The Ultimate Aviation Book List

For those of us whose love affair with aviation began in childhood and only intensified with flight time, a great book on aviation has the rare ability to put into words what it feels like to take off from an aircraft carrier, soar among the clouds, enter and then leave enemy territory, land a jumbo jet safely, or any number of other scenarios pilots encounter.

Here is a robust, but by no means complete, list of some of the best aviation books we’ve found. We hope you save this and let it be your go-to aviation reading list for years to come.

Airborne by Neil Williams

Airscream by John Bruce

Band of Brothers by Ernest Gann

Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemakers War 1941-1945 by Leo Marks

Beyond the Blue Horizon by Alexander Frater

The First and the Last by Adolf Galland

The Big Show by Pierre Closterman

The Big Sky by Johnny Johnston

Biplane by Richard Bach

Carrier Pilot by Norman Hanson

The Dangerous Sky: A History of Aviation Medicine by Douglas H. Robinson

Dead Weight by Brian Lecomber

A Gift of Wings by Richard Bach

Behind the Cockpit Door by Arthur Whitlock

Blaze of Noon by Ernest Gann

Chickenhawk by Robert Mason

Distant Early Warning by Don McVicar

F4 Phantom: A Pilots Story by Robert Prest

Fate is the Hunter by Ernest K. Gann

Firefox Down by Craig Thomas

First Light by Geoffrey Wellum

Flight of the Mew Gull by Alex Henshaw

Flight of the Intruder by Stephen Coonts

Flightpath South Pacific by Ian H. Driscoll

Forever Flying by Bob Hoover

Frigate Bird: The Dramatic Story of the First Air Crossing of the South Pacific by Sir P.G. Taylors

Gemini to JoBurg by Cecil Lewis

Goshawk Squadron by Derek Robinson

Handling the Big Jets by Davies

I Flew for the Fuhrer by Heinz Knocke

Inside the Sky: A Meditation on Flight by William Langewiesche

In The Wet by Nevil Shute

The Island In the Sky by Ernest K. Gann

John Derry by Annie Bullen and Brian Rivas

Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach

The Last of the Lightening by Ian Black

The Lonely Sky by B. Bridgeman

A Mild Form of Insanity: Recollections of a Helicopter Pilot by Mike Tuson

The Most Dangerous Game by Gavin Lyall

My Secret War by Richard Drury

Night Over Water by Ken Follett

No Highway by Nevil Shute

Off The Beam by Robert Chandler

Phantom Over Vietnam by John Trotti

A Piece of Cake by Derek Robinson

The Railway From the Sky by Don McVicar

Rainbow and the Rose by Neville Shute

The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe

Rocket Fighter by Mano Ziegler

Round the Bend by Neville Schute

Sagittarius Rising by Cecil Lewis

Sea Harrier Over the Falklands by Sharkey Ward

Serenade to the Big Bird by Bert Stiles

Shadows by Michael Draper

Shadow 81 by Lucien Nahum

Sigh for a Merlin by Alex Henshaw

Signed with their Honor: Air Chivalry During the Two World Wars by Piet Hein Meijhering

The Sky Belongs to Them by Roland Winfield

Spirit of St Louis by Charles A. Lindberg

Sugarbird Lady by Robin Miller

The Wrong Side of the Sky by Gavin Lyall

They Gave Me A Seafire by Mike Crosley

Trophy for Eagles by Walter Boyne

Thud Ridge by Jack Broughton

View from the Cockpit by Len Morgan

West with the Night by Beryl Markham

Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Wings of Gold: How the Aeroplane Developed New Guinea by James Patrick Sinclair

Wings of the Morning by David and Betty Beaty

Wings on My Sleeve by Eric Brown

Yeager: An Autobiography by Chuck Yeager

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