There were barnstormers as soon as there were planes —- pilots who "pushed the envelope" setting new records and doing stunts like loops and inverted flight for the very first time. The First World War proved the military value of airplanes, and created the wellspring of barnstorming: an aftermath of hundreds of young pilots trained for combat, who loved planes and flying so much, they did not want to do anything else. Using war surplus planes bought for a song, many ex-fighter pilots became vagabonds wings wings, flying all over the country performing aerobatics and giving rides to locals at country fairs and in small towns wherever they could pick up a dollar, a meal, or a bed for the night. The planes were patched and tricky, the pilots usually just one jump ahead of the sheriff or bill collector —- but the sky belonged to them.
Author
Martin Caidin was a prolific and controversial writer. Most of his work centered around the adventures of pilots and astronauts. A number of his books were notable for their reasonable, realistic predictions of then-futuristic technology. Caidin's body of work was prolific and varied, ranging from additional speculative/SF novels such as Marooned, which was made into an acclaimed film and considered a harbinger of the Apollo 13 accident, to a novel based upon the character Indiana Jones. He also wrote many non-fiction books about science, aviation and warfare. Caidin began writing fiction in 1957. In his career he authored more than 50 fiction and nonfiction books as well as more than 1,000 magazine articles. His best-known novel is Cyborg, which was the basis for "The Six Million Dollar Man" franchise. He also wrote numerous works of military history, especially concerning aviation. In addition to his writing Caidin was a pilot and active in the restoration and flying of older planes.
