Further Details

Title: The Turtle and the Dreamboat
Condition: New
Description: The ‘Turtle’ and the ‘Dreamboat’  is the first detailed account of the race for long-distance flight records between the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy less than fourteen months after World War II. The flights were risky and unprecedented. Each service intended to demonstrate its offensive capabilities during the dawning nuclear age, a time when America was realigning its military structure and preparing to create a new armed service—the United States Air Force.

The first week of October 1946 saw the conclusion of both record-breaking, nonstop flights by the military fliers. The first aircraft, a two-engine U.S. Navy P2V Neptune patrol plane nicknamed the Truculent Turtle, flew more than eleven thousand miles from Perth, Western Australia, to Columbus, Ohio. The Turtle carried four war-honed pilots and a young kangaroo as a passenger. The second plane, a four-engine U.S. Army B-29 Superfortress bomber dubbed the Pacusan Dreamboat, flew nearly ten thousand miles from Honolulu to Cairo via the Arctic. Although presented as a friendly rivalry, the two flights were anything but collegial. These military missions were meant to capture public opinion and establish aviation leadership within the coming Department of Defense.

Both audacious flights above oceans, deserts, mountains, and icecaps helped to shape the future of worldwide commercial aviation, greatly reducing the length and costs of international routes. Jim Leeke provides an account of the remarkable and record-breaking flights that forever changed aviation.

Author: Jim Leeke
Country/Region of Manufacture: US
EAN: 9781640124134
Format: Hardback
Genre: Law & Politics
ISBN: 9781640124134
ISBN-10: 1640124136
Item Height: 225mm
Item Length: 152mm
Language: English
Publisher: Potomac Books Inc
Release Date: 01/06/2022
Subtitle: The Cold War Flights That Forever Changed the Course of Global Aviation
Type: Hardback
Topic: History, Military History
Release Year: 2022

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