Aviation Book Blog

A Reader's Recommendation - Books of my Youth:

Submitted by reader David Bodary, PhD.

I have enjoyed reading about flight and all things aviation since I was a youngster.  Long ago I found several aviation related books in my dad’s boyhood home.  Books that he and his brothers read in their pre-teens.  The books were mostly the Yankee Flyer series written by Rutherford George Montgomery (under the pseudonym Al Avery).  I deeply enjoyed those adventure books.  I now find the books categorized as World War II juvenile/young adult air adventure and propaganda fiction genre.       

Recently, while visiting Dayton’s Dollar Book Swap  I happened upon a book that appeared to be in the same genre.  Unlike those books I found in dad’s basement, *Flight to Victory by Richard Hough was written in 1970 (my copy was reprinted in 1985) about a WWI flyer.  Below I will offer a brief introduction to this book and encourage you to pick up your favorite aviation book. 

Flight to Victory is a bit of play on the multiple meanings of words.  Flight, in this instance, with a picture of a Sopwith Camel biplane in the background and a uniformed young man in foreground, suggests the act of flying.  Yet flight has another meaning – to flee.  By chapter four we find the main character Will Thomson leaving his classmates, family and hometown, fleeing his perceived disgrace, to join the Royal Flying Corps – it is 1916.

Of course, through much hardship Will earns his wings.  He participates in close formation flying (new to aviation at the time), encounters close air combat and returns “to victory.”

To learn more about Will’s adventures, his love interest Vicky (of course there is a love interest), and his coming-of-age story you can search out this book at your local library or bookseller.  

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See more about Richard Hought at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Hough

*Footnote: Originally published in 1970 under the title B Flight, the World War I aviation novel follows a 16-year-old named Will who leaves his youth behind to join the Royal Flying Corps. The book was later updated, revised, and re-released as Flight to Victory in 1985.  The "B Flight" book is shown on the Wikipedia page under his "Bruce Carter" nom de plume in a series of books for youth. 

Notes on "Reader's Recommendation": These blog posts are meant to be personal reports of 300 words or less, by readers on books of aviation interest and not associated with commercial promotions.

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