Mavericks of the Sky: The First Daring Pilots of the U.S. Air Mail [Hardcover]

Barry Rosenberg (Author), Catherine Macaulay (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 21, 2006

It was the pilots of the U.S. Air Mail service who made it possible for flight to evolve from an impractical and deadly fad to today's worldwide network of airlines. Nicknamed "The Suicide Club," this small but daring cadre of pilots took a fleet of flimsy World War I "Jenny" Biplanes and blazed a trail of sky routes across the country. In the midst of the Jazz Age, they were dashing, group–proud, brazen, and resentful of authority. They were also loyal, determined to prove the skeptics wrong. MAVERICKS OF THE SKY, by Barry Rosenburg and Catherine Macaulay, is a narrative non–fiction account of the crucial, first three years of the air mail service – beginning with the inaugural New York–to–Washington D.C. flight in 1918, through 1921 when aviator Jack Knight was the first to fly across the country at night and furthermore, through a blizzard. In those early years, one out of every four men lost their lives. With the constant threat of weather and mechanical failure and with little instrumentation available, aviators relied on their wits and instincts to keep them out of trouble. MAVERICKS OF THE SKY brings these sagas to life, and tells the story of the extraordinary lives and rivalries of those who single–handedly pulled off the great experiment.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Rueben Hollis Fleet took a different path from the fur trappers and lumberjacks of his hometown in the Pacific Northwest in the 1800s: he became a major in the U.S. Army and helped the Post Office establish the first airmail service, which depended on novice Army pilots to fly mail from coast to coast as a way to improve their navigation skills. A surprisingly exciting history of a potentially banal subject, this book's appeal lies in a variety of inclusions: well-placed quotations from news articles, a pilot's unpublished manuscript and interviews with Maj. Fleet; the involvement of the Army and President Woodrow Wilson during WWI; and details of the struggle to improve early aircraft and engines.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

The heroes of early aviation--the Wright brothers, barnstormers, World War I aces--have always tugged at the imaginations of flight fans. Less extolled but equally fascinating are the pilots of America's first air mail service, begun in 1918 by the U.S. Post Office. The first two rambunctious and dangerous years of its brief history (the service was privatized by 1927) unfold in this exciting but hardly romanticized account. Two dozen fliers die during the course of the narrative, which ends when its central character, Otto Praeger, exits office in 1921. The bureaucratic presence throughout the story, he never dwarfs the flight-suited, scarf-streaming pilots who are its marquee attraction. They wrestle with temperamental biplanes; land on fields, roads, or primitive airstrips; and frequently crash in bad weather. Hair-raising adventures and disasters arise as Praeger extends his airway system from Washington to Chicago and then across the continent. Seamlessly integrating their solid, comprehensive research, Rosenberg and Macaulay project the allure of air mail at that time. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; First Edition edition (February 21, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060529490
• ISBN-13: 978-0060529499
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,399,244 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Accessible Introduction to Early Air Mail Service, November 8, 2007

By 

Roland R. Maust "the peripatetic reviewer" (Millersburg, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mavericks of the Sky: The First Daring Pilots of the U.S. Air Mail (Hardcover)

"Mavericks of the Sky" seems to have generated a small firestorm of debate over whether it is an outstanding book or not even worth the time and effort to read. Having just finished the book, here's my assessment of the pros and cons of this book:

PROS

1) This is a good introductory look at the history of early commercial and air mail aviation. I've never read anything about this subject before, and was captivated by the bare-knuckle drama of the entire enterprise.

2) The book immediately immerses the reader in the danger and unexpected nature of early flight within the first few pages.

3) The authors do a great job of presenting the astounding obstacles of time, money, weather, manpower and resources to the development of a reliable air mail service.

4) The research is documented and footnoted in the back of the book to assist further reading.

5) The photographs are wonderful glimpses into an all-but-forgotten world, where the joie d'vivre and devil-may-care attitude of early flight (as well as the lines of care and constant exposure to danger) are clearly visible in the eyes and faces of the aircrews involved.

CONS

1) There are no maps in a book that talks about developing landing strips and air routes in little-known areas of the country. At least one good map in a book of this nature would have been most useful.

2) A bibliography would have been helpful to those seeking further reading.

3) The bios of the pilots might have been better served as sidebars or separate vignettes entitled "The Airmen" or some such, rather than weaving them with varying effectiveness throughout the story (i.e., "Wild" Bill Hopson).

4) The tone of the book fluctuates unexpectedly between scholarly and popular fiction, and sometimes even goes completely over the top (such as inventing an imaginary shooting script for Douglas Fairbank's war bond air mail promotion).

5) At times, the passage of time is difficult to track as the authors jump forward, then backtrack to tell other portions of the story.

As a popular and easily accessible introduction to the world of early air mail, "Mavericks of the Sky" is a fine read despite the few failings and foibles noted above. The best recommendation that I can give is what I'll do next ... pass it on to a friend who is a pilot and loves the history of early aviation.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful read!, February 26, 2006

By 

Armchair Interviews (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mavericks of the Sky: The First Daring Pilots of the U.S. Air Mail (Hardcover)

In the historical non-fiction, Mavericks of the Sky, the authors have recounted the exacting tale of bold men during the last stages of World War One. With hardened courage they worked against the grain of public and political opinion, and boldly took steps to create the first United States Air Mail Service.

With a shoestring budget, cast-off military equipment and neophyte pilots with a sense of daring unequalled in this day and age, two sons of Texas--Albert Burleson and Otto Praeger--stood firm in their convictions. The future of the United States Postal service lay in creating a service that would take advantage of the Wright Brothers flight accomplishment only a few years earlier.

The feat accomplished by Praeger and his men in less than three years was the precursor to all flight operations that take place on a day-to-day basis in this country today.

From an inauspicious and somewhat deadly beginning, the US Air Mail Service was forged by the guts and sweat of Praeger and the first pilots of the aptly nicknamed "Suicide Club." This small group of dedicated men spawned the first commercial U.S. airlines and the person-to-person connection by mail that we hold so dear today.

The account of the first transcontinental flight on February 22-23, 1921, from San Francisco to New York, is awe-inspiring in itself. The fact it was accomplished in the time (33 hours and 20 minutes) we consider industry standard today is astounding. The bar was set high during those two days. The difference: today we use high-flying jet aircraft to deliver our airmail shipments. In 1921 a half dozen pilots used a variety of single engine, open cockpit aircraft made of canvas and wood, in all weather, rarely flying higher than ten thousand feet.

Armchair Interviews says: In Mavericks of the Sky Barry Rosenburg and Catherine Macauley extensively researched and gave us a concise accounting of these men and the trials and tribulations they endured in the effort to construct the delivery systems for the U.S. Mail.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Educational and Entertaining, March 11, 2007

By 

C. DELUNA (Pasadena, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mavericks of the Sky: The First Daring Pilots of the U.S. Air Mail (Hardcover)

A chance purchase at the airport bookstore resulted in an enjoyable flight across the country while immersed in the early days of Flying.

Having already been captivated by this subject after reading Beryl Markham's "West with the Night", this view of flight's maturation and the start of its commercialinzation process was fascinating.

It led to many questions including what lessons might be derived from this experience as NASA attempts to move towards commercialiation efforts of its own. It made me crave more in depth analysis of specific problem solving methods and long for a map of the various fields and distances.

There are intriguiing modern day parallels on how to apply technology and the process via which technology can be deployed to affect improvement, efficiency, and service.

There is no better material than that which entertains, leades to questions, and furthers an interest!

If you already have an interest in the topic or if you never wondered how the whole thing got started but it now sounds intriguing, I strongly recommend this book!