Favorite air racing books

[planecrazy2]

I bought, read and enjoyed Racing for the Gold, the Lyle Shelton and Rare Bear bio at the races this year.

Thought I would ask posters what their favorite air racing books are?


John Tegler's Gentleman you have a race (my personal favorite)
Fly low, fly fast by Robert Gandt
Howie Keefe and Miss America’s autobiography
Don Berliner’s Unlimited Air Racers

What else is out there for us race junkies to read?

[Lockheed Bob]

Re: Favorite air racing books

"Racing Planes & Air races" by Reed Kinert. Photots & stories of race planes & pilots. It also gives results,speeds & other specifications of individual races. Many Vols. Interesting reading.I've got Vol.I thru Vol.VIII 1909-1972. It was put out by Aero Publishing, Fallbrook,CA. I don't know if he had later books.

[Paynts]

Re: Favorite air racing books

Bob your books sound rare and interesting! bet there are very very few complete collections about!

[BillRo]

Re: Favorite air racing books

The Kinert books were taken over by Dusty Carter and the last one of the series was Vol XIII 1977-78. I did a few 3-Views for the last two books.

BillRo

[W J Pearce]

Re: Favorite air racing books

"Racing Planes & Air races" by Reed Kinert. Photots & stories of race planes & pilots. It also gives results,speeds & other specifications of individual races. Many Vols. Interesting reading.I've got Vol.I thru Vol.VIII 1909-1972. It was put out by Aero Publishing, Fallbrook,CA. I don't know if he had later books.

They actually go to 1978. Vol XII in 1976 was The last one that Reed Kinert did. He passed away a short time later. Dusty Carter came out with Vol XIII which covered 1977-1978. I don't think there were any more after that.

Look at that. While I was busy typing BillRo beat me to it!

[split-s]

Re: Favorite air racing books

I can personally recommend these:

Gandt's book is great. (C'mon, who was the chick-pilot who got lost trying to qualify in a Sea Fury?)

A 1986 book entitled simply, "Reno 2" (Mike Jerram, Osprey) is chiefly a photo essay on the 1985 season with some focus on Steve H. winning Unlimited gold in the Super Corsair. Rick Brickert was still alive at that writing. Lots of great pics of some very familiar faces and airframes.
***Amazon has 14 copies available used from $1.57!!***

"Air Racing Today: Heavy Iron at Reno" (Philip Handleman, Zenith Press, 2001) is a little more pedestrian but has a lot of good photography. Lots of copies available, new and used at Amazon, for reasonable prices.

Thanks to those posting above for their recommendations, can use.

$

[jarrodeu]

Re: Favorite air racing books

Definitely the Dusty Carter, Reed Kinert annuals. Lots of nice B&W pictures of all the unlimited planes, plus pictured of the other racing classes. What's really cool is the pictures in the early days of air racing.
They are my favorite air racing books, I have all of them.

Jarrod

[Shawn Aro]

Re: Favorite air racing books

A Genteman named Tim Wiensheinker if i spelled him name correctly bought the last book from Dusty widow and he was looking for a pub i got to see parts of it when he bought my dad and bro had a lot of pic in there. Shawn

[steve D]

Re: Favorite air racing books

"Wet wings and drop tanks" by Birtch Mathews

"Mustang, the racing thoroughbred" by Carter & Mathews

"Air racing today, heavy iron at reno by Phil Handleman

"Round engine racers, Bearcats and Corsairs" by Veronico & Grantham

"Reno air racing" by Michael O' Leary

"Full throttle" by Gerhard Schmid

Plus a couple of the ones mentioned above.

[stuntflyr]

Re: Favorite air racing books

Birch Matthews' books "Mustang, a Racing Thoroughbred", "Race with the Wind", "Cobra" and "Wet Wings and Drop Tanks" are all my favorites. The Reed Kinert books are great too.

[3dWrightBrother]

Re: Favorite air racing books

Galloping On Wings With the P-51 Mustang by Howie Keefe

RENO Air Racing Unlimited by Nigel Moll (Osprey,1983)

Have an excellent book on the Cleveland Air Races but the title escapes me at the moment so I'll have to find it, will post title later
Russ

[kiwiracefan]

Re: Favorite air racing books

I have
Air Racing today - The heavy Iron at Reno by Philip Handleman

Speedsters - Today's Air Racers in Action by Philip Handlemn

Both of those are pretty pictorial, but still feature some great pics

Speedsters even covers the Chopper race at Phoenix in 95, and the T-28s in Phoenix.

Both have some great pics of racers like Critical Mass, Risky Business, White Lightning and Precious metal..
Though having said that, they keep referring to Tom Camp's yak race 00 papa smurf/maniyak as Mr Awful..

The other racing book i do have is the Raceplane Tech book, Griffon Mustangs... Featuring the RB-51, World Jet/Precious Metal & Miss Ashley II...

[Jan]

Re: Favorite air racing books

I like to read all those books, who are written by the people who were involved, like "Galloping on wings". Not to forget Bob Hoover's book "Forever Flying".

In terms of newer books with lots of pictures "Full throttle" ist great.
See: http://full-throttle-book.com
I think it's useful to make yet uninfected people interested in what happens in Reno. And it shows nice memories for us who were there, when the pics were taken.

Tegler's "Gentleman..." is a must and I am/was one of the many who wait(ed) for the continuation/sequel. As far as I was told there was material collected for that at least until the year 1999 or 2000. Would be a shame if that stays in a locker somewhere forever...

[mustang5151]

Re: Favorite air racing books

One good book I don't see mentioned yet is, "SUPERSHOW - The best in Air Racing and Display" by various authors and published by Osprey Aerospace ISBN 0-85045-982-6. Also if one were to go to www.abebooks.com, and type Air Racing into the search engine, you'll find a whole whack of books, mags, etc, about it. Cheers!!

[bruce lockwood]

Re: Favorite air racing books

A couple more obscure titles to add..

*The Golden Age of Air Racing Pre 1940: EAA
by Schmid and Weaver

*September Champions: Robert Hull

*The Great Air Races: Don Vorderman

*The Skyracers (Speed Kings Of the Golden Age): Joseph Hood

*They Flew The Bendix; Martin Caidin

*Sporting Aviation Handbook: by the NATIONAL AERONAUTICS ASSOCIATION CONTEST BOARD 1936

*Technical Aspects of the Schneider Trophy and World Record for Seaplanes: Dr. Ermanno Bazzocchi Director Aermacchi

*The Schneider Trophy Contest (NACA TECNICHAIL MEMORANDUM #712)
By Alfred Richard Weyl 1933 edition.

The last 3, if you can find them, give some very interesting technical information with drag coefficients, stability thrust/HP speeds etc etc.

Happy reading, Bruce