Turtle and the Dreamboat
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€29.99
A01=Jim Leeke
Arctic Flight
Army Navy Rivalry
Author_Jim Leeke
Aviation
Aviation History
Category=JWCK
Category=JWCM
Category=NHW
Department of Defense
DOD
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
Flight
International Flight
Long Distance Flight
Military Airplane
Military History
Military Studies
United States Armed Services
United States Army
United States Navy
US Armed Services
US Army
US Navy
Product details
- ISBN 9781640124134
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 01 Jun 2022
- Publisher: Potomac Books Inc
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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The ‘Turtle’ and the ‘Dreamboat’ is the first detailed account of the race for long-distance flight records between the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy less than fourteen months after World War II. The flights were risky and unprecedented. Each service intended to demonstrate its offensive capabilities during the dawning nuclear age, a time when America was realigning its military structure and preparing to create a new armed service-the United States Air Force.
The first week of October 1946 saw the conclusion of both record-breaking, nonstop flights by the military fliers. The first aircraft, a two-engine U.S. Navy P2V Neptune patrol plane nicknamed the Truculent Turtle, flew more than eleven thousand miles from Perth, Western Australia, to Columbus, Ohio. The Turtle carried four war-honed pilots and a young kangaroo as a passenger. The second plane, a four-engine U.S. Army B-29 Superfortress bomber dubbed the Pacusan Dreamboat, flew nearly ten thousand miles from Honolulu to Cairo via the Arctic. Although presented as a friendly rivalry, the two flights were anything but collegial. These military missions were meant to capture public opinion and establish aviation leadership within the coming Department of Defense.
Both audacious flights above oceans, deserts, mountains, and icecaps helped to shape the future of worldwide commercial aviation, greatly reducing the length and costs of international routes. Jim Leeke provides an account of the remarkable and record-breaking flights that forever changed aviation.
The first week of October 1946 saw the conclusion of both record-breaking, nonstop flights by the military fliers. The first aircraft, a two-engine U.S. Navy P2V Neptune patrol plane nicknamed the Truculent Turtle, flew more than eleven thousand miles from Perth, Western Australia, to Columbus, Ohio. The Turtle carried four war-honed pilots and a young kangaroo as a passenger. The second plane, a four-engine U.S. Army B-29 Superfortress bomber dubbed the Pacusan Dreamboat, flew nearly ten thousand miles from Honolulu to Cairo via the Arctic. Although presented as a friendly rivalry, the two flights were anything but collegial. These military missions were meant to capture public opinion and establish aviation leadership within the coming Department of Defense.
Both audacious flights above oceans, deserts, mountains, and icecaps helped to shape the future of worldwide commercial aviation, greatly reducing the length and costs of international routes. Jim Leeke provides an account of the remarkable and record-breaking flights that forever changed aviation.
Jim Leeke is a former news journalist, a retired copywriter and creative director, and a U.S. Navy veteran. He is the author of several books, including The Best Team Over There: The Untold Story of Grover Cleveland Alexander and the Great War (Nebraska, 2021) and From the Dugouts to the Trenches: Baseball during the Great War (Nebraska, 2017).
