The First Fighter Pilot - Roland Garros: The Life and Times of the Playboy Who Invented Air Combat

by Ed Cobleigh

Roland Garros enjoyed an exciting life. An aviation pioneer in the early 1900s, he taught himself how to fly a bamboo airplane despite crashing it at Versailles. He was a world-class athlete, a lawyer who wouldn't learn Latin, a sports car salesman on the Champs-Elysées, an airshow pilot and racer. He demonstrated flight to huge crowds up and down the Americas. Ultimately, Roland Garros became the world's first fighter pilot.

Leaving his comfortable life in Paris, he flew and fought in the lethal skies of the first World War. Never before had a lone pilot hunted other men in the air. Shot down and captured, he escaped prisoner of war camp, evaded his way across Germany, and crossed the front lines. After a torrid fling in Paris with an exotic dancer, he rejoined his squadron. Garros needed two more aerial victories to become an ace.

This creative non-fiction biography puts you in an open cockpit, in air combat, and in Paris experiencing Belle Epoque pleasures. What was it like to fly across the Mediterranean in a rickety monoplane? How did pilots dogfight in WWI? Fasten your seatbelt for exciting aerial action and the adventure-packed life of Roland Garros, the first fighter pilot!

Genres: World War I

328 pages, Hardcover

Published June 6, 2019

About the author

Ed Cobleigh was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee. After graduating from Chattanooga High School, he earned a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Tech and a Masters Degree in Management at the University of Southern California.

Ed earned his pilot’s wings with the United States Air Force and eventually achieved the rank of Lt Col. As a fighter pilot, he flew the F-104 Starfighter, the F-4 Phantom, the A-4 Skyhawk, the Anglo-French Jaguar, and the F-16 Fighting Falcon.
He flew 375 combat missions in South East Asia during the Vietnam War in the Phantom, earning two Distinguished Flying Crosses. He was assigned as a Fighter Weapons Instructor Pilot with the USAF Fighter Weapons School, the US Navy Fighter Weapons School (Top Gun), and the Royal Air Force Qualified Weapons Instructor Course (Jaguar). He has flown with the US Navy, the Royal Air Force, the Imperial Iranian Air Force, and the French Air Force. Cobleigh also served as an Air Intelligence Officer working with the CIA, FBI, and the British MI6 branch on a variety of covert intelligence projects.

Ed Cobleigh resides with his wife, Heidi, in the Paso Robles, California wine country with their Arabian horses and Catahoula/Border Collie dogs.

Reviews

[Claudia Reichert]

I enjoyed this book tremendously. Not only for the story of Garros' life but for the perspective it is offering of world events at the time. Also it is a lesson in the history of aviation at its infancy in the beginning of 20th century that you would be hard pressed to find anywhere else, especially since the author has first hand experience as a fighter pilot and world traveller!
I recommend it greatly to anyone that is interested in world history in general and aviation history in particular. I could not put it down. I will definitely look for other books by this author.

[Everett Sharp · Rating 5 out of 5]

This could only have been written by a pilot

Ed. Cobleigh has the ability in all his books to put you in the cockpit of those he writes about. This is no exception, but no twisting and turning in a USAF F4 Phantom or at zero feet above Loch Ness in a RAF Jaguar; here we have the early days of flight. I felt exilerated by Garros's success and likewise dispirited when, even with all of his and his ground crew's efforts, he failed. Read this book you will not be disappointed.

[Omer K · Rating 5 out of 5]

interesting story about Garros’ life and exploits.

I enjoyed reading this account of Rolland Garros. Having always read brief and not always accurate stories of his “inventing” aerial combat with a synchronized gun, his story has a much deeper background.