The Aviators: Eddie Rickenbacker, Jimmy Doolittle, Charles Lindbergh, and the Epic Age of Flight

Groom's (Shiloh, 1862) interwoven biographies confirm that in their day no American figures received such public adulation as Eddie Rickenbacker, Jimmy Doolittle, and Charles Lindbergh, each of whom became a colossus in the annals of flight. In 1918, Rickenbacker was the number one U.S. combat pilot; Lindbergh, of course, thrilled the world in 1927 when he flew solo nonstop across the Atlantic; and Doolittle ushered in modern airpower in 1929 by flying aircraft on instruments alone. All three visited Nazi Germany in the 1930s and warned their indifferent countrymen about Hitler's burgeoning war machine. Doolittle and Rickenbacker called for U.S. diplomatic engagement and military preparedness, while Lindbergh backed a policy of isolationism. During World War II these men were middle-aged, famous, and wealthy, yet they volunteered to fly again. Groom's farewell chapter is a masterpiece, in which he concludes, "They were giants who ruled the air…and years after they died their dust still sparkles in the lore that binds the national trust."