Eugene Ely: Pioneer of Naval Aviation - Hardcover

by John H. Zobel (Author), Laverne Woods (Editor), Bob Coolbaugh (Foreword by)

The story of Eugene Ely's life is the stuff of myth and legend. Much of what has been written about him relies on sensationalized newspaper accounts from an era when early twentieth century reporters unabashedly fabricated stories to increase newspaper circulation. Those accounts portray Ely as a reckless daredevil and are essentially historical fiction. Eugene Ely: Pioneer of Navigation cuts through the sensationalism by relying on primary sources and photographic records and triangulating multiple sources to arrive at an honest portrait of the man and his legacy. The result is the story of a quiet, self-effacing Iowan who did extraordinary things. Ely's measured approach and calculated demonstrations of the potential of military aviation ultimately pointed the way to today's modern aircraft carriers, over a century later.

Author Biography

John Hiller Zobel was an author, recovering attorney, and accomplished athlete. John practiced law for twenty years in Seattle before becoming a full-time writer and parent in 2007. His first book, A Slight Change of Plans, published in 1998, was a P.G. Wodehouse-style romantic comedy. He earned a B.A. in English from Harvard College in 1981 and received his law degree from Stanford Law School in 1985. He died unexpectedly on the summit of Aconcagua in Argentina in January 2017