Vision: A Saga of the Sky

by William Mansfield

extremely rare,very good condition

Genres: History

389 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1956

Reviews

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not my usual genre or choice of reading material. But the book was on the shelf, and I tackled a skim through. It traces the Boeing history thru some 50 years. Amazing progress from propellers to rocket propulsion in just a few decades. Takes you through flight history from B-15 to Minuteman III. What I like to 'take away' from this book is the pursuit of excellence in design. There is sheer hard work followed by a basic belief in your abilities and the steps to push a 'plan' on through. There's probably a lesson in the power of persistence for all of us.

[Erik]

Meh

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know propaganda when I read it, and this book is clearly that--propaganda thinly disguised as a history of the Boeing company from its inception through 1957. But don't let that put you off; it's also a very well-researched account of the rise of one of the world's largest and most influential corporations from a small workshop to a national asset.

The story starts in 1910, with young, bespectacled William Boeing's nascent fascination with the new art and science of aviation. Already a successful timber executive, after his first plane ride he had a vision of building an aircraft manufactory. After a slow, almost avocational start, his fledgling Boeing Aircraft Company managed to land a mail delivery contract from the US government. Before long, his engineers were exploring the frontiers of civil aviation and helping the US Army prepare for what they *thought* the next would be like.

Fast forward forty years and Boeing is world renowned as the creator of the B-17 and B29, winners of the air war over Europe and Japan; the B-52 is the USAF's premier bomber, poised to deliver atomic death to the Soviet Union if they continue their expansion of communism; the KC-97 is the pioneer of in-flight refueling; and the 707 Stratoliner defined civilian luxury air travel for the next 30 years.

Mansfield's writing style is... interesting. It's like reading a book-length intro to an episode of "Dragnet"--very choppy, where every character is a steely-eyed, hard-bitten [engineer/manager/pilot] who speaks in short, declarative sentences. But that's also part of the books's period-specific charm. Occasionally, he shifts styles dramatically when his love of aviation breaks through the stolid narrative style, in passages like this:

"Without a quiver they were off the ground and the nose was pointed high. A great, smooth feeling such as Allen had never felt before. Going up, wind-swift. It was so easy, as if no power were required, merely a hand on some lever that gradually switched off gravity. Power had always been synonymous with vibration, motion and noise. All these seemed absent. They were just going up.

"Allen looked at the navigator's bank of instruments. The big hand on the altimeter was turning round like the hand of a clock that's being set. He looked up through the overhead window, saw cloud fleece slipping by; looked out the side and back: the tips of the swept wings were far behind. Everything was still, no propellers turning, just the ground moving farther and farther away."

Such moments catch the reader up in Mansfield's passion for air travel and his admiration for what Boeing wrought in the 20th Century. Don't look for dispassionate reporting here--he never delves into Boeing's mistakes, all his characters are straight out of central casting, and his outlook is relentlessly progressive and optimistic; but the book is a product of its Cold War, post-World War II era when the future was unclear but the ultimate outcome was never really in doubt: the triumph of the American spirit, exemplified by William Boeing and his remarkable company.

Aside: this book was lent to me by a neighbor whose stepfather, Bill Irvine, was intimately involved with the Army Air Corps' and Air Force's drive for aircraft development from the mid-1930s on, and who is prominently mentioned throughout the book. This connection lent a whole new level of enjoyment to me as I read this remarkable story.

[Rob Neyer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would have gone three stars until the last few chapters, which turned into a blatant p.r. push for both Boeing AND The Brave and Necessary Fight Against Those Godless Communists.

In retrospect, I shouldn't have been surprised, as the book was literally written by a former p.r. person for Boeing, and published in the middle of the Cold War. Still, just the tiniest hint of objectivity at some point in the proceedings would have gone a long way with me...

[Steven Shook · Rating 3 out of 5]

The history of the Boeing Company during the late 1930s to early 1950s. The primary focus of Mansfield's book is to cover the historical development of the jet age in commercial transportation. This book is a considered a definitive history of Boeing betting the company on a new jet, as opposed to a prop engine, commercial plane.