Alaskan Aviation History

By Robert W. Stevens

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0929427025
• ISBN13: 9780929427027
• Release Date: January 1989
• Publisher: Polynyas Pr
• Length: 2 Pages
• Weight: 4.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 12.3" x 3.0" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Great personal stories of Alaskan aviation adventurers!

This is the only book on Alaskan aviation that includes such rare stories as an entire chapter on my great-Uncle Charles LaJotte! He was somewhat infamous in his day for freighting a WWI surplus Curtis Jenny to Nome (via the sailing Schooner Fred J. Wood)and offering aeroplane rides during the summer of 1923. Bob Steven's lifework details the adventures (and misadventures) of many early aviators, both famous and mostly forgotten.

Alaskan Aviation History, 1897-1930

My father wrote this two-volume set over 15 years of painstaking research, resulting in 1095 pages with 59 chapters and 980 photographs, most never before published and lovingly restored from private collections and personal albums of the great bush pilots and long-established Alaskan families. His own love affair with Alaska began in July, 1946 as a young DC-3 copilot for Pacific Northern Airlines based in Anchorage and continued through his retirement as a senior DC-10 captain for Western Airlines in May, 1978. 32 years of commercial flying as well as crisscrossing every corner of Alaska in small planes, float-flying to nameless lakes for hunting and fishing, he came to see much of Alaska's rich aviation heritage was in danger of slipping into oblivion. Volume I traces the story from early ballooning in 1897, through 1928. Volume II covers the busy times of 1929 and 1930. This set covers civil, commercial and military aviation throughout Alaska, including Russian and Scandinavian trans-polar expeditions. Follow the day to day progress of events along with the more sensational occurrences and hundreds of other fascinating facts, meticulously researched from personal journals and newspaper archives of the time; clearly presented first-hand accounts in narrative form and fully indexed. Here is what others have said regarding this photographic treasury of, and tribute to the planes and pilots who explored and settled this last American frontier-Alaska!"I would like to congratulate you on a very thorough job and the best work of its kind I have yet to see. I am ordering from your publisher." ~K.M. Molsen-(original) Curator of Canadian National Aviation Museum."Your publication of ALASKAN AVIATION HISTORY, 1897-1930 is needed for the collections of the Library of Congress." ~McDermott-Chief, E & G Division."Bob Stevens is one of the best authorities on Alaskan aviation history." ~R.E.G. Davies, Curator of Air Transport, Aeronautics Department of SMITHSONIAN."Your two recent volumes on the early history of the Alaskan aviation industry appear to be the definitive documents to which all future research on the subject will be compared." ~Frank Norris- Historian, National Park Service, Anchorage Alaska."ALASKAN AVIATION HISTORY is a labor of love. Surely it had to be, to be so complete; beautifully done and above all, so readable." ~Lowell Thomas, Jr. in THE EXPLORERS CLUB JOURNAL (The Explorers Club in New York)."I would like to order a review copy of ALASKAN AVIATION HISTORY for a forthcoming review in Technology and Culture, our quarterly journal of the Society for the History of Technology." ~Managing Editor-Smithsonian Institution."Herewith my check for two sets of ALASKAN AVIATION HISTORY. I have just done a review of these beautiful volumes for the EXPLORERS CLUB and would like to have my own set, and a second for my pilot son." ~Lowell Thomas Jr."Those interested in bush flying will welcome ALASKAN AVIATION HISTORY, which inclu

ALASKAN AVIATION HISTORY, 1897-1930

My father wrote this 2 volume set over 15 years of painstaking research, resulting in 1095 pages with 59 chapters and 980 photographs; most never before published and lovingly restored from private collections and personal albums of the great bush pilots and long established Alaskan families. His own love affair with Alaska began in July, 1946 as a young DC-3 copilot for Pacific Northern Airlines based in Anchorage and continued through his retirement as a senior DC-10 Captain for Western Airlines in May, 1978. 32 years of commercial flying as well as crisscrossing every corner of Alaska in small planes, float flying to nameless lakes for hunting and fishing, he came to see much of Alaska's rich aviation heritage was in danger of slipping into oblivion. Volume I traces the story from ballooning in 1897, through 1928. Volume II covers the busy times of 1929 and 1930. This set covers civil, commercial and military aviation throughout Alaska, including Russian and Scandinavian trans-Polar expeditions. The day to day progress of events along with the more sensational occurrences and hundreds of other fascinating facts, meticulously researched from personal journals and newspaper archives of the time; clearly presented first-hand accounts in narrative form and fully indexed. Here is what others have said regarding this Photographic treasury of, and tribute to: the planes & pilots who explored and settled this last American frontier-Alaska! "I would like to congratulate you on a very thorough job and the best work of its kind I have yet to see. I am ordering from your publisher." ~K. M Molsen-(original) curator of Canadian National Aviation Museum. "Your publication of ALASKAN AVIATION HISTORY, 1897-1930 is needed for the collections of the Library of Congress." ~McDermott- Chief, E & G Division. "Bob Stevens is one of the best authorities on Alaskan aviation history." ~R.E.G. Davies, Curator of Air Transport, Aeronautics Department of SMITHIONIAN. "Your two recent volumes on the early history of the Alaskan aviation industry appear to be the difinitive documents to which all future research on the subject will be compared."~Frank Norris-Historian, National Park Service, Anchorage Alaska. "ALASKAN AVIATION HISTORY is a labor of love. Surely it had to be, to be so complete; beautifully done and above all, so readable." ~Lowell Thomas, Jr.-in THE EXPLORERS CLUB JOURNAL (The Explorers Club in New York) "I would like to order a review copy of ALASKAN AVIATION HISTORY for a forthcoming review in Technology and culture, our quarterly journal of the Society for the History of Technology." ~Managing Editor-Smithsonian Institution. "Herewith my check for two sets of ALASKAN AVIATION HISTORY. I have just done a review of these beautiful volumes for the EXPLORERS CLUB and would like to have my own set, and a second for my pilot son." ~Lowell Thomas, Jr. "Those interested in bush flying will welcome ALASKAN AVIATION HISTORY