When Arlington National Cemetery refused to accept my grandmother’s last request to be laid to rest there, I refused to let her legacy as a veteran die along with her.
My grandmother, Elaine Danforth Harmon, flew as a pilot with the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) of World War II. Despite being part of the first group of women to fly for the United States Army, the WASP remained officially unrecognized as members of the military due to discriminatory thinking about gender on Capitol Hill and beyond. Women flying planes? Too progressive for the World War II era.
When I was young, I thought of my grandmother’s trips to accept awards, or to visit the White House, or to give lectures about her time in the service, as her hobby. I knew what she had done and I knew that in the 1970s they had lobbied Congress to get the veterans’ status they had been denied during the war. From that point on, my grandmother shared her story of service with the WASP during World War II with anyone who would listen.
But it was not until after she died that I fully understood why she had spent so many years talking about her service with the WASP. My grandmother’s last request was to be laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery. Our family was surprised when the United States Army, which managed the cemetery, denied that the WASP, and therefore my grandmother, were eligible for placement in the cemetery.
The Army said ‘no’ to the wrong family.
I led our family’s campaign on behalf of my grandmother, and all the women of the WASP, across social media, traditional news outlets, and to Capitol Hill to fight for their equal recognition at one of the nation’s most well-known cemeteries. My grandmother’s final fight came after her final flight – but I was honored to follow in her footsteps to ensure her legacy would not be forgotten.
Filling a void in major works about rare and exotic flight test aircraft, this book is the definitive work on the converted bombers and transports that served as the critically important launch vehicles to the headline-grabbing X-Planes. Covered are scores of aircraft of all types converted for use as “flying laboratories” to test engines, wings, cockpits, and aerodynamic devices all in the name of aviation progress. Also included are the “parasite” aircraft carried aloft to be launched and recovered by their motherships.
With 204 pages and 12 detailed chapters in this book, it thoroughly covers every aspect of mothership, testbed, and parasite aircraft. Also featured are detailed appendices containing extensive reference material for modelers, historians, and enthusiasts, including a complete listing of known engine testbeds; a complete listing of known airframe mods and systems-test aircraft; and all combinations of U.S. and foreign motherships and parasite-carrying aircraft.
Aviation history is filled with legendary aircraft, but in many cases, the design and development of these brilliant machines were dependent on significant inflight testing of new engines, advanced airframe structures, and the latest in flight control and flight-related systems. The availability of already-flying airframes that could be modified easily for specific airborne test work saved years of engineering time, not to mention the lives of countless test pilots who did not have to face airborne risks of the unknown.
Abandoned cars on America’s most iconic abandoned road. Sounds like a great idea for a road trip.
For a nation that loves the idea of the road, there is no more legendary ribbon of highway than the 2,451 miles comprising historic Route 66. Along the Mother Road lies the detritus of the automotive age: motels, roadside attractions, diners, service stations, drive-ins, and dives. Hidden in, around, and behind its buildings or abandoned along its roadside hide collector cars, lost trucks, and moldering motorcycles. How could there be a better destination for automotive archaeologist Tom Cotter?
In Route 66 Barn Find Road Trip Cotter and his BBF (best barn finder) pal Brian Barr jump on Route 66, just outside Chicago, seeking rusted gold in every state Route 66 passes through. Along the way, ace lensman Michael Alan Ross documents their finds, mishaps, and various adventures. Starting in the Midwest and barreling through Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico, the barn-find bunch continues on to Arizona before completing their quest in Santa Monica, California. You’ll never guess what automotive treasure they see peeking out from corroded garages and behind weary buildings along the way. You can bet every awesome barn find was investigated and recorded in Route 66 Barn Find Road Trip.
Whether you’ve only dreamed of retracing US 66 or are familiar with its path but never considered car hunting there, Route 66 Barn Find Road Trip will take you on the trip of a lifetime. Hop in; you can ride shotgun.
Route 66 The Mother Road
The incredible, little-known story of the first successful Black woman in the sport of auto racing in the United States.
Early in her career, Cheryl Glass looked like a lock to become the first Black woman to compete in the Indianapolis 500. From racing quarter midget cars at ten years old to Indy Lights in her twenties, Cheryl was on her way towards a winning career in auto racing.
In The First Lady of Dirt: The Triumphs and Tragedy of Racing Pioneer Cheryl Glass, Bill Poehler tells Cheryl’s full story for the first time. He recounts how Cheryl rapidly became the first successful Black woman in the sport, yet frequently encountered racist and sexist taunts from other drivers and fans throughout her career. While appearing to have it all—talent, ambition, looks—she faced many challenges on and off the track and her life soon spun out of control.
Featuring exclusive interviews with Cheryl’s mother, friends, and competitors, The First Lady of Dirt takes you behind the scenes and in the driver’s seat of Cheryl’s life. Poehler, an amateur racer himself, places the reader at the track, smelling the dirt and fumes, hearing the roaring engines and crashing metal, and feeling Cheryl’s joy and pain. It’s the inspiring story of a racing pioneer and a tragic tale of the pressures that are often hidden from public view until it’s too late.
A fearless pioneer and a versatile and gifted driver, Paula Murphy was the first woman to pilot a jet car to a Bonneville Salt Flats speed record, the first woman to make laps at famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and the first woman to secure an NHRA Funny Car license. Throw in driving a Pontiac Sunbird literally around the world, nearly dying at the helm of a rocket car, and scoring closed-course speed records at NASCAR’s famed Talladega Superspeedway behind the wheel of cars driven by both Richard Petty and Fred Lorenzen, and you might be starting to scratch the surface of her incredible life.
Author Erik Arneson worked directly with Murphy and some of the biggest names in motor sports to dive deep into her story and relay to the world the impact this single mother from Ohio had on the world of racing. If you find the list of feats above impressive, add the Baja 1000, Mobil Economy Runs, Monaco, Union/Pure Oil Performance Trials, as well as high-speed stunts on horses, sailboats and a snowmobile and you’re starting to get close. Jump in—The Fastest Woman on Wheels is one hell of a ride.
From racing the family Oldsmobile in 1960 to winning the Winternationals in 1964, read about the meteoric rise of drag racing’s greatest owner and tuner in the first-ever book about “The Hawaiian” Roland Leong.
As the son of a Harvard graduate, it could have been difficult for Roland Leong to live up to his family’s expectations. However, that wasn’t the case. “The Hawaiian” knew at a young age that drag racing was his career path. His supportive mother, Teddy, saw potential in Roland and bought him a new 1962 Corvette for “educational” purposes, such as wrenching and tuning. From there, it didn’t take long for the world to discover Oahu’s best-kept secret in drag racing.
In 1964, less than two years after reaching the mainland, Roland was in victory lane at the Winternationals in Top Gas Eliminator. The following year, with Don Prudhomme behind the wheel, “The Hawaiian” immortalized his place in drag racing forever with wins in NHRA’s Top Fuel Eliminator at Pomona (Winternationals) and Indy (US Nationals). Leong became the first ever to capture those iconic crowns in a single season. For good measure, Roland repeated the achievement in 1966 with Mike Snively, showing the world that a Harvard education isn’t required to achieve greatness.
“The Hawaiian” Roland Leong: Drag Racing’s Iconic Owner & Tuner is a tale of family, friends, and forging a path that no other Chinese-Hawaiian before him had carved. Re-live his biggest wins and lasting friendships in this first-ever publication on drag racing’s first builder and tuner superstar, Roland Leong!
How five daring women defied all odds and made aviation history
Between the world wars, no sport was more popular, or more dangerous, than airplane racing. While male pilots were lauded as heroes, the few women who dared to fly were more often ridiculed—until a cadre of women pilots banded together to break through the entrenched prejudice.
Fly Girls weaves together the stories of five remarkable women: Florence Klingensmith, a high school dropout from Fargo, North Dakota; Ruth Elder, an Alabama divorcée; Amelia Earhart, the most famous, but not necessarily the most skilled; Ruth Nichols, who chafed at her blue blood family’s expectations; and Louise Thaden, the young mother of two who got her start selling coal in Wichita. Together, they fought for the chance to fly and race airplanes—and in 1936, one of them would triumph, beating the men in the toughest air race of them all.
From the stark beauty of the Mojave Desert to the haunted Santa Monica Pier, California’s Route 66 is the guideline for a truly spirited road trip. The road is lined with ghost towns such as Ludlow, a town that lived and died twice, and Goffs, now a dusty museum where the shades of the past walk the streets. In Barstow, a hundred-year-old rail station hosts long-dead passengers still waiting for their trains, and in Monrovia, the Aztec Hotel entertains spirits from a bygone era, as does the Pasadena Playhouse, the official state theater of California. Join author and paranormal historian Brian Clune as he explores the haunted history of the mother road.
This wonderfully illustrated, up-to-date guide to the natural, cultural, and historical gems hidden just off the legendary Route 66 outlines 30 trips for curious travelers.
Route 66 is arguably the
world’s most famous highway (more than 60% of Route 66 adventurers are from overseas!)—its motels, diners, and roadside attractions comprising a time capsule of America’s love affair with the automobile. While many of the road’s
iconic attractions have disappeared with time (along with large stretches of the road itself), others are as enduring as ever.
In this completely revised and updated version of The Backroads of Route 66, author and Route 66 expert Jim Hinckley is your guide from the lowlands of the American Plains to the high plateaus of New Mexico and Arizona, from the Great Lakes to the mighty Pacific Ocean, and through major metropolises and remote country towns.
But rather than take the road oft traveled and the sites most photographed, Hinckley encourages you to branch off the Mother Road and discover the hidden gems beyond today’s familiar motels and tourist traps—quaint frontier communities that date to westward expansion; the legacy of native cultures; and the awe-inspiring natural wonders that have graced these lands since time immemorial. There to be explored within a few hours’ drive from the path of Route 66, discover:
- Outdoor attractions
- Museums
- Historic sites
- And much more
The thirty trips in The Backroads of Route 66 offer new travel opportunities for you and the thousands of road-trippers who follow this legendary route, looking for something more.
Celebrating fifty seasons of the most spectacular motorsport, the World Rally Championship marries state-of-the-art technology with endurance and speed in a battle against both the clock and the elements of nature. Rallying is the mother of all motorsport. Mastering a car on gravel, snow and asphalt, in extreme heat, ice, rain, fog and darkness is the supreme discipline on four wheels. The World Rally Championship, which has been held since 1973, has entered its 50th season. Time to look back at these automotive and human legends from Alpine to Integrale, from Colin McRae to Sébastien Loeb, from the wild Group B cars to the technically fascinating Rally1 racers with hybrid drive. It’s all here in this book.
With hundreds of photos from the McKlein archive, of which many are unique to this book, it encapsulates the highs and lows of a half a century’s fight for the WRC crown: the technical development, the dramas, the heroic sagas and the curiosities. It’s an encyclopaedia of an era of enthusiastic drifting, through to the battle for tenths of a second with the fastest cars of all time travelling on a mixture of gravel roads. A book of stories and pictures about the most spectacular motorsport in the world.
Blast down the quarter mile in the first two generations of Ford’s legendary pony car across all drag racing classes in Quarter-Mile Mustangs!
Since first becoming a mass-market success in mid-1964, the Ford Mustang has made millions of passes down the quarter mile on sanctioned drag strips. With styling flared toward the youth, aftermarket parts manufacturers saw an enormous opportunity to produce go-fast components to aid in propelling Ford’s pony car down the 1320. The success of these cars was immediate.
In the hands of successful and seasoned pros, such as Gas Ronda, Bill Lawton, and Dick Brannan, Ford unleashed the devastatingly potent 1965 A/FX Mustang fastback, which was built by Blue Oval stalwarts Holman & Moody with the 427 SOHC (Cammer) engine that unleashed havoc on mother Mopar.
From those very first factory drag cars through the fabled 1968-1/2 Cobra Jets, drag racing historian Doug Boyce highlights the many successes of pioneers, such as “Dyno” Don Nicholson, Les Ritchey, Phil Bonner, Hubert Platt, and Al Joniec. However, it’s not just all doorslammers. As A/FX transitioned into Funny Car, a whole new chapter in Mustang drag racing was written with Mickey Thompson taking the reins and steering Mustangs to success throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s.
The muscle car-era Mustangs joined the Mustang II and soldiered on the best they could as ever-changing rules hampered Ford’s new pony body, with drivers Bob Glidden and Nicholson trying to squeeze every bit of performance out of the diminutive pony.
Quarter-Mile Mustangs: The History of Ford’s Pony Car at the Drag Strip 1964-1/2-1978 brings forth the most in-depth coverage of these cars at the drag strip. Don’t get caught sleeping at the light!
SAVAGE ANGEL author, Ted Woerner, was an 11-year old Swede Savage “super fan” sitting in the turn 4 grandstand at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 12, 1973. He watched and cheered as his hero broke the track record in time trials for the Indianapolis 500.
When race day finally came around more than two weeks later, he was sitting in his 6th grade classroom on a Wednesday afternoon in suburban Chicago. He listened to the rain-delayed race through a wired earplug connected to a transistor radio that he had brought to school that day. His excitement when Swede took the lead of the race turned to shock as he heard the news over the live radio broadcast that his hero had just been involved in a horrific crash only an hour into the race. He struggled to hide his emotions from his teacher. Swede Savage would die from complications from his injuries thirty-three days later.
“Soon after Swede’s death, I read that his wife was at the race, that she was pregnant, and that she witnessed his crash from the grandstand behind the pits,” recalls Ted. “I became immediately concerned about the well being of Swede’s wife and new baby, who by the time I read this book had already been born. I just couldn’t imagine how a child could enter the world under such circumstances.”
Through an improbable turn of events, Ted would finally meet Swede’s posthumous child, Angela Savage, as a grown adult over forty years later. A sacred friendship was formed between them, forged in the crucible of the same fiery tragedy. Now, several years after they first began the arduous and painful task of chronicling Swede’s life story and Angela’s complex and tumultuous life that followed, their book, SAVAGE ANGEL, is complete.
The book is a long overdue biography of Swede Savage. We finally get to know the man behind the windscreen as he pursued his childhood dream to win the Indianapolis 500. But the story doesn’t end with his death. It goes on to describe what it was like to be in the immediate family of a man whose lifetime passion was the world’s most dangerous profession. We feel their raw emotions as his final days unfolded in an Indianapolis hospital’s intensive care unit and learn how they attempted to go on with their lives after suffering such an immense and unexpected loss.
Through recent medical studies, it is now known that the baby girl born to Swede’s widow, Angela Savage, likely suffered transgenerational PTSD in her mother’s womb. Sheryl Savage not only witnessed her husband’s horrific crash from the grandstand, but also endured unimaginable stress as Swede struggled for life for another month thereafter. The book goes on to explain how the complex mental health issues, addictions, alcoholism, and general instability in Angela’s life, now appear to have been genetically hard-wired into her as a result of a statistically nearly impossible confluence of rare disorders and life experiences rarely found in a single person.
After being understandably vacant from the sport of auto racing her entire life, Angela Savage decided to accept an invitation from a small group of her father’s fans to come to the Indianapolis 500 for the first time in her life, forty-one years after the death of her father there. With additional support provided by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the trip was a life-changing experience. At Indy, she was showered with unconditional love. The embrace she felt from “the racing family,” and her unimaginably brave confrontation of the place where her father’s life ended, would change her life forever.
Sam Posey raced a huge variety of sports cars, saloons and open-wheel machines in numerous racing arenas — Can-Am, USRRC, Trans-Am, IMSA, Indy, NASCAR, Formula 5000 and Formula 1 — against rivals and friends such as George Follmer, Parnelli Jones, Mark Donohue, Peter Revson, Dan Gurney, David Hobbs and Brian Redman. Sam’s Scrapbook gives a first-hand account of a romantic era in racing, through pictures no one has seen and stories no one has heard. Running alongside the images, Posey’s commentary is fascinating and thoughtful, and in turns both amusing and emotional.
- Sam’s early days: racing around his mother’s house on a farm in Connecticut against his friend John Whitman.
- The start of his career: driving at Lime Rock, his local track, under the mentorship of John Fitch; a ride as the then-youngest American at Le Mans, with a Bizzarrini in 1966.
- Can-Am: racing against John Surtees, Bruce McLaren and Jim Hall in this famous “anything goes” sports car championship with a car he and Ray Caldwell designed and built.
- Trans-Am: competing in this spectacular saloon series during its golden age, first for Roger Penske and then as a factory driver for Dodge, against George Follmer, Parnelli Jones and Swede Savage.
- Later years at Le Mans: finishing third overall in a Ferrari 512 M with the North American Racing Team (NART) team in 1971; driving the first BMW 3.0 CSL ‘Art Car’ in 1975, featuring a paint scheme by American sculptor Alexander Calder.
- Open-wheel racing: a duel with Dan Gurney in the USAC Championship, finishing fifth at Indy in 1972; two drives for John Surtees in Formula 1; battling his friend and rival David Hobbs on the track and off in Formula 5000.
- Even more variety: three years of off-road adventures in the Baja 1000; rides with the BMW factory team at Sebring and Daytona; and his late career in the IMSA championship with actor Paul Newman and Brian Redman.
This is an unusual and engaging memoir by one of America’s best-loved racing heroes and will appeal to all motorsports enthusiasts.
SIGNED
Life and Times – Disney and Beyond
Legendary Imagineer is a companion publication to DESIGN: Just for Fun,which is focused primarily on the major projects where Bob was the principal designer. It includes highlights of Bob’s childhood thru high school,which established the basic approach to his philosophy of design and to his passions for life experiences.BOB GURR: Legendary Imagineer probes deeper into his life and times.Starting with a detailed family genealogy, which was chronicled in his grandmother’s journal, compiled over a 53-year span of her life documenting the family history from 1635 thru 1953. While a few more of his projects are described, the primary tales that Bob weaves are about the passions and adventures in his life that the reader might find most interesting, quite beyond the general public knowledge of his connection with Walt Disney.These “tantalizing” tales explore his worlds of aviation, especially his fifty years of flying gliders. Automobiles and auto racing, historic auto collecting, and World travels are his passion. Photography, meteorology, and earth sciences have always been subjects of his curiosity. You’ll learn about his philosophies of living a happy and healthy life, such as mountain biking, starting at age 68when most folks just stay retired. Bob typically is active with perhaps fifty public appearances each year, enjoying the sharing of personal Walt Disney stories. BOB GURR: Legendary Imagineer is the story of a life well lived.
When you open Strange 66, take a look beyond the all-American sheen to the seedy, creepy, and just plain weird stories behind America’s Mother Road.
Route 66 conjures images of an innocent golden age of car travel: shiny V8s powering down hot, two-lane blacktop, sucking 20-cent-a-gallon gasoline, and periodically depositing their occupants at mom-n-pop greasy spoons, neon-lit motels, and tourist traps. But America’s Mother Road wasn’t all about ruddy-cheeked, summer vacationers. Route 66 and the regions it traverses have a side more seldom seen, rich with weird tales (mimetic architecture, paranormal phenomena, and even cryptozoology) to the downright sordid and seedy (murder, mistreatment, and other assorted mayhem).
In Strange 66, bestselling Route 66 authority Michael Witzel explores the flip side of Route 66 to offer details on infamous Route 66 locations that once served as hideouts for the James Gang (Meramec Caverns), Bonnie and Clyde (Baxter Springs, Kansas), and Al Capone (Cicero, Illinois).
There are the stories of unspeakable crimes committed along 66, such as the Stafflebeck “murder bordello” in Galena, Kansas, and Ariziona’s “Orphan Maker of Route 66.” Witzel also explores the people that passed through the region, including the Dust Bowl exodus and the Trail of Tears tribute in Jerome, Missouri.
Then there are the lighter, though still strange stories, such as the Route 66 Great Transcontinental Footrace and the origins of various roadside colossi, like the Blue Whale of Catoosa and Giganticus Headicus in Walapai, Arizona. And speaking of heads, what about steak? Eat one as big as your head at the Big Texan in Amarillo—and it’s free!
All of these stories culminate in a look at Route 66 unlike any other, completely illustrated with modern and archival photography and written by an acknowledged authority on the Mother Road.
Part legend, part nostalgia, part working highway, part touchstone to an America of the past, Route 66 is the only road in the United States that American and international visitors read about without leaving their homes.
Route 66: America’s Longest Small Town takes the reader on a virtual roadtrip, telling about the highway’s legends, stories, people, and businesses that are the essence of the Route 66 experience.
You will be introduced to the road’s past, present, and future, including a nostalgic look at vintage diners, signs, advertisements, and roadside attractions.
Featuring all-new photography along the existing and former 2,000-mile route of the highway, this book, from America’s foremost Route 66 author, combines the nostalgia of a storied past with the intriguing realities of an evolving present to create an intriguing portrait of the Mother Road of America.
Route 66 Splendor: An Adult Coloring Book features beautifully rendered scenes of beloved places along this iconic highway. Working from photographs to produce intricate line drawings, St. Louis artist Jo Ann Kargus takes us from Illinois to California. Explore visual gems like the Coral Court Motel and the Rainbow Curve Bridge in the Midwest, Cadillac Ranch and the Wigwam Motel in the Southwest, and end your journey in California at the Santa Monica Pier. Encounter places and sites we all know and love—from historical landmarks to icons of culture to famous hangouts—in this delightful, illustrated tour of the Mother Road.
Experience the full career of racing legend Mario Andretti as recounted by the champion himself. The core of this biography is presented via interviews Andretti has given over the decades and expertly brought together by author Mario Donnini. Anecdotes, testimonials, quips, and jokes come together to give new light on motor racing history.
Mario Andretti is a legend in two worlds: Europe and the United States. Some of his accolades and championships include:
-1978 Formula 1 World Champion,
-1969 Indianapolis 500 Victor
-1965, 1966, 1984 IndyCar Champion
-1967, 1970, 1972 12 Hours of Sebring Victor
-24 Hours of Daytona Victor, and many other endurance classics
What counts most is that Mario is the last F1 world champion whose mother tongue is Italian, even if he did win the title when he was an American citizen. The volume contains hundreds of pictures–many of them previously unpublished–which illustrate the long and unrepeatable career of an all-time authentic icon of motor sport.
