Half-Flaps, Full Throttle!

November is, among other things, National Aviation History Month.  Naturally, we have a book display for that.

Click Images to Bigify

 

It's fun to read all about the history of aviation, and my Library has a bunch of books and videos devoted to the subject.  But there's no substitute for the real deal.

Hey!  Passengers Face Forward,

Seatbelts Secured, If You Please

That's Moi Flying a Stearman/Boeing N2S

("The Yellow Peril")

(Actually, my biplane is probably a reconditioned Stearman 75, but you get the idea.)

Richard Bach wrote great books about flying biplanes [Biplane (1966) and Nothing By Chance (1969), which is about piloting a Stearman], along with books about flying other planes [Stranger to the Ground (1963)].  Anybody who lived through the 1970s probably read his classic novel, Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970).  Of course, we have a book trailer.

 MPL Book Trailer #156

Jonathan Livingston Seagull, by Richard Bach

If you've never flown in an open-cockpit airplane before, you should give it a whirl.  There is nothing like feeling the wind rush past as you climb toward the clouds.  It becomes a tactile experience, instead of merely visual and auditory.  Looking out a jet plane window in a sealed cabin just isn't the same.

 

Your Roving Reporter On The Go,

Cauli Le Chat

P.S.  "Flying," by the Beatles, graced the LP Magical Mystery Tour (1967).  It was the only song from that period to which all four members of the group were credited as composers.