SLIPSTREAM
Books by Eugene E. Wilson
AIR POWER FOR PEACE
SLIPSTREAM
The Autobiography of an Air Craftsman
John Haley
Eugene E. Wilson
SLIPSTREAM
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
AN AIR CRAFTSMAN
by
EUGENE E. WILSON
Whittlesey House
McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc.
NEW YORKLONDON TORONTO
SLIPSTREAM
Copyright, 1950, by the McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc.All rights in this book are reserved. It may not beused for dramatic, motion-, or talking-picture purposeswithout written authorization from the holder of theserights. Nor may the book or parts thereof be reproducedin any manner whatsoever without permission in writing,except in the case of brief quotations embodied in criticalarticles and reviews. For information, address WhittleseyHouse, 330 West 42d Street, New York 18, New York.
Published by Whittlesey House
A division of the McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc.
Printed in the United States of America
To
my wife
[Pg vii]
Preface
To the world at large, Berlin Airlift headlines only highlightedanother crisis in the “cold war.” Yet behind those headlines lay anepochal event: commercial air transports—not combat aircraft—hadbecome the spearhead of United States foreign policy.
This dramatic incident brought renewed hope to air craftsmenwho, nearly a half century earlier, had embarked on a starry-eyedcrusade to utilize the airplane for the benefit of mankind. In WorldWar I, they had helped smash the German Kaiser, only to find Hitlerrising phoenixlike in his boots. Two decades later, they had strafedHitler to earth, only to discover a colossal portrait of Joseph Stalinlooming beyond a smoke curtain. Still later, as atomic bombs andlethal bacteria became weapons, they were asking themselves, “whatnext?” when the Berlin Airlift came up with the answer: air cargo,air commerce, air industry, air finance—air power for peace!
In December, 1943, we air craftsmen had our frustrations dramatizedat a banquet staged in honor of the Wright brothers on theforti