Books with author Peter Fusco

As Pete Fusco moved from one wretched flying job to another in the early days of his aviation career, he displayed a knack for elevating the most ordinary situations to grand debacle. He maintains that it wasn't entirely his fault. He assigns part of the blame on the Gods of Aviation Misfortune, who seemed to stalk him for their own entertainment. The gods had help; along the way they enlisted the services of an ex-biker named Moondog, the Cleveland Mafia, a mythical beast known as the Curtiss C-46, a Miami smuggler of shrunken heads and a con artist named Three-fingered Hank. Fusco's story is the story of all pilots who ever chanced the long odds against making a living flying airplanes and lived to laugh about it.

The true stories of the most daring of pilots—and the deadly risks they take to thrill the audiences below. In the early days of aviation, spectators gathered whenever a new flying machine attempted to leave the ground. The trick was to get them to pay. Takeoffs and landings did not sell tickets—but people lined up, money in hand, to watch a “dip of death,” in which an aviator would dive from as high as he or she dared and pull up at the last second. Risk always sells, and flying was man’s riskiest endeavor yet. From the start, the “exhibition” pilots stood out. Everything about an aerobatic routine requires a degree of skill and a commitment to practice the inconceivable, presenting innumerable risks to life and limb. And with risk, often, comes tragedy. The Crowd Pleasers is a sweeping history of air show accidents beginning in 1910 with the death of Charles Stewart Rolls, cofounder of Rolls-Royce, and ending in the present day. It brings to light some of the most notable air show accidents of all time and explores the aviators behind them, their stories, and their motivations. In so doing, it illuminates the role played by choice, social circumstance, and fate in these often devastating accidents—and the lives attached to them.

An adventure-filled romp through one of aviation’s most notable, dangerous and entertaining pursuits: airshows! In the early days of aviation, all flights were airshows. Spectators gathered whenever a new flying machine attempted to leave the ground—the trick was to get them to pay. Takeoffs and landings did not sell tickets but people lined up, money in hand, to watch a “dip of death,” in which an aviator would dive from as high as he or she dared and pull up at the last second. Risk always sells and flying was man’s riskiest endeavor yet. From the start the “exhibition pilots” stood out. Everything about an aerobatic routine requires a degree of skill and a commitment to practice inconceivable to even most pilots, presenting innumerable risks to life and limb. And with risk, often, comes tragedy. The Crowd Pleasers is a sweeping history of air show accidents beginning in 1910 with the death of Charles Rolls, co-founder of Rolls-Royce, and ending in the present day. It brings to light some of the most notable air show accidents of all time and explores the aviators behind them. Their stories, their motivations. In so doing, it illuminates the role played by choice, social circumstance and fate in these often devastating accidents, and the lives attached to them. A must-read for all aviation buffs.