Cradle of Airpower takes readers through a hundred years of discovery and development, starting when the future runways of Maxwell Air Force Base were still furrowed fields and Orville Wright himself astonished the people of Montgomery, Alabama, as he buzzed overhead in his Flyer performing daredevil deeds, ascending to heights previously unimagined.
In this illustrated history of Maxwell’s first century, readers will discover why the Wright brothers chose this land for their first pilot-training program and how that single choice contributed to a century of US military airpower advancement. It also documents in photographs the growing communal relationship among the military population on what became Maxwell AFB and Gunter Annex with the communities of central Alabama. How did the winds of war and the perils of politics influence the development of aircraft and all the teaching and learning that make the US Air Force the world’s foremost airpower today? Turn the pages of this singular collection of history and photographs to find out how it all began at modest Wright Field and today continues at the Air Force’s premier professional education institutions. [Jerome A. Ennels Sr., Robert B. Kane, and Silvano A. Wueschner / 2018 / 140 pages / ISBN: 978-1-58566-285-2 / AU Press Code: B-153]