Yes, there's a little aviation history in my books.
I've always been nuts about airplanes, jets, and helicopters. Learned aviation history and built models of Air Force fighters and WWI tri-planes as a kid. Read about the adventures of Manfred von Richthofen and Eddie Rickenbacker. I read everything I could get my hands on if it pertained to planes, pilots, and patriots. The family moved to Ramstein Air Force Base about the same time the US Air Force introduced the F-4 Phantom II fighter jet into Germany. I was struck dumb and mute at first sight of that jet. Up close it was huge, imposing, and intimidating. As long as a semi with a forty-foot trailer. I made a commitment to one day fly the magnificent aluminum animal with the funny bent wings. I was sure the men who flew them must have been some kind of gods. Every opportunity I had to see the big bad jets, I took it.
When the weather was crappy, I’d write a little bit about pilots and planes and spies. Why couldn't there be a pilot that was also a spy? Gary Powers was shot down over the USSR. Pilot, plane, spy. It took a while before I learned enough about the CIA and the airplanes they had built for their use. But passively flying the airplanes wasn't going to be enough. The pilot in my books had to be actively "involved" in secret missions. In the air and on the ground. Thus was the idea for my protagonist and hero, Duncan Hunter.
Wandering through my books you'll notice there are actual airplanes few people have heard of. Some have been lost to history. The quiet YO-3As, a special-built "racer" Beechcraft Staggerwing, even a Bugatti fall into that category. I taught an aircraft and spacecraft development course, which is a cleverly disguised aviation history class. The difference between spyplanes and the others are numbers. McDonnell built over 5,000 F-4 Phantoms. Only a handful of "special purpose" are built. Everyone knows about the SR-71 and maybe the U-2, but when only 11 YO-3As were built and flown for a very short period, hardly anyone even knows they exist. The folks at the Quiet Aircraft Association knows all about the publicity-free YO-3A and the Quiet Thruster family of powered gliders.
Aviation history.
Maverick out!
I've always been nuts about airplanes, jets, and helicopters. Learned aviation history and built models of Air Force fighters and WWI tri-planes as a kid. Read about the adventures of Manfred von Richthofen and Eddie Rickenbacker. I read everything I could get my hands on if it pertained to planes, pilots, and patriots. The family moved to Ramstein Air Force Base about the same time the US Air Force introduced the F-4 Phantom II fighter jet into Germany. I was struck dumb and mute at first sight of that jet. Up close it was huge, imposing, and intimidating. As long as a semi with a forty-foot trailer. I made a commitment to one day fly the magnificent aluminum animal with the funny bent wings. I was sure the men who flew them must have been some kind of gods. Every opportunity I had to see the big bad jets, I took it.
When the weather was crappy, I’d write a little bit about pilots and planes and spies. Why couldn't there be a pilot that was also a spy? Gary Powers was shot down over the USSR. Pilot, plane, spy. It took a while before I learned enough about the CIA and the airplanes they had built for their use. But passively flying the airplanes wasn't going to be enough. The pilot in my books had to be actively "involved" in secret missions. In the air and on the ground. Thus was the idea for my protagonist and hero, Duncan Hunter.
Wandering through my books you'll notice there are actual airplanes few people have heard of. Some have been lost to history. The quiet YO-3As, a special-built "racer" Beechcraft Staggerwing, even a Bugatti fall into that category. I taught an aircraft and spacecraft development course, which is a cleverly disguised aviation history class. The difference between spyplanes and the others are numbers. McDonnell built over 5,000 F-4 Phantoms. Only a handful of "special purpose" are built. Everyone knows about the SR-71 and maybe the U-2, but when only 11 YO-3As were built and flown for a very short period, hardly anyone even knows they exist. The folks at the Quiet Aircraft Association knows all about the publicity-free YO-3A and the Quiet Thruster family of powered gliders.
Aviation history.
Maverick out!
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