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.
I remember watching the movie about Rickenbacker drifting in the ocean. IIRC he snagged a seagull and snacked on it to stay alive.
That took determination.
When he took the role of George Patton for the movie George C Scott read everything he could find out about the man. He even talked to officers and men that served under Patton.
Scott didn’t think much of their military advisor, Omar Bradley. Bradley was constantly saying Patton never cared for the lives of the men under his command. Scott finally had enough and during the scene where Patton is discussing the situation on Sicily and demands that General Truscott push his men harder Scott would only do the scene laying down. That was Scott’s way of making the scene unbelievable.
I enjoyed finding out how General Jack Pershing got the nickname “Black” Jack Pershing. It had nothing to do with cards.
Speaking of aviation, I had recorded a show from the history channel that explained the early days of commercial aviation. Fascinating.
I didn’t know that William Boeing, founder of Boeing Aircraft had no experience in aircraft design. He had made millions in the timber industry but was relatively unknown.
Always fascinated by airplanes he went to an air show and tried to get a ride on an airplane. Because he was unknown he was snubbed.
Boeing used that snub to propel himself first to flight school, then to designing and building planes. The rest is history.
Donald douglas started his airplane design company in the back room of a barbershop with a couple of likeminded designers.
The Douglass Aircraft company made many great planes but to me the DC-3 and the C-47 were two of their most enduring.
Donald Douglas retired in 1957 after attending a meeting and there were no pilots in attendance, just executives and accountants.
History is made by determined people doing what they love.