Selfridge & Collins: The Life & Times of Military Aviation Pioneers Lt. Thomas E. Selfridge & Capt. Phelps Collins - Softcover

Heaton, Dan

9780828324892: Selfridge & Collins: The Life & Times of Military Aviation Pioneers Lt. Thomas E. Selfridge & Capt. Phelps Collins

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0828324891 ISBN 13: 9780828324892

Publisher: Branden Books, 2013

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He was the first, best pilot the Air Force ever had. Scion of a proud military family, Thomas Selfridge was hand-picked by President Teddy Roosevelt to learn all there was to know about military aviation. The Wright Brothers were knocking on doors, trying to sell their plane to the Army – but the Wrights wouldn’t talk to Selfridge. So, the enter-prising young officer contacted Alexander Graham Bell – he of telephone fame – and formed a collaborative with Bell and others to develop their own aircraft while working at Bell’s remote family home in Canada. At one point, Selfridge strapped himself to a giant kite and went airborne, all in an effort to understand aeronautic forces. His next en-counter with the Wrights would end in deadly disaster. Phelps Collins, son of an early automotive manufacturer, Collins talked his way into becoming a pilot in not one, but two different air services. As the U.S. moved into World War I, he was the pilot other pilots stopped to watch, every time he took off for another mission in the skies over war-torn France. Extensively researched and packed with historic photos, historian and Air Force vet-eran Dan Heaton shares the story of these two heroes, along with two other early airmen. Fresh off his first book on the first U.S. pilot to ever fly in combat, Byron Q. Jones, Heaton takes a journalistic approach to the lives and daring deeds of Selfridge, Collins and others – and shares the tragic details of the events that ended their lives too soon. Winner of several Air Force and journalism writing awards, Dan Heaton is a mem-ber of the Michigan Air National Guard. He first enlisted in the Air Force at Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Mich. Active in his church, he also works as a chaplain for a hospital in Detroit. His first book, “Forgotten Aviator: the Byron Q. Jones Story” was published in 2012. Heaton and his wife, Kim, have four children and live in suburban De-troit.

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