Into the blue: Great mysteries of aviation

by Alexander McKee

Very interesting book by a British man who was in the thick of things during WW2. It starts with Icaros 1700 BC and near the end you find out what really happened to Joe Kennedy Jr.

Genres: Nonfiction, Aviation

296 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Alexander McKee was no "yes-man", he dared to criticise many military, political, economic, media and academic icons and he always kept an open mind. He was fanatical about making his works as accurate as he possibly could. He was ever alert to plain-wrong, biased, distorted or sloppy reports and hidden agendas; wickedly delighting (the more so as a self-educated man) in criticising and exposing assertions that did not fit the evidence. Among his targets were those who tended to emphasise media-image-managment, the accumulation of personal wealth and career progression over both personal integrity and respect for other people's contributions. He gleefully highlighted all the many lapses of integrity that he found. Equally, many established experts, often highly educated people and indeed experts regarding the theoretical aspects of their disciplines, but whom he considered scandalously remiss when they complacently failed to complement such theoretical understanding with practical knowledge as a way to test their theories empirically. Consequently, some of them came in for some harsh criticism on occasion. One gets the impression from his work that some of them appeared reluctant to venture outside the academy at all; out into the "real world": let alone to mix with ordinary people. Implicitly, he urged them to converse with the fishermen, the builders, the soldiers, the doctors, the nurses, the shipwrights and the firemen to glean practical understanding from these practical people, who had to be willing and able to carry out the ultimate tests on their theories to provide demonstably working solutions in order to fulfill their typical working roles. Then he urges such experts in the theory to re-test their theories against the empirically derived knowledge gleaned from their excursions among the working classes, and to do so conjunction with their own senses, out in the "real world": rather than limiting themselves and risking their reputations on the results of thought experiments alone. He dug deep into eye-witness testimonies and spent countless hours searching libraries and museums for the documentary evidence surrounding each his-story. One may find this slightly comical that viewed against the background of established caricaturisations, when the elevated "pillars of wisdom", went "building castles in the air" around about the "ivory towers" and he found strong contradictory "real world" evidence he often lambasted them mercilessly, although it does sometimes seem to be overdone. In contrast, he made the point that some of the sloppy documentary historical works such as that of Sir Robert Davis, that temporarily led his own research astray (and much to his annoyance caused him to repeat untruths in public lectures) while causing the propagation of serious errors until he uncovered them, were nevertheless probably a consequence of the pressures of work, owing to the high quality of the rest of the publication.

Reviews

[Brad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a BAD read but I had a lot of difficulty following this book. At first I thought it was because I read most of it gradually over 2+ months on my computer at work as my secondary book, but reading the last 1/3 to 1/2 of the book in the last couple weeks led to the same results.

I'm not sure that I can pinpoint why, but I've noticed that with fiction and non-fiction, I often have trouble following longer works that are made up of shorter stories. Like "fix-up" novels for example and books like this one. When the people/characters/stories are changing every chapter or two, it's difficult for me to invest in the overall work.

Still not a bad read, but in terms of aviation history, not my favorite!

[M.J. Rodriguez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loaded with Mysteries!

I was enthusiastic about the mysteries in aviation during the 20th Century! My favourite mystery of the air was the disappearance of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan in June 1937. I assume that Amelia and Fred sank to the ocean floor with their Lockheed plane. Any aviation enthusiast will enjoy reading these mysteries!

[Fiona Black · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating account of aviation mysteries. I learned so much with regards to wartime rules and tactics, and thought many times of my late father who was a navigator in the RAF, WWII. Not my usual genre, but certainly one I am now open to pursuing.