John W. Herris

Jack Herris has a long history with aviation. His parents started dating while car-pooling together to North American Aviation during WW2. Jack’s father built P-51s, including parts for the first P-51 Mustang ever built, and his mother built B-25s.

In 1971 Jack graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Washington with a Bachelor of Science in Aeronautics and Astronautics. He then served as a Naval Aviator, flying P-3B Orion aircraft with VP-46. After leaving the navy he worked in the Laser Fusion Program at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, then worked in the high tech industry in Silicon Valley. He holds CFI, CFI-I, CFI-ME, ATP, and Learjet type ratings.

Jack is a long-time member of the League of WWI Aviation Historians, and before that the Cross & Cockade Society, and has written more than a dozen articles on WWI aircraft published in their quarterly journal, Over the Front and has edited several issues of that journal. He has also written more than 30 magazine articles. He brings insight into these aircraft both from his engineering and military flying experience.

In 1992 he founded Flying Machines Press to publish aviation history books and after publishing a number of titles, sold Flying Machines Press in 2000. He became a repeat offender by starting Aeronaut Books, which published its first two new aviation books in November 2010. For more information, see the website at www.aeronautbooks.com.