What was the first aviation related book that you read?

I was about 12:



And OP, don't let that book scare you...the author Paul Craigs math has been shown to be seriously flawed.

 

Yep, added "want to be an engineer" to the already firmly established "want to be a pilot" to my future.

 

For me, it added “want to be Tom Swift”, but I guess it helped make “want to be a scientist” the backup plan, and that one worked out.

 

This one. I was in the 8th Grade. First book longer than 75 or so pages I ever read. This is the very copy. I read it again about every 3-4 years.

 

You beat me to it. That’s my first as well.

 

The Ghost at Skeleton Rock.

This summer cleaning out my folks' house I found that and "The How and Why Wonder Book of Flight," and "The Hardy Boys Great Airport Mystery."

 

that reminded me...I need to change my answer. It would have been the entire A volume of my parents' World Book Encyclopedia. I probably read through all of the aviation and airplane stuff a hundred times

 

Your Wings by Assen Jordanoff. Published in 1936 or so, it was my older brother's.
I really think it helped me a lot. I soloed at 16 in 1954.

 

I think "The Greatest Flying Stories Ever Told" by Lamar Underwood or "Noel Wien: Alaska Pioneer Bush Pilot" by Ira Harkey. Both great books.

https://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Fly...eatest+flying+stories+ever+told,aps,90&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/Noel-Wien-Pi...id=1668088733&sprefix=noel+wien,aps,76&sr=8-1

 

Probably some 1st grade Dick and Jane primer. See Dick. See Dick fly. See Jane. Jane says can I go to?

 

See Dick tell Jane girls cannot fly.

Do not be a Dick.

 

The earliest I remember is some encyclopedia of WW2 planes I had my mom buy me at the book store at the AFB we were stationed at when I was like 6. I was a weird kid. As for actual literature, probably some memoir from a pilot during Pearl Harbor or a B-17 gunner. I don't have any of these any longer unfortunately nor do I recall the exact names.

At the moment however I'm reading Skyfaring by Mark Vanhoenacker. Anyone else read that one? He's a former 747 pilot and is an absolute poet. He encapsulates the wonder and beauty of flight and of our planet better than nearly anyone else in the modern age that I've read. Massively recommended to anyone interested in the subject.

 

Hatchet

 

Oh, so many books and so much fun!
I’ll give big thanks to Martin Caidin for his great fiction, including “Whip,” and tons of his non-fiction.

 

Spent a week with my grandparents when I was about ten. Tom Swift and His Aerial Warship was on the bookshelf. My father and uncle probably read it, there was a date written in the cover, 1932.
Sometime in the ‘60s I read the Reader’s Digest condensed version of Fate is the Hunter.

 

“We” , by Charles Lindbergh.

 

+1 on “We”. Still have the book, but never reread it. Was not the best aviation book by far.

 

The Airplane Flying Handbook. Really. I had wanted to fly since watching Sky King as a kid. My wife bought me the book, a logbook, and 3 lessons for my birthday so I'd get it out of my system. She claims she hasn't seen me since.

 

I’m 71 yrs old now. My father retired as an airline pilot, Eastern 1011 CAPT. My grandfather owned a flying school in Havana. My brother retired as a 747 CAPT for Delta Airlines. We were refugees from Castro’s Cuba in 1960. I was attending Westview Elementary School in Miami, FL in 5th Grade in 1962 one day when I went to the library. The school library was to me a phenomenal and magic space; quiet, cozy and limitless once I discovered reading (in English). That day, browsing through the Aviation shelves I found:
“Pilot Jack Knight”
by A. M. Anderson
Published Dec. 22,1922
To say I was fascinated is an understatement. The book impressed me so much I remember it vividly to this day. J-3 Jenny biplanes and descriptions of flight. It “sealed the deal”. It locked in at the age of ten what I am today.
Have to read it again before I croak.
What a gift, to be able to fly.

E B. Ferrer MD
CAPT USN (FS) Ret.
Com, Inst, & M/E and 3000 hrs

 

I don't recall the first book I ever read, but I was gifted a large set of "Epic of Flight" books by my uncle (former F4 driver) when I was in single-digit age, which I still have today. Tons of food to feed the aviation bug.

 

Wasn't the first, but if you're making a list it has to include "Moondog's Academy of the Air and other Disasters." by Pete Fusco.

I read it years ago and still chuckle at the stories.

And anything by St. Exupery.

 

The Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk.
I was 7 or 8 years old and it was a difficult book for me to read at that time. But I eventually got into it and loved It.

https://www.googleadservices.com/pa...ubelisP9AhWXEVkFHebRD1AQwg8oAHoECAMQDA&adurl=

 

+1... and Weather Flying by Robert Buck.

 

The guy who got me hooked on flying gave me a copy of The Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge. I don't think I read all of it, but I remember learning about the four forces from it.