WWI aviation books

[Yank]

Some of the ones I've read recently that are good. I'll add more to the thread as I go along.

 

"Hostile Skies" by James J. Hudson

 

"Fighting the Flying Circus" by Eddie Rickenbacker

 

"Years of the Sky Kings" by Arch Whitehouse (Arch has a tendency to, shall we say, exaggerate, but fun book nonetheless).

[Yank]

Vintage Flying Helmets Aviation Headgear Before the Jet Age: Aviation Head Gear Before the Jet Age (Schiffer Military/Aviation History) (Hardcover)

by Mick J. Prodger (Author)

 

Aviation Badges and Insignia of the United States Army 1913-1946 by J. Duncan Campbell

 

United States Army Air Service Wing Badges-Uniforms and Insignia by Terry R. Morris Major, USA Ret.

 

Wings & Things of the World by R.J. Huff Nos. 12,13, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22 (These are hard to find) I would buy the rest if anybody actually had them available.

 

Ghosts of the Great War: Aviation in WWI (Ghosts Aviation Classics) (Hardcover)

by Philip Makanna (Author), Javier Arango (Author)

 

Silver Wings, Pinks and Greens: Uniforms, Wings & Insignia of Usaaf Airmen in World War II (Schiffer Military History) by Jon A. Maguire

 

More Silver Wings, Pinks & Greens: An Expanded Study of USAS, USAAC, & USAAF Uniforms, Wings & Insignia ¥ 1913-1945 Including Civilian Auxiliaries by Jon A. Maguire

 

 

Combat Flying Equipment: U.S. Army Aviators' Personal Equipment, 1917-1945 by Sweeting, C.G.

 

Imperial War Museum: The First World War in Photographs (Hardcover)

by Richard Holmes

 

Spalding Aviator's Clothing & Equipment in the 1920S-1930s (Paperback) This isn't really WWI, but right after the war

[Croix de Guerre]

Camel Drivers by Otis L. Reed and George Roland; Schiffer Books, pub. 1996

 

First to the Front by Charles Wooley; Schiffer Books, pub.1996

 

Tiger Squadron by Ira "Taffy" Jones; W.H. Allen books, London, 1954

 

The "Bible" no WWI Aviation library should be without,,,New England Aviators Volume I and II, Houghton Mifflin Company, The Riverside Press Cambridge, 1920-----Schiffer Books has recently published a reprint of this rare book. My advice is to buy an original copy if you can find one to keep for your collection and buy the reprint for daily use.

[BEAST]

"Wings of Honor" is also an excellent reference on aviators and squadrons.

[Patriot]

"Echoes of Eagles" - "A son's search for his father and the legacy of America's first fighter pilots." - 2003, by Charles Woolley, with Bill Crawford.

 

"Published to coincide with the one hundredth anniversary of the Wright Brothers' historic first flight and the birth of aviation, Echoes of Eagles is a rousing chronicle of American air combat during the First World War.

 

In 1917, Charles H. Woolley, the author's father, enlisted in and trained as a pilot in the newly created U.S. Air Service. He and his fellow pilots of the 94th, 95th, and 49th Aero Squadrons - including Teddy Rooselvelt's youngest son, Quentin, and Summer Sewall, a future governor of Maine, flew at 20,000 feet in open-cockpit French biplanes with no oxygen, no parachutes, and no radios. Death was their constant companion. This extraordinary book takes readers into the cockpits of these fragile fighter aircraft and into the souls of the men who fought for their country in a new environment - the air. It is also the story of their lives on the ground: the grit of muddy airfields and the frustration of fickle airplanes, balanced by the glamour, the women, and the champagne of Paris.

 

From Tales of dogfighting with German aces to the strafing enemy trenches, Echoes of Eagles describes the risks and dangers of flight, feats of incredible heroism and acts of stunning cowardice, and the camaraderie among men dedicated to a common goal. Based on diaries and letters and never-before-published interviews with the heroes themselves, and featuring amazing photographs, this unforgettable account of America's first fighter pilots is also a son's stirring tribute to his father.

 

CHARLES WOOLLEY served in the Air Force Intelligence during the Korean War. He was an editor of the Cross and Cockade Journal of World War I Aero Historians, is the current curator of the Vermont Veterans and Militia Museum, and serves on the committee of management of the Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection at Brown University. A member of the Company of Military Historians, he lives in Rochester, Vermont."

 

Excellent book. I have a couple other WWI Aviation books, but they are missing from the shelf! I will post those, if I can locate them.

 

Patriot

[Yank]

"America's First Air War, The United States Army, Naval and Marine Air Services in the First World War" by Terry C. Treadwell. Just picked this up at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome today.

[Yank]

Always check google books to see if you can read it for free over the internet. The book above and Rickenbacker's 1919 book are both available.