The Millionaire's Unit: The Aristocratic Flyboys Who Fought the Great War and Invented America's Air Power - Hardcover

Wortman, Marc

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1405053844 ISBN 13: 9781405053846

Publisher: Macmillan, 2006

Synopsis

In 1916, just thirteen years after the Wright brothers’ first flight, a group of twenty-eight college students, nearly all of them from Yale, decided to try the new sport of motorized flight and formed a campus flying club. The boys had more than fun in mind. Believing that America would soon enter the war raging in Europe, they wanted to help their woefully unprepared nation (which at the time had an air force smaller than Bulgaria’s) ready itself for what was sure to be a hard fight. Most were just teenagers, but they were also the sons of America’s early 20th century aristocracy - one a Rockefeller, one whose father headed the Union Pacific railroad empire, others who traced their roots to the Mayflower, several who counted friends and relatives among Presidents and statesmen - and all fabulously wealthy. These sons of the elite were schooled in heroism even before their nation called upon them. America was going to go to war: they would lead the way; they knew that it could cost many lives; and that just made it all the more right that they be the first to fly into battle. This is their story.

About this title

Book Description:

The gripping and romantic story of the boys from Yale who became America's World War I flying aces

About the Author:

Marc Wortman is an award-winning freelance writer whose work has appeared in numerous magazines and he is former senior editor of the Yale Alumni Magazine in which the story of the Yale unit first appeared. He lives in New Haven, Connecticut, with his wife and daughter.

About this edition

• Publisher: Macmillan
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1405053844
• ISBN 13: 9781405053846
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 336