Barons of the Sky: From Early Flight to Strategic Warfare
Subtitle: The Story of the American Aerospace Industry
Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: January 14, 2002
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 384
ISBN-13: 9780801868283
Subjects: Aerospace & air transport industries; American history: from c 1900 -; History of engineering & technology; United States; 20th century; Astrophysics & Space Science; Air And Space Forces; Aircraft; Military aspects; Technology; Science; Industries - General; History: American; USA; Aviation - General; Military - Nuclear Warfare; History / United States / General; Military Science; Aeronautics & Astronautics; Aerospace industries; Aircraft industry; Airplanes, Military; History
First sentence: IT WAS A SPRING MORNING in Mexico, 1913.
Description: "This history of the rise of the American aerospace industry traces the careers of the men whose names became synonomous with today's military-industrial complex: Glenn Martin of Martin Marietta, Donald Douglas of McDonnell Douglas, Jack Northrop of Northrop, and Allan and Malcolm Loughead of Lockheed. Weaving together institutional history and individual biography, Wayne Biddle depicts the years of uncertainty after World War I, the bonanza of World War II, and the cutthroat post-war market.

Unlike the automobile industry, the aircraft industry could never be sustained by the middle-class consumer economy, and these legendary founders had to depend on the federal government to keep their companies aloft. Barons of the Sky tells a thrilling story of obsessed men who, chasing their dreams of flight and success, created the modern aerospace weapons industry."--BOOK JACKET.