Customer Reviews

A History in the Making: 80 Turbulent Years in the American General Aviation History

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The author has taken a difficult subject(General Aviation) that has a history as long as powered flight itself and put it into a format that allows the reader to follow key historical events that shaped this segment of the aviation industry. He covers all the manufactures and the personalities who established these firms. However, the reader should already have a good grasp of the many General Aviation aircraft products that are refered to in the book chapters because there are few photos for reference. This is not a criticism and a reader who is not already familiar can obtain a reference book for this purpose. However,the main focus of the book is how the General Aviation business was formed and the historical economic business factors that drove and shaped this industry from the begining to today. I have heard many in aviation say this type book could not be written on this subject. This author has, and has done an excellent job.

Very disappointing.

While I wouldn't challenge many of the cold facts presented in 'A History in the Making: 80 Turbulent Years in the American General Aviation Industry' (the numbers/dates, primarily), the book is so saturated in the personal politics of it's author that it is virtually unreadable.

I do not understand why so many writers today are (apparently) incapable of simply presenting hard information - or writing a fictional novel - without so doing. People slap down their hard-earned money, and this 'new school' of authors abuse their positions by proselytizing for their various causes/beliefs. That's fine if one is up front about one's intentions, but when it is done surreptitiously it is almost an aggressive act.

But, hey... To each their own. This is America. If you're a person that wants to inject your personal politics into your work, that's fine. If it's your desire to immediately alienate half your audience (or so), then that's certainly your right. It works with television... right?

I, for one, will not be wasting my money on any more thinly veiled political dissertations from this author.

I rather suspect that I'm not alone in that regard.

(edited to include the full title of the book)