Into Unknown Skies

David K. Randall.  This is a gripping story of the first race to fly around the world by teams from the U.S., Britain,  France, Italy, Portugal, and Argentina.  In spite of American invention of the airplane,  the American team was by no means the likely winners.  Largely through Billy Mitchell's efforts to drag the U.S. military into the 20th century, U.S. Army Air Service pilots start heading west, while competing teams head east.  

There are exciting adventures of dangerous flying, icebergs, storms, sand storms, landings in tropical rice paddies,  generous gifts to competing teams in times of trouble.   You learn a bit about the technology involved and you cry about a flight that required the flight engineer to hand crank a gasoline pump for four hours over an empty Pacific Ocean.

Have you ever wondered how Douglas Aircraft started.   It was Douglas' technically advanced biplanes that won the race.

This was a gift from my son.  I really enjoyed it.