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They called him Daredevil Musick when he was a headline exhibition flyer on the Pacific Coast. later he was known as The Sphinx of Aviation because he would never talk of his exploits. His story, told by his friend and fellow aviator, William Stephen Grooch, is not only the saga of a pioneer pilot, it represents in every detail, the history of aviation from the first clumsy crates to the great trans-oceanic clippers.
In 1912, Eddie Musick had a job with the Kissel Kar Agency in Los Angeles, but his heart was in the sky. With two pals, he set out to build a plane. Realizing he needed to know more about mechanics, Eddie got a job in the Glenn Martin airplane factory and soon became one of the best mechanics on Venice Field. Then followed exhibition flying, a job during the war as an army flight instructor at North Island, California, and a commission as Lieutenant in the Marine Corps.
After the war he went to work for Aeromarine Plane and Motor Corporation in New Jersey, carrying the first air passengers to Havana and Nassau. He was the first to fly fast freight between Cleveland and Detroit. In 1923 his company had carried 20,000 passengers without serious mishap under Chief Pilot Musick.
Later Pan American Airways took him on. He flew the giant Sikorsky S40 on a new route to Columbia and was the first to tour by air much of South America. The story of his success with Pan American Clipper on his trip to Honolulu and Hong Kong is newspaper history. He was given the Harmon Trophy as the world's outstanding navigator in 1935. On January 9, 1938 his last trip in the Samoan Clipper, he crashed in the seas off Pago Pago at the age of forty four.
Using letters, diaries, anecdotes of friends and his own vivid memories as source material, William Grooch has told the story of Captain Musick simply and with great understanding revealing him as a modest man, with all the courage, sincerity and steadfastness of the American pioneer.
CONDITION: Hard Cover with DJ, some wear to DJ which we have encased in a protective Mylar cover, stated first edition. VG. 243 pages, 7 pages of photographs. No writing within.
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