Rickenbacker. by Rickenbacker, Edward V - 1968

London: Hutchinson & Co. Ltd., (1968). Octavo, grey cloth (hardcover), gilt letters, 316 pp. Very Good+, with neat former-owner bookplate; in a Very Good+, b&w photo. illus. dust jacket. From dust jacket: Edward V. Rickenbacker is one of the most famous American heroes of this century. Though best known for his exploits in the air, and as “Ace of Aces” in World War I, he was one of the earliest racing-car drivers on the national circuit. He competed against all the greats of that sport’s infancy and eventually owned and managed the Indianapolis Speedway for twenty years. His enthusiasm for speed, for mechanical perfection, and for victory became focused on aviation. Sent to France with General Pershing’s American Expeditionary Forces in the First World War, he worked his way into the Air Service, became commanding officer of the 94th Aero Pursuit Squadron, with twenty-six enemy aircraft and nineteen decorations for bravery in action to his credit, and was universally known as “Captain Eddie.” After the war, he returned to the motor business, built his own company and his own car, and finally joined General Motors where, in a great financial battle, he was able to make a successful bid for Eastern Air Lines, of which he became President. Seriously injured in an air crash in 1941, from which he miraculously recovered, he was asked to undertake a series of missions soon after America entered the Second World War. It was on one of these missions, in 1942, that the plane in which he was travelling crashed in the Pacific. He and his crew spent an incredible twenty-four days and nights floating in rubber rafts before being rescued. Now in his seventies, his name is still honoured in America. From the first turbulent days which marked the birth of the motor car and airplane, through two world wars and into the Space and Jet Age, Eddie Rickenbacker writes about the early days of motor racing and flying, of the first airmail flights, the depression years in America, and of the development and growth of the American airline industry...