num_pages: 492
description: This is the true story of Waldo Waterman, pioneer aviator, aircraft manufacturer, engineer, barnstormer, inventor and test pilot. Those that were his idols and contemporaries -- Glenn Curtiss, the Wright brothers, Bill Stout, Lincoln Beachey, Billy Mitchell, Carl Spaatz, Tony Fokker, Amelia Earhart and Charles Lindbergh -- are gone now, but they and the others that helped break the bonds of man to earth will never leave us, especially when we relive their successes and failures through the memory of Waldo. When Waldo first flew his hang glider in 1909, the euphoria of man's conquest of the air was but a year old. The Wrights did fly in 1903, but the world didn't comprehend it until 1908. It was Glenn Curtiss who first captivated America when he flew before awed spectators on the Fourth of July, 1908; and it was Curtiss who won the coveted Gordon Bennett Trophy by being the fastest at the world's first air meet at Reims in 1909. In 1910, he was the hero at the first American air meet and the "first to fly on the Coast"; this event also marked the beginning of his friendship with Waldo. Waldo went on to become an aviation legend. In his eighty-two years he participated in virtually everything in that fabulous era that brought us, from aeroplanes of bamboo, wire and muslin, to the Space Age. He was no casual spectator, but was constantly working at "improving the breed." He was a pilot's pilot, and a strong voice for air safety. Decrying the harem-scarem flying of the Twenties, he was convinced that aviation would never come of age until it was a viable force for the good of man. Briefly a barnstormer, Waldo was not a "flying fool"; there were better and bolder pilots, but few who survived him. Waldo's life is a story for all who have flown -- from the aviation buff to the passenger sitting in quietude and comfort, possibly in awe of it all, racing through the skies at nearly the speed of sound -- the same skies that Leonardo da Vinci once dreamed about
language: English
title: Waldo : Pioneer Aviator - A Personal History of American Aviation
titlecomplete: Waldo : Pioneer Aviator - A Personal History of American Aviation
publisher: Arsdalen Bosch & Co