Synopsis
Climb into the cockpit of an 80-year aviation adventure, told by the bold character who lived it. More than the memoir of an aerobatic master born to fling his body through cloudbanks, Spitfire Wingman from Tennessee offers a unique bird's-eye perspective on events and personalities of WWII and the Cold War. His desire to fly fighters won him a stint as famed New Zealand ace Johnny Checketts' wingman. Personal encounters with Patton, Vandenberg, Yeager, Truman and Nixon are replayed with perception and wit. While jockeying P-40s, P-51s, and P-47s, he was privileged to see the war both from twenty thousand feet and as Staff Officer at 9th Air Force Headquarters in Brussels, where he watched 'the Brass' play chess with armies on two world fronts. A stripped-down Thunderbolt fighter-bomber became his personal 400-mph runabout.
Beginning with fragile fabric-covered biplanes, the Colonel bears hands-on nostalgic witness to historic transformations steering manned flight from art toward automated science. Starting out as the Memphis 'Boy Wonder' who built his first airplane in 1933 by adapting a motorcycle engine, this gifted flyer takes you on an intimate inside journey from barnstormer to dog-fighter, to threading the Himalayan 'Hump,' to Berlin Airlift commander, then on to Presidential Squadron leader - finally becoming Chief Pilot of the Military Air Transport Service. Balancing dry humor with just enough technical detail to please aviation buffs, this self-revealing autobiography thunders on all twelve cylinders with sky-sweeping appeal.
About the Author
James Robert Haun was born to a struggling Memphis, Tennessee lawyer and his wife on Sept. 21, 1911, the first of three children and only son. Because his mother died five days before his ninth birthday, young James - while being swapped among mid-south relatives - early learned self-reliance. Gifted with adventurous energy, by age 22 he had gone from Eagle Scout to Western Union bike messenger before working his way to Europe via hopped freight and tramp steamer - then (to his father's frustrated amazement) becoming a pilot and building his own airplane powered by a motorcycle engine! His remarkably varied Air Force career literally covered the globe and included personal encounters with Patton, Vandenberg, Truman, and Nixon. He flew fighters, bombers, and transports - rising to become Chief Pilot of MATS and Commander of the Presidential Squadron in Washington. After retirement in 1965 he built an EAA biplane in his garage, wowed audiences at local air shows in a Snoopy outfit, and instructed hundreds of students (many of whom now pilot for the airlines). He died April 2, 2001, loved by all who knew him.
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