Event Info:
Chatham County, GA – The National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force’s monthly Author Talk series is proud to present author Donald Pattillo, who will be discussing his book The General Aviation Industry in America – A History. This program will take place on November 12th at 11:00 am at the museum.
The program is free to the public, but please register at https://forms.gle/cybVDYYZBA9xDoSo6
Optional Lunch: Join us for an optional lunch afterwards. $10/12 cash/credit for members or $15/17cash/credit for non-members.
Event Details:
About the Book
The industry known as “general aviation”–encompassing all flying outside of the military and commercial airlines–dates from the early days of powered flight. As technology advanced, making possible smaller aircraft that could be owned and operated by civilians, manufacturers emerged to a serve a growing market.
Increasingly this meant business flying, as companies used aircraft in a variety of roles. The industry struggled during the Great Depression but development continued; small aircraft manufacturers became vital to the massive military production effort during World War II.
After the war, rapid technological advancement and a robust, prosperous middle class were expected to result in a democratized civil aviation industry. For many reasons this was never realized, even as general aviation roles and aircraft capabilities expanded. Despite its many reverses and struggles, entrepreneurship has remained the driving factor of the industry.
About the Author
Donald Pattillo has been a historian of the American aircraft industry for more than twenty-five years. He served in the United States Air Force in the 1960s. He holds a PhD. in business from Georgia State University, and taught finance and international business in a twenty-year academic career. In the 1990s he turned to his first love, aviation, and researched and published two histories of the American aircraft industry, Pushing the Envelope, published by the University of Michigan Press, and A History in the Making, 80 Turbulent Years in the American General Aviation Industry, published by the McGraw-Hill Book Company. Later, he published articles on the history of the aircraft industry and of commercial airlines in the Scribner’s Dictionary of American History, 2003. In 2015 he published The Nonexistent Threat, an extensively researched account of the Cold War Soviet nuclear bombing threat to North America, in the AAHS Journal. A revised and updated Second Edition of the general aviation industry, entitled The General Aviation Industry in America, was published by McFarland and Company, 2020.
About the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force:
The Museum educates visitors about the character, courage, valor, and patriotism of the brave individuals who fought in the Eighth Air Force, the largest air armada in history. The Museum uses films, exhibits, artifacts, and archival materials to tell the stories of individuals who served in the Eighth Air Force. Their sacrifices made victory in World War II possible.
Museum highlights include a fully restored B-17 “Flying Fortress” and the multimedia “Mission Experience,” an immersive simulated bombing mission in a special theater utilizing actual combat footage.
