- Genre:biography & autobiography
- Sub-genre:Military
- Language:English
- Pages:224
- eBook ISBN:9780979000249
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Overview
SPITFIRE WINGMAN is the whole-life memoir of USAF Col. Jim Haun, who flew nearly every US military aircraft from 1939 to 1965, including fighters, bombers, giant cargo ships, and the T-33 jet trainer. He flew Spitfires over England and France, commanded a squadron through the Berlin Airlift, was CO of th Presidential Air Fleet in Washington D.C., and became Chief Pilot of the Military Air Transport Service. After retirement he built a single-seat biplane in his garage -- meanwhile teaching hundreds to fly, including one who became an instructor in the supersonic Blackbird.
Description
SPITFIRE WINGMAN is the autobiography of USAF Col. Jim Haun, truly "a pilot's pilot," who flew fighters, bombers, cargo giants like the C-133, as well the T-33 jet trainer. Commanding the 12th Observation Squadron in 1942, he jockeyed Spitfires and Thunderbolts over Europe, then after the war commanded a squadron of C-54s through the Berlin Airlift, was CO of th Presidential Air Fleet in Washington D.C., and became Chief Pilot of the Military Air Transport Service. As the memoir of an aerobatic master born to fling his body through cloudbanks, Spitfire Wingman from Tennessee offers a unique birds-eye view of events and personalities of WWII and the Cold War. Encounters with Patton, Vandenberg, Yeager, Truman and Nixon are replayed with perception and tongue-in-cheek wit. While twisting in P-40s, P-51s, and P-47s, he was privileged to see the war both from twenty thousand feet and as a Staff Officer at 9th Air Force HQ in Brussels. A stripped-down Thunderbolt fighter-bomber became his personal 400-mph runabout. This gifted flyer takes you on an intimate journey from barnstormer to dog-fighter, to threading the Himalayan ‘Hump’, to Berlin Airlift commander, then on to Presidential Squadron leader in the Truman-Eisenhower years – finally becoming Chief Pilot of MATS. Balancing dry humor with just enough technical detail to please aviation buffs, this self-revealing air-venture thunders on twelve cylinders with sky-sweeping appeal.