Flying with Walter J. Boyne

Welcome to Walt’s web hangar

For all who love flying, aviation history
and good books, this is the place to land.

My latest book "Hypersonic Thunder" is now available at Amazon and book stores. Here is what is being said about it:

From Publishers Weekly:

Boyne, former director of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, delivers the final installment in his historical aerospace trilogy, after Roaring Thunder and Supersonic Thunder. Spanning from 1973 to 2007, the novel follows three generations of the fictional Shannon family, powerful players in the aerospace industry. Patriarch Vance, a WWI fighter pilot, established Aerospace Consultants, later run by his twin sons, Tom and Harry. Bob Rodriguez, ace pilot from the Korean War and "electronics genius," runs the research and development arm. Conflicts quickly arise in the Shannons' personal and professional lives: Tom's wife, Nancy, takes the company's reins during his six years as a Hanoi POW; Harry is distracted from the business in caring for his alcoholic wife, Anna; and Bob faces divorce when his wife, Mae, grows tired of his workaholic habits. An even more colorful drama plays out in the background, with astonishing technological advances like GPS and space shuttles, and the machinations of real-life titans like Howard Hughes and Steve Fossett. Boyne's well-paced saga, with its technical slant, will surely appeal to aviation buffs. (Apr.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/?docId=1000027801

Boyne wraps up his three-part history of the jet age and of the fictional Shannon family with a novel that spans three decades and chronicles the development of the F-16, Skylab, the space shuttle, and the International Space Station. Like James Michener's somewhat similar Space, the Thunder novels (the first two were Roaring Thunder and Supersonic Thunder, both 2006) are a mixture of technology and character, blending real and fictional people into a fact-based landscape. Boyne explores not just the aircraft and spacecraft themselves but also their impacts on the world, military and civilian. The writing is workmanlike-Boyne will never be accused of being a stylist-but the characters are meaty, and the events of the story are fascinating and often spectacular. Boyne also nicely captures the excitement and frequent tragedy of cutting-edge aeronautical innovation. The novel should appeal to a wide spectrum of readers, from technophiles to aviation-industry insiders to those who like to wander out to the airport just so they can watch planes take off and land.

Thanks so much!

With all best wishes,

Walt

Check here often for the latest news.

Command Pilot's wings.

These are the coveted command wings, meaning that the pilot had 3,000 hours flying time, fifteen years experience and a ”green” instrument card. It not easy to accumulate 3000 hours in fifteen years, unless you were on a SAC crew, and even then, it was not assured. So if you really wanted it, it meant checking out in base-flight aircraft and flying one or two weekends a month. The men liked it, the wives hated it, but it had to be done!

Explore the service's heritage by following this link to the

U.S.Air Force Museum’s intriguing trivia quiz, updated daily.

Welcome to Walt’s web hangar

For all who love flying, aviation history and good books, this is the place to land.

My latest book "Hypersonic Thunder" is now available at Amazon and book stores. Here is what is being said about it:

From Publishers Weekly:

Contact me at wboyne@verizon.net

For all who love flying, aviation history
and good books, this is the place to land.