In writing my recent book, Stalking the Sky,
I wanted to give readers a sense of aviation history after the
invention of the airplane that had led up to an era of giant airlines
flying giant planes.
Here's an excerpt:
There was no denying
that Ben Buck was larger than life in many ways. Well over six feet tall
by age fourteen, he had lied about his age to join the Flying Service
in 1917, the same day he had seen his first biplane chug suddenly out
from behind a hill and across the sky. He had chased it all the way to
town. During the war, swooping and wheeling like the cavalry he
replaced, he had gunned down his share of Fokkers and had had his share
of fighter planes shot out from under him. He had barnstormed in the
twenties—like so many who could not rid themselves of the addiction to
air and skill and the flirtation with death—and then had flown mail to
South America. On the spindly backs of those mail routes, Ben Buck had
built an airline, leaving it only to fight a second war, when he had
helped put a worldwide military air transport network together almost
from scratch. After that he was "the General" to most of his employees,
"Big Ben" to those who had known him longer, "Buckie" to a few
old-timers still captaining Global Universal’s flights around the world,
and the "Old Man" to all.
Until the early seventies, he could do no
wrong. Global Universal grew to become America’s premier air carrier.
But in recent years higher fuel and operating costs and lower ticket
sales had hurt all of the airlines' revenues. Global Universal had been
hard hit. Only last week Financial World had asked in its cover story,
"Has Big Ben Finally Struck Out at Global Universal?" . . .
In the midst of Will’s musing, Ben Buck suddenly spun around.
"Took you long enough."
It
was always a mistake, Will reminded himself for the dozenth time, to
consider Ben Buck in terms of the past. Buck lived in the most immediate
present.
Read more: Stalking the Sky
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