http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/1871961314

Enduring courage : ace pilot Eddie Rickenbacker and the dawn of the Age of Speed

At the turn of the twentieth century two new technologies the car and airplane took America's imagination by storm. The brave souls who leaped into these dangerous contraptions and pushed them to unexplored extremes became new American heroes: the race car driver and the flying ace. No individual did more to create and intensify these raw new roles than the tall, gangly Eddie Rickenbacker. He and his high-spirited pilot comrades created a new kind of warfare as they pushed their machines to the edge of destruction in World War I. No simple daredevil, Rickenbacker was an innovator on the racetrack, a skilled aerial dualist and squadron commander, and founder of Eastern Air Lines. Decades after his heroics against the Red Baron's Flying Circus, he again showed a war-weary nation what it took to survive against nearly insurmountable odds when he and seven others endured a harrowing three-week ordeal adrift without food or water in the Pacific during World War II. With impeccable research and a gripping narrative, John F. Ross tells the unforgettable story of a man who pushed the limits of speed, endurance, and courage and emerged as an American legend.

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