It’s not so much aviation, which I do think is great, but the people who played such a big part in history.
Rickenbacker did something unheard of and unbelievable at that time. It was bigger than the first moon landing back then. Many people considered it a suicide run. That makes him interesting.
He deserved the credit he got.
Doolittle led a ballsy mission that was considered a suicide mission by the men who flew it and the people who sent them. His accomplishments before the war could have kept him stateside or behind a desk but he gladly commanded the raid.
That makes him interesting.
My fascination with the PEOPLE of history led me to read up on George Patton.
I found out his father had a strange idea about education. A father should read the classics to a child from birth until the child was older than normal age to start school. I think that explains Pattons belief in reincarnation. The vivid imagination of a bright child could easily convince the child he had actually LIVED those lives.
When Patton did start school he could recite entire chapters of the classic literature but couldn’t read a lick.
That also explains his life long problems with spelling.
The people behind the public personas are just so fascinating. I can’t help myself.
If you haven't read that book "The Aviators" I recommend it, as it outlines Rickenbacker's life and speaks at length about his experiences in Eastern Airline (and the crash he was in on a DC3 in Atlanta which was both horrible yet fascinating) and his unbelievable recovery only to spend (about a year after the "should have been life-ending accident"!) 24 days adrift in the Pacific after another crash. That guy was an insane, masculine stud.
And Patton. Man, that guy is amazing. He got kicked in in the head playing polo, and then something like a week later, sailed a boat with his family from California to Hawaii and had no idea or memory of how he did it since he was still in a severely concussed state, IIRC.
I feel the same way...it is the people...the doers that make history go around, and make it interesting.