Race to Hawaii - by Jason Ryan

Book Synopsis

Race to Hawaii is the thrilling account of the first flights to Hawaii during the Golden Age of Aviation. The Dole Derby was an unprecedented 1927 air race in which eight planes set off at once across the Pacific, all eager to reach the islands first and claim a cash prize offered by "Pineapple King" James Dole. Military men, barnstormers, a schoolteacher, a Wall Street bond salesman, a Hollywood stunt flyer and veteran World War aces all encountered every type of hazard during their perilous flights. These fearless pilots flew unreliable and fragile aircraft outfitted with primitive air navigation equipment. With so many pilots taking aim at the tiny far-flung islands in so many different types of planes, everyone wondered who would reach Hawaii first, or at all.

Review Quotes

"Race to Hawaii takes you on a wild ride over 2,400 miles of storm-tossed skies to a tropical paradise. Painting a mural of America's quest to reach Hawaii by air in lush, vivid colors, Jason Ryan breathes life into the death-defying pioneers of aviation's golden age." --JONATHAN W. JORDAN, author of Brothers, Rivals, Victors and American Warlords

"A page-turning account of 'the precarious, pioneering flights to Hawaii' during the late 1920s." --Kirkus Reviews

"Sputtering engines, empty fuel tanks, failed radios, never-ending fog...lots went wrong when early aviators tried to steer the first planes across the Pacific....Jason Ryan thrillingly recounts each pitfall as he details American airmen's ultimate triumph over the world's mightiest ocean." --WINSTON GROOM, author of The Aviators and Forrest Gump

About the Author

Jason Ryan is the author of Jackpot: High Time, High Seas, and the Sting That Launched the War on Drugs and Hell Bent: One Man's Crusade to Crush the Hawaiian Mob. He is a contributing reporter to The State newspaper in Charleston, South Carolina, as well as The Daily Beast.