Herbert John Louis Hinkler (8 December 1892 – 7 January 1933), better known as Bert Hinkler, was a pioneer Australian aviator (dubbed "Australian Lone Eagle") and inventor.
 He designed and built early aircraft before being the first person to fly solo from England to Australia, and the first person to fly solo across the Southern Atlantic Ocean.
 He married in 1932 at the age of 39, and died less than a year later after crashing into remote countryside near Florence, Italy during a solo flight record attempt.
David Brian Jacka OAM (born 14 July 1968) is an aviator and disability advocate.
 On 5 June 2013, Jacka became the first person with quadriplegia to fly solo around the coast of Australia.
 The trip took 38 days.
 He flew a Jabiru J230 with adaptations that he designed to enable him to fly.
 The purpose of the flight was to spread the message of the charity founded by Jacka, On a Wing and a Chair.
 The charity's mission was to raise the publics' expectations of what people with disabilities can achieve and inspire everyone, with or without a disability, to get out and have a go at their own dreams and goals.
Betty Miller (born April 6, 1926) is the first female pilot to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean, which she did in May 1963.
 Specifically, she flew from Oakland, California, USA to Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, to deliver the plane (a twin-engine Piper) to a buyer.
 The flight also made her the first woman to fly solo from Oakland, California to Honolulu, Hawaii which she did in just over 17 hours.
 She started the first leg of the epic flight on April 25th.1963 from Oakland California and took over 17 hours to reach Honolulu.
 On May 5th, she left Honolulu for the second leg of her flight to Canton Island, next Fiji and then New Caledonia.
 She landed in Brisbane, Australia, on May 13 1963, Betty climbed out of the plane wearing a cotton dress and high heels to the cheers of a large crowd.
 The total elapsed flying time for the flight over the Pacific was 51 hours, 38 minutes.
 In recognition of her flight, she received the Federal Aviation Administration’s Gold Medal for Exceptional Service from President Kennedy, and later President Johnson presented her with the Harmon International Trophy for Aviatrix of the Year (1963).
Wang Zheng (王争 ; born 25 December 1972 in Chongqing, China), also known as Julie Wang, is an Airline Transport Pilot and Certified Flight Instructor (CFI) in West Palm Beach, Florida, where she resides.
 She is the first Asian woman to circumnavigate Earth in an airplane.
 Wang is also the first Chinese pilot to fly solo around the world and only the ninth woman ever to do so, with three Americans, three British, a French and an Australian having preceded her.
Geraldine "Jerrie" Fredritz Mock (November 22, 1925 – September 30, 2014) was the first woman to fly solo around the world, which she did in 1964.
 She flew a single engine Cessna 180 (registered N1538C) christened the "Spirit of Columbus" and nicknamed "Charlie."
 The trip began March 19, 1964, in Columbus, Ohio, and ended April 17, 1964, in Columbus, Ohio, and took 29 days, 21 stopovers and almost 22860 mi .
 An almost forgotten part of this flight is the "race" that developed between Jerrie Mock and Joan Merriam Smith who had flown from a field near San Francisco CA on March 17, 1964.
 Joan's departure date and flight path was the same as the aviator Amelia Earhart's last flight and though not in direct competition with each other, media coverage soon began tracking the progress of each pilot fascinated with who would complete the journey first.
 The story of this race is told in a book written by Taylor Phillips entitled, "Racing to Greet the Sun, Jerrie Mock and Joan Merriam Smith Duel to Become the First Woman to Solo Around the World".
 Jerrie Mock was subsequently awarded the Louis Blériot medal from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale in 1965.
 In 1970 she published the story of her round-the-world flight in the book "Three-Eight Charlie".
 While that book is now out of print, a 50th anniversary edition was later published including maps, weather charts and photos.
 "Three-Eight Charlie" is a reference to the call sign, N1538C, of the Cessna 180 Skywagon Mock used to fly around the world.
 Before her death, Mock, mother of three children, resided in Quincy, Florida; northwest of the state capital, Tallahassee.
Steven M. Rainey is Lockheed Martin's chief F-22 test pilot and a former United States Air Force officer.
 He is noted for a number of achievements while flight testing the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor.
 He was the first USAF pilot to fly the aircraft, the first pilot to perform aerial refueling in the F-22, and the first pilot to fly cross-country in the Raptor.
Wiley Hardeman Post (November 22, 1898 – August 15, 1935) was a famed American aviator during the interwar period, the first pilot to fly solo around the world.
 Also known for his work in high-altitude flying, Post helped develop one of the first pressure suits and discovered the jet stream.
 On August 15, 1935, Post and American humorist Will Rogers were killed when Post's aircraft crashed on takeoff from a lagoon near Point Barrow in the Territory of Alaska.
Mary Riddle (also known as Kus-de-cha or Kingfisher, April 22, 1902 – October 25, 1981) was the first Native American woman to earn a pilot's license.
 Soon after earning her pilot's license she also earned her commercial license.
 Riddle trained as a pilot in Portland and was a member of the Clatsop Tribe in Oregon Quinault Indian Nation in Washington.
 Riddle started training with Tex Rankin in 1927.
 She was qualified to fly solo in 1930.
 Also in 1930, she planned to fly to Washington D.C. with "beaded gifts for President Hoover from Indian Tribes."
 In June 1934, she was featured on the 99's magazine, "The 99er".
 By 1937 she was performing as a parachutist.
 She later went to the Spartan School in Tulsa to learn parachute jumping.
 She did over forty parachute jumps.
 During World War II, she was recruited by the government to inspect civilian aircraft and work as an aircraft maintenance advisor.
Air Hawks is a 1935 American aviation-themed science-fiction film based on Ben Pivar's "Air Fury", an unpublished story.
 Director Albert Rogell who had moved from shorts to B-films, was interested in aviation and had already helmed "The Flying Marine" (1929) and "Air Hostess" (1933).
 In "Air Hawks", the studio was able to add an A-list star, Ralph Bellamy, as well as exploiting the fame of record-setting pilot Wiley Post in his only feature film appearance.
Aviator Arena Sports and Recreation Facility is located on the site of the former Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, New York.
 Aviator Arena hosts sporting events and shows throughout the year, and the occasional air show.
 The field outside the arena is still used as an official heliport by the New York Police Department (NYPD).
 Once inside the indoor entrance to Aviator Arena, an entire inner wall tribute several stories high is dedicated to the history of Aeronautics which took place on the site of the sports facility and the people of flight who made the former Floyd Bennett Field famous, including: Wiley Post, the first pilot to solo around the world, who flew around the world from the field and returned to it in 7 days 19 hours and 49 minutes in July 1933; and billionaire Howard Hughes, who flew 14791 mi around the world from Floyd Bennett Field in July 1938 and returned to it with a crew of four men in 3 days, 19 hours, 8 minutes, 10 seconds to collect important navigational data.

Question: Who was the author of the story that inspired the the film that featured the first pilot to fly solo around the world?
Answer: Ben Pivar