Summary of Winston Groom's The Aviators

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 In the early 1900s, Americans flocked to air shows and flying circuses to marvel at flying machines and ponder man’s conquest of the air. But flying remained an exceptionally dangerous occupation.

#2 The successes and failures of these early aviators were front-page news. Pilots featured especially prominently in boys’ magazines and comics, fueling young imaginations.

#3 The three American boys who would be among the many thousands who marveled at the spectacle of flight were James H. Doolittle, Edward V. Rickenbacker, and Charles A. Lindbergh. They were all raised on the edge of poverty, but each became a pioneer of aeronautical science in his own way.

#4 The Wright brothers’ flight in 1903 was the first example of men of the air braving the dangerous skies. The three men who visited Hitler’s Germany and warned American military authorities of the menacing buildup of German airpower were unable to convince American politicians of the danger.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Apr 27, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669397007

IRB Media

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Insights on Winston Groom's The Aviators

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 11

Insights from Chapter 12

Insights from Chapter 13

Insights from Chapter 14

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

In the early 1900s, Americans flocked to air shows and flying circuses to marvel at flying machines and ponder man’s conquest of the air. But flying remained an exceptionally dangerous occupation.

#2

The successes and failures of these early aviators were front-page news. Pilots featured especially prominently in boys’ magazines and comics, fueling young imaginations.

#3

The three American boys who would be among the many thousands who marveled at the spectacle of flight were James H. Doolittle, Edward V. Rickenbacker, and Charles A. Lindbergh. They were all raised on the edge of poverty, but each became a pioneer of aeronautical science in his own way.

#4

The Wright brothers’ flight in 1903 was the first example of men of the air braving the dangerous skies. The three men who visited Hitler’s Germany and warned American military authorities of the menacing buildup of German airpower were unable to convince American politicians of the danger.

Insights from Chapter 2

#1

On September 25, 1918, American pilot Edward Rickenbacker was flying solo along the Meuse River above Verdun, France. He had been named America’s Ace of Aces in aerial combat a few months earlier, but all previous recipients of the honor had been killed.

#2

Rickenbacker attacked the Fokkers alone, and he was soon shot at by the Germans. He then went after the LVGs, who had already seen his attack on the Fokkers and were diving to escape.

#3

Rickenbacker was the ace of aces during World War I. He was born in 1890, the same year as the Wounded Knee Massacre. He was the third of eight children of impoverished immigrants from Switzerland.

#4

Rickenbacker was a very curious boy, and he often got into trouble because of it. He once flew a flying device made out of a bicycle and an umbrella, but the umbrella immediately turned inside out, and he fell into a pile of sand.

#5

Columbus, Ohio, was a booming manufacturing city in the mid-1900s, and it was here that Rickenbacker grew up. He was often out selling newspapers as a young boy, and he and his brothers would scavenge for coal lumps by the railroad tracks and sell them for precious pennies.

#6

When he was 13, Rickenbacker’s father died. He promised he would change his behavior, and from then on, he worked to support his family. He eventually got a job at the Federal Glass factory, where he worked 12-hour shifts six days a week.

#7

Rickenbacker had a gift for engines, and he was eventually promoted to the engineering department at Frayer Automotive Company. He was eventually moved to the design and setting of specifications for automobiles.

#8

The American automobile industry was developing rapidly in the early 1900s. The most prestigious race of this era was the Vanderbilt Cup, held on October 16, 1906, in Nassau County, Long Island, and the borough of Queens, New York.

#9

Rickenbacker was a mechanical genius, and he was so personable that he was made a sales manager for the Columbus Buggy Company. He had a white roadster painted with a black coverall, which became his racing trademark.

#10

Rickenbacker was superstitious, and kept a collection of rabbits’ feet, buckeyes, and other charms to ward off bad luck. But the bat heart was supposed to bring good luck, a desperate move for desperate times.

#11

The Sioux City Speedway was a two-mile oval racecourse built across the Missouri River from the city, in Nebraska. The track was made out of dirt and thirty thousand gallons of crude oil, which was supposed to solidify into a smooth racing surface. It did not.

#12

Rickenbacker won two more races that season, and was rated the sixth best driver in