Stormchasers – The Hurricane Hunters & their Fateful Flight into Hurricane Janet - Hardcover

Toomey, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393020002 ISBN 13: 9780393020007

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Co., 2002

Synopsis

Fifty years after Isaac's Storm, a riveting story of the first Hurricane Hunters, and the one crew who paid the ultimate price. In September 1955, Navy Lieutenant Commander Grover B. Windham and a crew of eight flew out of Guantanamo Bay into the eye of Hurricane Janet swirling in the Caribbean: a routine weather reconnaissance mission from which they never returned. In the wake of World War II, the Air Force and the Navy had discovered a new civilian arena where daring pilots could test their courage and skill. These Hurricane Hunters flew into raging storms to gauge their strength and predict their paths. Without computer, global positioning, or satellite support, they relied on rudimentary radar systems to locate the hurricane's eye and estimated the drift of their aircraft by looking at windblown waves below. Drawing from Navy documents and interviews with members of the squadron and relatives of the crew, Stormchasers reconstructs the ill-fated mission of Windham's crew from preflight checks to the chilling moment of their final transmission. 16 pages of b/w photographs.

About this title

About the Author

David Toomey is a professor of English and director of the Professional Writing and Technical Communication Program at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. He lives in Amherst.

Edition details

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Co.
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0393020002
• ISBN 13: 9780393020007
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 314