Roaring Thunder: A Novel of the Jet Age [Hardcover]

Walter J. Boyne (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 10, 2006

The story of the jet age of aviation revolves around remarkable geniuses--including Sir Frank Whittle, the British inventor of the jet engine; Hans von Ohain, a German jet engine designer who comes to work for the U.S.; famed aeronautical engineer Kelly Johnson; the daring test pilot Tex Johnston, and many more--brilliant men who conceived these early extraordinary airplanes and had the courage to fly them to new horizons.
Roaring Thunder blends real life adventures of the industry giants with the fictional Vance Shannon and his aviation family. Shannon, a prototypical American test pilot, sees and guides the birth of American jet aviation, while his sons, Tom and Harry fly the new jets in combat. Their aviation careers are blessed by their skill and courage, and they help usher in the greatest advance in aviation history with the birth of the jet transport. The Shannons serve as counterparts to the real-life heroes, creating continuity and explaining the intricacies, successes, and setbacks of a brand new industry.
The dramatic, totally accurate story of the beginning of the jet age is presented against a background of personalities, real and fictional who bring the story to life, and represent the first stage in the first ever fiction trilogy about the history of the aerospace industry.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Best known for his numerous first-class nonfiction aviation histories, Boyne has also produced aviation sagas (such as Roaring Thunder), and here inaugurates a trilogy with mixed success. Vance Shannon and his twin sons, Tom and Harry, are big shots in the American aircraft world: all three men do stints as flying aces and as brilliant engineers, working with the likes of Boeing and Lockheed to develop new jet technology. From 1955 to 1973, Vance and his sons participate in the development of the U-2 and SR-71 spy planes, supersonic transports and Learjets, as well as missile and satellite technology. Events like the Sputnik launching, the Cuban missile crisis, the invention of the Polaroid Land Camera and the Volkswagen car craze all play in, as do figures like a former Nazi thug, a mistress who spies for French intelligence and POWs in Vietnam. The aviation history and tech talk are sparkling, but the plot is an anemic mix of family saga, corporate politics and various forms of espionage. (Jan.)
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From Booklist

The first volume of a trilogy chronicling the history of the aircraft industry begins in Germany in 1939 with the first jet-engine tests. Like James Michener's Space (a novelized history of the space program), the novel has a very large cast of characters. Many of them are real people, such as Frank Whipple (who invented the British jet engine) and test pilot Tex Johnston. Others, like Vance Shannon and his family, around whom the story is built, are fictional. A former air-force pilot and an experienced aviation writer, Boyne packs the novel with historically accurate detail. As a novelist, he's on shakier ground. The two Shannon boys, Tom and Harry, for example, feel like pastiches of the Hardy Boys, or perhaps Tom Swift Jr and his good pal Bud Barclay. But the wealth of information and the author's epic-minded approach to the material more than make up for the sometimes-clunky prose. Aviation fans will gulp this one down in one long, satisfied swallow; more literary-minded readers may choke a bit but will still appreciate the author's grasp of his subject. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Forge Books; 1st edition (January 10, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765308436
• ISBN-13: 978-0765308436
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #653,670 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL
WALTER J. BOYNE
Walter J. Boyne was the Director of the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution from 1983 to 1986, and Acting Director from 1981 to 1983. He retired in August, 1986 to pursue a career as a novelist, nonfiction author and consultant. He is one of the few writers to have both fiction and nonfiction books on the New York Times Best Seller lists. An inventor, he has been awarded a patent on an advanced information retrieval system. He is currently chairman of the board of the National Aeronautics Association, and on July 21, 2007 was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame. He has served twice as an expert witness for Lockheed Martin, once in 1999 and once in 2003. He is currently Chairman of the Board of the National Aeronautic Association.
A career Air Force officer, Boyne entered the Aviation Cadet program in 1951, and won his wings and commission in 1952. He has flown over 5,000 hours in a score of different aircraft, from a Piper Cub to a B 1B, and is a Command Pilot. Boyne retired as a Colonel on June 1, 1974 after 23 years of service. In November, 1989, he returned for familiarization flights in the B 1B bomber.
He began writing articles on aviation subjects in 1962, and has since then completed more than 1,000 articles, forty-four non-fiction books and eight novels. His books have been published in England, Germany, Italy, Spain, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Russia, Japan and China. He is the author of aviation sections in the Encyclopedia Britannica, as well as in three other encyclopedias, including Encarta. He is the editor of the (2002) Encyclopedia of Air Warfare, by ABC-Clio.
His latest novel Hypersonic Thunder is the third of a trilogy on the history of jet aviation. In 2007, he published "Soaring to Glory, The Air Force Memorial" and "Beyond the Wild Blue, A History of the United States Air Force, 1947-2007. In 2003, Dawn Over Kitty Hawk was published by Tor/Forge, part of St. Martin's Press, It was followed by The Influence of Air Power on History, published in July, 2003, by Pelican Publishing. His Chronicle of Flight, a 95,000 word, 1,000 photograph history of flight appeared from Publications International in August, 2003. His Operation Iraqi Freedom: What Went Right, What Went Wrong and Why was published by TOR/Forge (St. Martins Press) in that same month. In October, 2003, Rising Tide, the story of the Russian and Soviet submarine force was published, co-authored with Gary Weir. In December, two works were published that Boyne edited, Aviation 100, Volume III, and The Alpha Guide to the Military
His first novel The Wild Blue (co-authored with Steven L. Thompson) was published by Crown Publishers. It was a national best seller on the New York Times list in both hard cover and paperback editions, and won the Aviation/Space Writers Association Award for best Fiction Book of 1986. His second novel, Trophy for Eagles, a solo effort, was published by Crown in May, 1989, and received strong critical acclaim. The second novel in the trilogy, Eagles at War was published in May, 1991, to similar reviews. In January, 1991, he published Weapons of Desert Storm and Gulf War. Weapons of Desert Storm made the New York Time's nonfiction best seller's list. The third novel of his trilogy, Air Force Eagles was published in June, 1992.
A nonfiction book, Classic Aircraft was published in the summer of 1992. Art in Flight , a book on the magnificent work of sculptor John Safer, was published in October of 1992..Silver Wings, a nonfiction history of the Air Force appeared in October, 1993, while Clash of Wings, a nonfiction history of the great air campaigns of World War II, appeared in June, 1994. It was a main selection of the History Book of the Month Club for July, 1994. Both of the latter two books are published by Simon & Schuster, as is Clash of Titans a non-fiction history of the great sea campaigns of World War II, which was published in June, 1995.
Beyond the Wild Blue, A History of the United States Air Force, 1947-1997 was published in 1997 for St. Martin's Press. It is on the USAF's Chief of Staff's required reading list for Air Force personnel. The Air Force Association presented Boyne the Gill Robb Wilson Award in recognition of what has been called the definitive history of the United States Air Force. In 1998, St. Martin's Press published his "Beyond the Horizons" a history of the Lockheed Company from 1913 to 1995. It has received unanimous critical acclaim . His next work was co-editing an anthology with Philip Handleman . It is titled Brassey's Air Combat Reader , and was published by Brassey in 1999.
An earlier nonfiction book, The Smithsonian Book of Flight published in June, 1987, was a Book of the Month Club Premium selection, won the New York Public Library Prize, and sold some 400,000 copies. In 1986, The Leading Edge was also a Book of the Month Club Premium Selection. It won the Best Non Fiction Book of 1986 Award by the Aviation/Space Writers Association. It was also published in England and Germany. In 1987 another nonfiction book, Power Behind the Wheel traced the evolution of the automobile in technical and cultural terms, and was awarded the Thomas McKean Cup by the Antique Automobile Association of America for best book of the year.
Both The Leading Edge and The Power Behind the Wheel were republished in hardcover in the Spring of 1991 by Abbeyville Press, and both have been published in German and English foreign editions. Boeing B-52, Phantom in Combat and Messerschmitt Me 262 were all republished in 1994. Boyne's books have been published in England, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Germany, Italy and Japan. The novel The Wild BLue was republished in 1998 year by Wind Canyon publishing. Simon & Schuster republished Clash of Titans and Clash of Wings as trade paperbacks in 1997. Both books have been placed on audio and have been published in Poland, Italy and Czechoslovakia.
His later books include Aces in Command, Classic Aircraft, and Best of Wings, all three published in 2001, along with ABC-Clio's Encyclopedia of Air Warfare, and The Two O'Clock War: the 1973 Yom Kippur War and the American Airlift that Saved Israel, published in September, 2002, by St. Martin's Press.
He published five books in 2003, including the novel "Dawn Over Kitty Hawk" the story of the Wright brothers; "Rising Tide" with Gary Weir, covering the Soviet Union's submarine experience;.
Boyne is the editor of the Walter J. Boyne Military Aircraft Series for McGraw Hill. Boyne serves as Associate Editor on two national aviation magazines and contributes a articles to several national newspapers. He is a consultant to four publishers, several museums and several aerospace firms. His aviation interests are wide ranging, and he serves as an advisor to a number of national and international organizations.
Boyne became involved in television in 1991, writing scripts and directing production of the highly successful series of Wings television program that appeared on the Discovery Channel. This led to his co-founding of the cable television channel Wingspan the Air and Space Channel, went on the air in April 1998 and was bought out by the Discovery Channel a year later. Boyne consults for the Discovery Military Channel, and has been designated "Aerospace Expert in Residence" by Discovery.
Boyne is a familiar figure on television, appearing as a commentator on aviation and military events on all the major networks, including PBS, CNN and C-Span, as well as the History, A&E, Discovery and Speedvision cable channels. He has hosted and narrated three television programs. The first of these is a five-part series made from his book Beyond the Wild Blue, A History of the Air Force, 1947-1997. It appears on the History Channel. The second is the thirteen part series made from his book Clash of Wings, and appears on Speedvision and PBS. The third is a program on John Safer's sculpture, entitled Flight in Art.
When Boyne left the Air Force, he joined the Air and Space Museum as an assistant curator on June 10th, 1974, and gained wide experience in every aspect of museum operations. He was successively Curator of Aeronautics, Chief of Preservation and Restoration, Chief of Exhibits and Production, Assistant Director, Deputy Director, Acting Director and Director. Boyne's career at the Museum was highlighted by a number of extraordinary achievements. One of the first of these was to transform the totally inadequate facility then existing at Silver Hill into the world's premier restoration facility. When the facility was up and running, and a new museum open to the public there, Boyne led the initiative to re-name the facility in honor of his good friend and mentor, Paul Garber.
While this was going on, Boyne was responsible for the movement, assembly, and installation of all of the precious artifacts in the new Museum, coordinating this with the rapid-paced exhibit installation. So effective was his work that the Museum was ready to open four days before its scheduled July 4th 1976 official opening.
Boyne founded the magazine Air & Space, and established the editorial policies which made it the best selling aviation magazine in the United States. He negotiated an agreement with NASA to fly an IMAX camera on the Space Shuttle, and directly supervised the production of two of the most successful IMAX films, "The Dream is Alive" and "On the Wing". The latter film included a close cooperative effort with Dr. Paul MacCready to create "QN" a radio-controlled flying pterodactyl. He spearheaded the planning of the huge new restaurant which rectified two of NASMs shortcomings, an inadequate restaurant and inadequate restrooms.
In one of the most far-seeing moves, he negotiated directly with Donald Engen, then the Adminstrator of the FAA, and created the agreements that provided the land upon which the new extension of the Museum at Dulles. To insure that the Smithsonian would act upon this concept, he arranged for the Space Shuttle Enterprise to be flown and stored there in 1985.
Boyne had a profound effect upon Museum operations, insisting that the staff realize that the public was their boss, and that they had to work hard to satisfy that responsibility. He also pioneered the Museum's well received video disc program, and patented the "Digitizer" automated storage and retrieval system.
Boyne infused the Museum's research and publication program with a new vigor, and personally supervised the upgrading of the Museum's exhibit program. He is generally recognized to have made the Museum the most popular in the world while at the same time providing a very high level of education content. In addition, his entrepreneurial success resulted in the Museum's shop operating at record profits, and the IMAX films paying for themselves and generating additional income.
In his capacity as Director, he served as pro bono consultant to dozens of museums in many different countries, a task he continued in a professional role after his retirement. He has acted as consultant for the Museum of Flying, in Santa Monica, the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum in Savannah, writing the complete exhibit scripts for both organizations. He also consulted for the Aerospace Education Center in Little Rock, and for many others. He often does pro bono work for governmental museums such as the Royal Air Force Museum in Hendon.
He is a member of almost all of the major aeronautical associations, and is a fellow of the French National Academie de l'Air et l'Espace. He has a BSBA with honors from the University of California at Berkeley, and an MBA, with honors, from the University of Pittsburgh. He was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Aerospace Sciences from Salem College, West Virginia in 1984.
He was awarded the Cliff Henderson Trophy for lifetime achievement in aviation by the National Aviation Club, which recently also named him an "Elder Statesman of Aviation". Previous winners include famous test pilots Scott Crossfield and Tony Levier. In 1997 he received the Gil Robb Wilson Award from the Air Force Association, and in 1998 was given the Paul Tissandier Diploma by the F.A.I. In 2006 he won the Lyman Award for lifetime contributions to Aviation. In 2007 he was enshrined in the National Aviation Hall of Fame. His biography appears in both Who's Who in the World and Who's Who in America. He lives in Ashburn, Virginia, with his wife, Terri. .

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Loved the aircraft, hated the plot and characters, July 30, 2006

By 

Daniel P. Smith "Daniel P. B. Smith" (Massachusetts, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Roaring Thunder: A Novel of the Jet Age (Hardcover)

This is a pastiche of aviation stories, glued together with a plot and characters. The aviation stories are interesting and, like the novels of Nevil Shute or Ernest K. Gann, give intriguing glimpses into the development of aviation--jet aviation in Boyne's case.

But there is a story.

And the story is awful.

Probably Herman Wouk was not the first writer to set up a plot in which a father and two sons are conveniently all in the military at wartime. Upton Sinclair's Lanny Budd could only be in one place at one time. Wouk's fictional family, able to be in three places at the same time, could manage to appear at all the significant events of World War II history. Boyne uses precisely the same device. I don't say he stole it from Herman Wouk. But I do say I was constantly reminded of "The Winds of War."

The plot and characters are wooden. The references to sex are embarrassing. ("The long drives down Route 101, crossing the border at San Ysidro and then having a drink at the 'Long Bar' in Tiajuana[sic], were a magic preparation for their long nights of intensive, inventive sex.") They read as if a 1950s writer were trying to imitate a shockingly frank 1960s blockbuster because he had heard that sex sells.

The character Madeline's mysterious secret is annoying when revealed.

The worst problem is not knowing which of the aircraft detail is real and which is fictional. Ernest K. Gann was not averse to saying bad things about real aircraft types, but apparently Boyne's "Massey Dual Quad" is fictional. I think. If it is an aircraft-a-clef I don't know what real aircraft it is supposed to be reminding us of.

There is also a 20-20 hindsight problem, as when a character comments that "the only chance Boeing would have to catch up is if something happens to the Comet..." and when Vance feels that something is just not quite right with the square corners of the Comet's windows.

Incidentally, I don't know what the historic von Ohain's attitude toward Naziism was, but in the book he wrings his hands over and over about how terrible it was and how much he hated having to work for the Nazis ("Yes, that was my He S 011. Four years of development went into it. But I'm glad that it never went into a Nazi warplane) that I began to think that Ohain, or Boyne, doth protest too much.

In terms of fiction-writing skill, Boyne is no worse than Dan Brown--but that's not much of compliment.

Despite its defects as a novel, I think anyone who likes aviation fiction will like this book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Review, February 10, 2006

By 

Big Reader (New Jersey USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Roaring Thunder: A Novel of the Jet Age (Hardcover)

In a creative way of sharing aviation history, Boyne's first in a planned trilogy describes the dawn of the jet age, and covers the first 15 years through the Korean War. The novel revolves around a fictional patriarch, and aviator, Vance Shannon, and his two fighter pilot sons, and the real life industry geniuses of Sir Frank Whittle, the British inventor of the jet engine; Hans von Ohain, a German jet engine designer; and Dr. Anselm Franz. Famed aeronautical engineer Kelly Johnson; the daring test pilot Tex Johnston, and others are found throughout the story.
In the first half of the book, Boyne gives the reader a "fly-on-the-wall" perspective between the German aviation industry and the British/American industry. The United States was slow to enter the field of jet propulsion. Political and military leaders chose to concentrate on mass-producing the conventional airplanes that could contribute more quickly to the war effort. Imbedded in the novel are a number of "what if" questions about this nearly fatal miscalculation.

After World War II, Boyne describes the confluence of American and German scientists, and industry giants who brought the United States and the world into the jet age. Boyne is at his best as he describes the aerial warfare in Europe and in the skies over Korea. Boyne has written a first-rate story, and a dramatic accounting of one of the 20th century's greatest human accomplishments. Readers, who enjoy aviation history, and/or aviation novels, will enjoy this epic tale.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars showcases the early Cold War through the Jet Age rivalry, January 6, 2007

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Roaring Thunder: A Novel of the Jet Age (Hardcover)

The Great War has been over for a decade but a new Cold War between the Soviet Communist blocs and the West is frighteningly on the brink of turning hot with atomic weapons that will make the fire bombings and the two atom bomb blasts of WW II look like a picnic. In this new world order of hostile rivalry with both sides wanting to bury the opponent, competition is on the land, sea and air.

The American aviation industry with powerful political pressure and support knows they must reengineer (anachronism that fits) their design to produce faster and more mobile fighter jets and a spy plane that can take pictures of Russian activity, but fly above radar. In that environs, family patriarch Vance Shannon and his twin sons, Tom and Harry, work on the new technology that leads to spy planes, supersonic jets and other flying vessels but it is Sputnik that changes the interrelation dynamics.

Though the plot is thin, the story line is exciting and faster than an SST as Walter J. Boyne uses a family of flying aces aviation engineers to showcase the Cold War in the sky circa 1955- 1973 (Nixon is the bookends). Readers will feel the pressure that every Russian advancement and every Khrushchev shoe-stomping bravado causes the Americans to feel inadequate and in need to do more than keep up if they are to win the Cold War, which is at one of its prime peaks of enmity. SUPERSONIC THUNDER provides insight into the beginnings of the Jet Age as former enemies from WW II become bedfellows while former allies become deadly adversaries in a changing world that is difficult for people living during the Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon Administrations to comprehend as they did not have this entertaining novel to guide them.

Harriet Klausner