Browsing Area Book of the Week, January 23, 2012



Pacific Air: how fearless flyboys, peerless aircraft and fast flattops conquered the skies in the war with Japan by David Sears.

 Library Call Number: D773.S43 2011.

        David Sears brings to life the air war in the Pacific, through the stories not only of the combat pilots, but of the engineers in America responsible for designing the wartime aircraft at Grumman. Alternating his narration of how F4F Wildcats fared against the Mitsubishi Zero with the evolution of Grumman designs on the home front that led to the F6F Hellcat, Sears provides the reader with an understanding of how designs improve during war.  From the Battle of the Coral Sea to the Battle of the Marianas, Grumman planes were in the forefront of the fighting and the memories of the pilots provide a great deal of drama and insight into the vast theater of the Pacific War.