The The Man Who Rode the Thunder.
Publisher: Prentice-Hall
Published: 1960
Place of publication: Englewood Cliffs, N.J
Language: eng
Number of pages: 208
First sentence: Over New York, the weather was immaculate, not a cloud in the sky.
Description: William H. Rankin (born 1920) in 1959 became famous as the man who fell through a thunderstorm. His 40-minute free fall from the stratosphere into the storm was even more terrifying. Rankin parted company with his plane at around 47,000 feet above sea level--nearly 18,000 feet higher than Mt. Everest's summit.
"The Man Who Rode the Thunder" is Rankin's recollection of the events leading up to the free fall and the fall itself.
Notes: Autobiographical.