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Mavericks of the Sky: The First Daring Pilots of the U.S. Air Mail
It was the pilots of the U.S. Air Mail service who made it possible for flight to evolve from an impractical and deadly fad to today's worldwide network of airlines.
Nicknamed "The Suicide Club," this small but daring cadre of pilots took a fleet of flimsy World War I "Jenny" Biplanes and blazed a trail of sky routes across the country. In the midst of the Jazz Age, they were dashing, group–proud, brazen, and resentful of authority. They were also loyal, determined to prove the skeptics wrong.
Mavericks of the Sky is a narrative non–fiction account of the crucial, first three years of the air mail service – beginning with the inaugural New York–to–Washington D.C. flight in 1918, through 1921 when aviator Jack Knight was the first to fly across the country at night and furthermore, through a blizzard. In those early years, one out of every four men lost their lives. With the constant threat of weather and mechanical failure and with little instrumentation available, aviators relied on their wits and instincts to keep them out of trouble. Mavericks of the Sky brings these sagas to life, and tells the story of the extraordinary lives and rivalries of those who single–handedly pulled off the great experiment.
Nicknamed "The Suicide Club," this small but daring cadre of pilots took a fleet of flimsy World War I "Jenny" Biplanes and blazed a trail of sky routes across the country. In the midst of the Jazz Age, they were dashing, group–proud, brazen, and resentful of authority. They were also loyal, determined to prove the skeptics wrong.
Mavericks of the Sky is a narrative non–fiction account of the crucial, first three years of the air mail service – beginning with the inaugural New York–to–Washington D.C. flight in 1918, through 1921 when aviator Jack Knight was the first to fly across the country at night and furthermore, through a blizzard. In those early years, one out of every four men lost their lives. With the constant threat of weather and mechanical failure and with little instrumentation available, aviators relied on their wits and instincts to keep them out of trouble. Mavericks of the Sky brings these sagas to life, and tells the story of the extraordinary lives and rivalries of those who single–handedly pulled off the great experiment.
341 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2006
35 people are currently reading
105 people want to read
About the author
Barry Rosenberg
36 books6 followersI was born in London. After completing a PhD in visual information processing, I moved to Canberra, Australia. Currently, I live on the Sunshine Coast, Qld, with my wife, Judith.
I'm also involved with woodwork and tai chi (with a slight martial flavour).
I'm also involved with woodwork and tai chi (with a slight martial flavour).
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
January 12, 2022
Mavericks of the Sky: The First Daring Pilots of the U.S. Air Mail by Barry Rosenberg was a fascinating read. I've always been interested in early aviation, but I never knew much about this part of it before. I first noticed this book at my library and I've had it on my tbr for quite awhile now and I'm glad I finally had the chance to try it. It's very well researched and I liked getting to know the key players involved in the story and others who had a smaller yet still important role. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Katherine Stinson was involved for a short time too. I'm definitely going to have to look into this topic more in the future.
April 13, 2023
one star probably seems harsh but early aviation is my baby and this book is um. Awful! every turn of the page had me wondering how it managed to get published. the research is bad, the errors are profuse, the writing is weak and repetitive and rife with typos. (however many typos you think there were, multiply that number by 100. absurd.)
it's such a shame. the air mail pilots were such wonderfully vibrant and ridiculous and arrogant young men and yet this book manages to make them as flat as a piece of cardboard. not only that but there is a positively inordinate amount of time spent on praeger and burleson for a book about "the first daring pilots" of the air mail.... like. anyone reading this book is going to want you to lavish max miller with all the narrative goodness you can muster from your silly little writing paws.... and yet rosenberg manages to give the heartbreaking scene of his death the shortest, blandest, most uninteresting paragraph in the entire book. like ?!?! max miller ?!?! the darling of the air mail service.... gosh. this book reeks. these boys deserve better
it's such a shame. the air mail pilots were such wonderfully vibrant and ridiculous and arrogant young men and yet this book manages to make them as flat as a piece of cardboard. not only that but there is a positively inordinate amount of time spent on praeger and burleson for a book about "the first daring pilots" of the air mail.... like. anyone reading this book is going to want you to lavish max miller with all the narrative goodness you can muster from your silly little writing paws.... and yet rosenberg manages to give the heartbreaking scene of his death the shortest, blandest, most uninteresting paragraph in the entire book. like ?!?! max miller ?!?! the darling of the air mail service.... gosh. this book reeks. these boys deserve better
January 29, 2023
A fascinating book at times truly illuminating the struggles and pains of early aviation bringing up issues I never had thought of. My biggest issue was at certain points the book felt it slowly went along explaining financial issues and other issues of the sort more of a personal gripe but still at times was tedious to read. At the end of this read I came away with a new appreciation for the way we receive our mail and sacrifices made by those men and women both pilots and mechanics to the couriers on foot the sacrifices they made at such a unique time in history is nothing short of admirable. Some of the fun parts in this book are getting to know the characters from “turk bird” who put down a plane with all the grace of a turkey to Knight who even though he was in a small thin boyish frame went on to fly to most miles for the air mail service! Glad to have read it but I think it will be a long time before I pick it up again.
February 3, 2020
Too much data to cover in a review. If you have an interest in early (WWI-and-forward) aviation, enjoy learning about the precursor to modern technologies, or just learning about logistics, then this will be enjoyable.
The head of transportation for the Post Office made it his mission to have viable airmail service up and running within DAYS (yes, days) of being tasked with it. He did it - technically. Like many great feats of engineering, there are asterisks next to the accomplishment. Did we get mail from DC to Chicago? YES! Did it take us 4 days and two planes, when a train takes about 16 hours to get there? Well, yeah, but we proved the concept. And when they beat the trains from, say, DC to NYC, it was a matter of an hour, and at significantly greater logistical cost (find a working plane that's fueled, get a pilot, hope the weather is clear all the way, dont get lost, hope the landing goes smoothly, and then drive the letter an hour into Manhattan from the airfield, while the train just stops right at Penn Station).
So this is not so much beating the train, but rather proving it could be done. The author is very neutral in his history, not painting the overzealous, uncompassionate, and stubbon head of transportation as simply "a driven man." No, assholes are assholes.
One aspect I had not considered before is that, at the start of probably just about any Federal program, there must be trailblazers. Rangers to, well, blaze trails, diggers to undertake giant waterworks projects, and (in this case) the best-of-the-best WWI pilots and aces to fly what would eventually amount to be a paper route. Seeing the metamorphosis from cowboys on horses to guys in little white trucks was eye-opening.
The head of transportation for the Post Office made it his mission to have viable airmail service up and running within DAYS (yes, days) of being tasked with it. He did it - technically. Like many great feats of engineering, there are asterisks next to the accomplishment. Did we get mail from DC to Chicago? YES! Did it take us 4 days and two planes, when a train takes about 16 hours to get there? Well, yeah, but we proved the concept. And when they beat the trains from, say, DC to NYC, it was a matter of an hour, and at significantly greater logistical cost (find a working plane that's fueled, get a pilot, hope the weather is clear all the way, dont get lost, hope the landing goes smoothly, and then drive the letter an hour into Manhattan from the airfield, while the train just stops right at Penn Station).
So this is not so much beating the train, but rather proving it could be done. The author is very neutral in his history, not painting the overzealous, uncompassionate, and stubbon head of transportation as simply "a driven man." No, assholes are assholes.
One aspect I had not considered before is that, at the start of probably just about any Federal program, there must be trailblazers. Rangers to, well, blaze trails, diggers to undertake giant waterworks projects, and (in this case) the best-of-the-best WWI pilots and aces to fly what would eventually amount to be a paper route. Seeing the metamorphosis from cowboys on horses to guys in little white trucks was eye-opening.
March 11, 2020
A solid read about the launch of the US Air Mail service and some of its early successes and failures. The service was started during WWI as a way to train pilots before sending them off to fly in the war, and to prove the viability of air mail as a service.
There's a lot of discussion of the big moments - the first day of DC-PHI-NYC flights, the expansion to include NYC-CHI and the eventual launch of a cross-country service. There's also a lot of discussion of the political side of things, and how the service was supported (or not) by various politicians and administrations. There are some stories of the pilots themselves and some recounting of some of the more harrowing flights thrown in as well.
The logistics of setting up the routes themselves was probably the most interesting, along with the flights themselves.
There's a lot of discussion of the big moments - the first day of DC-PHI-NYC flights, the expansion to include NYC-CHI and the eventual launch of a cross-country service. There's also a lot of discussion of the political side of things, and how the service was supported (or not) by various politicians and administrations. There are some stories of the pilots themselves and some recounting of some of the more harrowing flights thrown in as well.
The logistics of setting up the routes themselves was probably the most interesting, along with the flights themselves.
May 5, 2020
Absolutely enlightening history of the the miracle of flight and the U. S. Air Mail. I had no idea the cost in lives and property that preceded the efficiency of mail communications we have now. If you enjoy flying or just the thought of flight, I highly recommend this book. Will read it again.
January 15, 2017
I did not know about the story of airmail and the pilots that flew to deliver mail. This is a great story of unsung heroes that we hear very little about and an era not spoken much of. Enjoy!
July 16, 2017
Interesting topic and interesting men. Not as light a read as I expected and had a few factual errors. Overall a good book, but not gripping.
February 12, 2022
So much information. Now that I understand the story, I am going to re-read to better absorb the players, fine details and challenges.
October 7, 2024
OK writing but not what I’m looking for, ie early technical challenges and how those were overcome. Mostly portraits of individuals involved and half are not even pilots.
April 14, 2016
This book contains the nail-biting tale of how airmail got started in the U.S. It conveys a strong sense of the incredible challenge this represented, which is hard to really imagine in today's climate of regular passenger service all over the country (and world). Pilots made the attempt to fly planes with open cockpits, limited power, poor reliability, and few instruments through all sorts of weather, while the bureaucrats strove to make this a viable service in both revenue (it wasn't) and reliability (a mixed track record). Meanwhile, pilots died. And yet this push, perhaps overly ambitious for the time and technology, is what paved the way for the advances in plane design and support (weather, radio) that enable us to so easily criss-cross the skies today.
5 stars for content, 4 stars for form/writing style (mostly engaging, but some of the language is cringe-worthy - e.g., one character is described as "tall and erect like the sequoia trees of his home state of Washington" and a female pilot is "just a little sprig of a thing" and "an elfin dark-haired creature").
5 stars for content, 4 stars for form/writing style (mostly engaging, but some of the language is cringe-worthy - e.g., one character is described as "tall and erect like the sequoia trees of his home state of Washington" and a female pilot is "just a little sprig of a thing" and "an elfin dark-haired creature").
September 14, 2018
“Mavericks of the Bureacracy” might be a fair alternate title for this book. While plenty of ink and/or pixels are devoted to pilots and planes, budget battles in Congress; political infighting between the Postmaster General and the U.S. Army for control of the air mail program; technological competition between planes, trains & automobiles; and postal officials butting heads with their own pilots over schedules versus safety form the back story of the government’s efforts to establish mail delivery by air. The events here predate Charles Lindbergh and Juan Trippe, so Barry Rosenberg offers a unique perspective on the subject. I’m amazed he resisted the obvious comparison to the Poney Express—brave men relaying the mail across the county.
August 19, 2011
I enjoyed the book - once I finally got into it. At first, it was a bit slow paced, but then I found it fascinating. Mostly because I was usually saying something like "OHMYGOSH HOW DID ANY OF THESE PILOTS SURVIVE FLYING BACK THEN???" They were nuts, absolutely nuts! They'd crash, & then go fly again. They'd fly in any weather, in clouds through mountains hoping they'd get lucky and not hit them. Get lost and land in a farmer's field to ask for directions. I mean seriously, these first few pilots were absolutely CRAZY!
This book is not for everyone - but if you've got a love for history, or flying, or both, you'll enjoy it.
This book is not for everyone - but if you've got a love for history, or flying, or both, you'll enjoy it.
January 26, 2011
This is the amazing story of the men who changed not only aviation- but the way we receive our mail. If you did not know-- the air postal service was set up as a way to provide new aviators with much needed experience in flying aircraft cross-country in order to prepare them for combat operations in Europe in WW I.
Excellent read for any aviation or early 20th century buff!
Excellent read for any aviation or early 20th century buff!
July 21, 2008
A pretty good history of the beginnings of Air Mail. Most interesting is the intersection of politics with the provision of a vital service. Like most things that Government gets its hands on, some things get better while other things get worse.
March 25, 2012
Badly researched and terribly written.
January 3, 2013
Interesting history of the beginning of air mail service during World War I. It made me appreciate how far we have come with industry safety measures for airlines!
December 16, 2013
This book was a decent read - a little flowery and flamboyant at times, but it kept the focus on the men and women behind the air mail service. I especially enjoyed the epilogue.
March 22, 2021
Great history of the beginning of the U.S. Postal Airmail Service.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews