Roaring Thunder: A Novel of the Jet Age

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The story of the jet age of aviation revolves around remarkable geniuses--including Sir Frank Whittle, the British inventor of the jet engine; Hans von Ohain, a German jet engine designer who comes to work for the U.S.; famed aeronautical engineer Kelly Johnson; the daring test pilot Tex Johnston, and many more--brilliant men who conceived these early extraordinary airplanes and had the courage to fly them to new horizons. ** Roaring Thunder blends real life adventures of the industry giants with the fictional Vance Shannon and his aviation family. Shannon, a prototypical American test pilot, sees and guides the birth of American jet aviation, while his sons, Tom and Harry fly the new jets in combat. Their aviation careers are blessed by their skill and courage, and they help usher in the greatest advance in aviation history with the birth of the jet transport. The Shannons serve as counterparts to the real-life heroes, creating continuity and explaining the intricacies, successes, and setbacks of a brand new industry.The dramatic, totally accurate story of the beginning of the jet age is presented against a background of personalities, real and fictional who bring the story to life, and represent the first stage in the first ever fiction trilogy about the history of the aerospace industry.From Publishers WeeklyBest known for his numerous first-class nonfiction aviation histories, Boyne has also produced aviation sagas (such as Roaring Thunder), and here inaugurates a trilogy with mixed success. Vance Shannon and his twin sons, Tom and Harry, are big shots in the American aircraft world: all three men do stints as flying aces and as brilliant engineers, working with the likes of Boeing and Lockheed to develop new jet technology. From 1955 to 1973, Vance and his sons participate in the development of the U-2 and SR-71 spy planes, supersonic transports and Learjets, as well as missile and satellite technology. Events like the Sputnik launching, the Cuban missile crisis, the invention of the Polaroid Land Camera and the Volkswagen car craze all play in, as do figures like a former Nazi thug, a mistress who spies for French intelligence and POWs in Vietnam. The aviation history and tech talk are sparkling, but the plot is an anemic mix of family saga, corporate politics and various forms of espionage. (Jan.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistThe first volume of a trilogy chronicling the history of the aircraft industry begins in Germany in 1939 with the first jet-engine tests. Like James Michener's Space (a novelized history of the space program), the novel has a very large cast of characters. Many of them are real people, such as Frank Whipple (who invented the British jet engine) and test pilot Tex Johnston. Others, like Vance Shannon and his family, around whom the story is built, are fictional. A former air-force pilot and an experienced aviation writer, Boyne packs the novel with historically accurate detail. As a novelist, he's on shakier ground. The two Shannon boys, Tom and Harry, for example, feel like pastiches of the Hardy Boys, or perhaps Tom Swift Jr and his good pal Bud Barclay. But the wealth of information and the author's epic-minded approach to the material more than make up for the sometimes-clunky prose. Aviation fans will gulp this one down in one long, satisfied swallow; more literary-minded readers may choke a bit but will still appreciate the author's grasp of his subject. David PittCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved