The Aviators: Eddie Rickenbacker, Jimmy Doolittle, Charles Lindbergh, and the Epic Age of Flight - Winston Groom Audiobook

Written by Winston Groom
Read by Robertson Dean
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Release date: November 5, 2013
Duration: 17:23:42

Gifted storyteller Winston Groom, the bestselling author of Forrest Gump, has written the fascinating story of three extraordinary heroes who defined aviation during the great age of flight: Charles Lindbergh, Eddie Rickenbacker, and Jimmy Doolittle. These cleverly interwoven tales of their heart-stopping adventures take us from the feats of World War I through the heroism of World War II and beyond, including daring military raids and survival at sea, and will appeal to fans of Unbroken, The Greatest Generation, and Flyboys.

With the world in peril during World War II, each man set aside great success and comfort to return to the skies for his most daring mission yet. Doolittle, a brilliant aviation innovator, would lead the Tokyo Raid to retaliate for Pearl Harbor; Lindbergh, hero of the first solo flight across the Atlantic, would fly combat missions in the South Pacific; and Rickenbacker, World War I flying ace, would bravely hold his crew together while facing near-starvation and circling sharks after his plane went down in a remote part of the Pacific. Groom’s rich narrative tells the intertwined stories—from broken homes to Medals of Honor (all three would receive one), barnstorming to the greatest raid of World War II, front-page triumph to anguished tragedy, and near-death to ultimate survival—of these three men who took to the sky, time and again, to become exemplars of the spirit of the “greatest generation.”

The subject matter carries this audiobook, but that isn’t to say that Robertson Dean is lacking as a skilled narrator. Indeed, he is one of those rare talents who reads so effortlessly that the listener forgets he’s there. This informative book intertwines the careers of three renowned aviators; it’s filled with the imagery of soaring heroes in flimsy winged tubes, daring disaster itself. One can’t forget that air flight as we know it, in war and peace, is barely more than a century old. Neither Groom nor Dean attempts to inject a lot of emotion into the book. They just put the lives and facts forward, yet they stimulate our imagination. D.R.W. © AudioFile 2014,

This is hold your breath, hope your blood pressure and pulse will calm down reading.