for his great fiction, including “Whip,” and tons of his non-fiction.
 
Spent a week with my grandparents when I was about ten. Tom Swift and His Aerial Warship was on the bookshelf. My father and uncle probably read it, there was a date written in the cover, 1932.
Sometime in the ‘60s I read the Reader’s Digest condensed version of Fate is the Hunter.
 
+1 on “We”. Still have the book, but never reread it. Was not the best aviation book by far.
 
The Airplane Flying Handbook. Really. I had wanted to fly since watching Sky King as a kid. My wife bought me the book, a logbook, and 3 lessons for my birthday so I'd get it out of my system. She claims she hasn't seen me since.
 
I’m 71 yrs old now. My father retired as an airline pilot, Eastern 1011 CAPT. My grandfather owned a flying school in Havana. My brother retired as a 747 CAPT for Delta Airlines. We were refugees from Castro’s Cuba in 1960. I was attending Westview Elementary School in Miami, FL in 5th Grade in 1962 one day when I went to the library. The school library was to me a phenomenal and magic space; quiet, cozy and limitless once I discovered reading (in English). That day, browsing through the Aviation shelves I found:
“Pilot Jack Knight”
by A. M. Anderson
Published Dec. 22,1922
To say I was fascinated is an understatement. The book impressed me so much I remember it vividly to this day. J-3 Jenny biplanes and descriptions of flight. It “sealed the deal”. It locked in at the age of ten what I am today.
Have to read it again before I croak.
What a gift, to be able to fly.

E B. Ferrer MD
CAPT USN (FS) Ret.
Com, Inst, & M/E and 3000 hrs
 
I don't recall the first book I ever read, but I was gifted a large set of "Epic of Flight" books by my uncle (former F4 driver) when I was in single-digit age, which I still have today. Tons of food to feed the aviation bug.
00927910ec1e1aa49435a4d340bcce10.jpg
 
Wasn't the first, but if you're making a list it has to include "Moondog's Academy of the Air and other Disasters." by Pete Fusco.

I read it years ago and still chuckle at the stories.

And anything by St. Exupery.
 
Last edited:
The guy who got me hooked on flying gave me a copy of The Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge. I don't think I read all of it, but I remember learning about the four forces from it.
 
Famous Planes and Pilots, by James A, Hathaway, a Junior Golden Guide, copyright 1963, 4x5 inches and 47 pages. I think I was 4 years old when my older brother handed it down to me, I still have it.

20230424_205706_resized.jpg
 
Last edited:
I started with Flying magazine ,also read stick and rudder.
 
frfly172 said:
I started with Flying magazine ,also read stick and rudder.
Click to expand...
This is what I started with, along with "Plane and Pilot" magazine...in the mid-1970s. We would stay at our cabin in the summer, and it didn't have a washer and dryer, so we would go into a little town nearby every Sunday to do laundry. The owner of the laundromat was a pilot, and he always had those magazines around...I got hooked.
 
I wanted to fly before I could read.

By the time I could read, if there was a hint of airplane or flying anything (birds, kites, didn’t matter) I read it.

If it was a school assigned reading anything that DIDNT involve flying… not so much…
 
Guide to Homebuilts by Peter Bowers. I was eight when I read it, and while not understanding all of the material, it did spark a fascination with experimentals that continues today. The book stayed with me all these years, obviously re-read dozens of times.

I also read Martin Caidin’s books Air Force and Everything But The Flak in the same time frame. Our dad had close to 1,000 books at home, and we also made near-weekly trips to the library. I usually went straight to the WWII history section. For some reason I was focused more on the Pacific Theater, maybe because the descriptions of carrier aviation and tropical islands piqued my interest.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_4574.jpeg
    IMG_4574.jpeg
    3.4 MB · Views: 5
Hector Parra said:
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).
Click to expand...
Kritchlow said:
View attachment 112118
Click to expand...
I started with Doc Savage, the Kenneth Robinson series full of adventure, fantastic villans and airplanes. Lived a mile south of an airport under final approach Skiy King and Lloyd Bridges (Mike Nelson) formed he first three decades of my life. Today, a 75 yer old kid who still has dreams. I have published three aviation books, written aviation fiction stories, and remain amazed at flight.
1696607872156.jpeg
 
The Avion my Uncle Flew.

Maybe 5th grade.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top