When the Airlines Went to War [Hardcover]

Robert Serling (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1997

From one of America's most honored aviation authors comes a must-read book for aviation fans and World War II history buffs alike. Serling offers the dramatic chronicle of the glory days of the propeller plane, telling the story of the airline pioneers and pilots, mechanics and engineers, who became key players in momentous military engagements from the European theater to the Pacific. of photos.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 308 pages
• Publisher: AIAA; First Edition edition (January 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1575662469
• ISBN-13: 978-1575662466
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 5.9 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,525,814 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An overview to the US airlines' war efforts., February 10, 1998

By 

Bruce Kitt - [e-mail] (Minnesota) - See all my reviews

This review is from: When the Airlines Went to War (Hardcover)

For those not familiar with the support given to the war effort by the US domestic airlines (and Pan Am), this book provides a general introduction to the topic. It's written in an anecdotal manner that deals primarily with the role of the airlines in the Air Transport Command. The majority of the information pertains to American,Continental,Delta,Eastern, Northeast,Northwest,Western,United and Pan Am with less coverage to the smaller regional airlines. The book would have been more valuable as a historical work had the topics been covered in a more systematic manner; a section on the ATC; the modification centers and either specific incidents, i.e. the April 1943 mass flight of C-46s from Miami to Karachi, India or the Top Brass squadron based at Bolling Field, Washington that ferried VIPs around the world. Footnotes or documentation would have been helpful to direct readers to more indepth articles or sources of Mr. Serling's information. I would have liked for information on the author's reference to the B-17 photo-recon flight over Japan in advance of the Doolittle raid (p.148) All-in-all a good, general book, but there was not enough solid information to classify this book as a 'must' for one's reference shelf. (Comments from Kensington, Mr. Serling or other readers are welcome.)