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Hunting Warbirds: The Obsessive Quest for the Lost Aircraft of World War II Posters
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 940
EAN: 9780345436184
ISBN: 0345436180
Label: Ballantine Books
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 256
Publication Date: March 26, 2002
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Release Date: March 26, 2002
Sales Rank: 1021983
Studio: Ballantine Books
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
“Winged treasure” they call them–the lost remains of the great American fighter planes and bombers that won World War II. These warbirds are now worth literally anything–fortunes, families, even lives–to the people who search for them. . . .
The crash of the Kee Bird B-29 Superfortress made banner headlines in 1947 when a team of Air Force pilots pulled off the near-miraculous feat of locating the wreck in Greenland and snatching its stranded crew from the teeth of the arctic winter. For nearly half a century, the almost perfectly intact warbird lay abandoned on a lake of ice–but not forgotten. Fifty years later, with collectors paying upward of a million dollars for salvageable World War II planes, two intense fanatics, legendary test pilot Darryl Greenamyer and starry-eyed salvage wizard Gary Larkins, hatched the extraordinary idea of launching an expedition to Greenland to restore the Kee Bird, bring it back to life, and fly it out.
In this riveting adventure of man, machine, and history, Hoffman literally crisscrosses the country to track down the key players in the high-stakes warbird game. He meets a retired Midwestern carpenter who crammed every inch of his yard with now-precious warbirds during the lean years when they were considered junk; attends an air show where crowds go wild at the sight of four of the fourteen air-worthy B-17s flying in formation; speaks to pilots and mechanics, millionaire businessmen and penniless kids–all of them ready to drop everything in pursuit of these fabled planes.
In this superbly crafted narrative, Hoffman turns the warbird craze into the stuff of high drama and awesome adventure. Hunting Warbirds takes us to the heart of one of the most fascinating obsessions of our time.
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
"Hunting Warbirds" paints the picture of a world few of us have traveled. I'm not talking about the deserted, frozen shores of Greenland, but the inner sanctum of the realm of warbird salvage. Living here are wealthy collectors, skilled restorers and daring pilots, each with a unique perspective and inner driving force. It's a small world that those of who attend airshows and read "Air Classics" don't often get to see in detail. Hoffman walked in their ranks and absorbed enough of their passion to ... Read More
Rating:  -
Piston-engined aircraft of WWII are among the most fascinating and important artifacts of the 20th century, part of some of the most intriguing history of war and humanity that affected millions directly and indirectly. It is not surprising that they evoke passion and obsession.
This book attempts to describe the passion and obsession, but its disjointed, episodic and disintegrated form works against it and the technical errors are annoying. Reviewer Collins (see his review) correctly identifies ... Read More
Rating: -
I think this book was terriffic. Of course there are going to be some mistakes in the technical areas of the planes...the author never claimes to be an expert of every part of every plane that is covered...get over it. The book lets everyone have a small taste of a hobby (or addiction) that isn't available to eveyr person. I'd love to own a ME109, but can't. I like to read about the salvage and saving of these wonderful machines, and I think this book does a marvelous job of doing that. If you are ... Read More
Rating:  -
I thought this a great book. It seems that a new generation of writers that often publish in the outdoors magazines like Backpacker or Outside are discovering the WW II eccentrics who are well known to us, their sons and nephews, as being the aviators and mechanics of the past who won the air war over Japan and Germany. As a helicopter pilot in the Vietnam War, these men were our former mentors and role models. We went where we were sent and didn't question the duty or the reality of it all. Later, after ... Read More
Rating: -
My immediate enthusiasm for this story waned pretty quickly, under the influence of Hoffman's many errors of fact, so disappointing from one with his aviation credentials. Such obvious and simple errors, which should have yielded to even the most superficial research (You're standing there in front of the engine�Just count the cylinders, fer Chrissakes!), cast a nagging doubt over everything else he has to say. And why the hokey cloak-&-dagger act concerning the obsessive collector "somewhere in the midwest"? ... Read More
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