Barnstorming To Air Safety

An informative and often humorous look at the development of aviation from the early days of flying to the jet age. While regaling his audience with stories of barnstorming risk-takers, rum-runners, early Naval air schools, and descriptions of some of the first passenger flights, Collar also demonstrates both the need for, and the gradual development of, air safety measures to protect the flying public. During his 26 year employment with the government --- first with the Bureau of Safety of the Civil Aeronautics Board, which later transformed the National Transportation Safety Board --- it became obvious that money and politics were more influential than the simple desire for the safety of the flying public. He discovered that the zeal to promote aviation, and other political maneuvering, jeopardizes safety in many cases, and he discloses the policies that interfere with complete air safety.