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Hunting Warbirds: The Obsessive Quest for the Lost Aircraft of World War II

by: Carl Hoffman

: Hunting Warbirds: The Obsessive Quest for the Lost Aircraft of World War II
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 623.746075
EAN: 9780345436177
ISBN: 0345436172
Label: Ballantine Books
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 256
Publication Date: April 03, 2001
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Release Date: April 03, 2001
Sales Rank: 789438
Studio: Ballantine Books



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Product Description:
“Winged treasure” they call them–the lost remains of the great American fighter planes and bombers that won World War II. Hellcats and Superfortresses, Corsairs and Dauntlesses. Produced by the thousands at the height of the war, and then cast off as scrap in the decades that followed, these warbirds are now worth literally anything–fortunes, families, even lives–to the people who search for them. Like many men, writer Carl Hoffman was bitten by the warbird bug as a child. But he never imagined that he would one day witness and participate in a heroic adventure himself–the most audacious warbird rescue attempt of all time.

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 Greenaymer and starry-eyed salvage wizard Gary Larkins, hatched the insane idea of launching an expedition to Greenland to find the Kee Bird, bring it back to life, and fly it out.

In this riveting adventure of man, machine, and history, the quest for winged treasure ultimately extends far beyond the search for the Kee Bird. 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 twelve 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.

“These planes are a sickness, that’s all there is to it,” one warbird fan tells Hoffman as he lovingly polishes his vintage B-17. 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.





Customer Reviews
Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars - A Rare Inside Look at Warbird Salvage
"Hunting Warbirds" paints the picture of a world few of us have traveled. I'm not talking about the ... Read More


Rating: 2 out of 5 stars - Disintegrated, formless
Piston-engined aircraft of WWII are among the most fascinating and important artifacts of the 20th century, ... Read More


Rating: 4 out of 5 stars - Read the story...
I think this book was terriffic. Of course there are going to be some mistakes in the technical areas of the ... Read More


Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - HUNTING WARBIRDS
I thought this a great book. It seems that a new generation of writers that often publish in the outdoors magazines ... Read More


Rating: 2 out of 5 stars - A disappointing read about a fascinating subject
My immediate enthusiasm for this story waned pretty quickly, under the influence of Hoffman's many errors of fact, so ... Read More

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Copyright ©2003, Mark Carey.